World Music - Senegal

It’s Friday! Let’s greet the weekend with our World Music section. 

Today we want to share the music of an artist from Senegal, Ismael Lo. To listen to Ismael Lô - Tajabone click here.

In Senegal greetings are crucial and their importance should never be underestimated. Exchanging greetings each time you meet someone, even if it is later in the same day, is pivotal to maintaining good relationships. You are expected to exchange lengthy inquiries into the health and well-being of the other person and their family before asking any other question or beginning a discussion. If you ask to speak to someone without going through the ritualized greeting process, you may be told “They went to learn how to greet”, which is basically a polite way of pointing out that you were rude.

To the Western mind the amount of time spent in greetings may appear unnecessary or even wasteful (especially in business), but they are used by the Senegalese to feel each other out and achieve a sense of group harmony.

Enjoy the music and have a great weekend! Please follow our blog for more interesting facts about world cultures. - Alba Serrano-Miro