boob tube

In the US we think we are the grand kings of TV watching but the US has nothing on Senegal. This differs from family to family, of course, but I would say overall that if there is a TV in the house it is probably on all the time. In my house in Dakar my host father and our maid are the only people that watch television. Any free moments they have are spent in front of the TV. In Yoff, however, the TV is rarely shut off- anything that is shown we watched no matter the content. From cartoons to scary movies to soccer or wrestling matches a mixture of family members and friends could be seen in the plastic chairs or little wooden benches transfixed to the television. If the power goes out people sit in their usual spots waiting for the power to be turned back on. What makes it even stranger is that all of the TV shows, movies, and commentary is in French and only half of the people in the Yoff household understand French. Most of the commercials are in Wolof. The constant noise of the TV usually drives me crazy but I have learned to ignore it. It also helps that the volume is never very loud because most people do not need to hear what is going on because they can’t understand the French.
The most popular things to watch are dubbed (everything is dubbed). Mexican and Spanish soap opera are the new craze. Ruby (my namesake) is the most popular and is the subject of many conversations. I once watched desperate housewives with some ladies in my house and was embarrassed by the blatant sexuality and overt racism inherent to the show. Even the married women wouldn’t look during the kissing scenes. Movies are very popular and come on at all hours despite their violent or scary content. One morning before school my seven-year-old host sister and I watched a bit of the Ring Two and another afternoon we watched some horribly violent movie about a place crash. Senegalese children, on general, do not go to bed early like American children not surprisingly this is not accounted for so nightmare causing shows like SVCU or “cold Cases” are shown at 9:00 pm.
One must note that if there is a soccer or wrestling matches on and a particular cousin or brother is present they usurp the TV to watch it. My poor little sisters suffer through match after match waiting patiently for it to be over so they can go back to dancing to music videos.
I was once in a North African hang out spot, which had, a TV mounted on the wall (very rare). At first I ignored it like at all other times, but then I became engrossed when I realized that American football was being shown. It was two very arbitrary teams who meant nothing to me. What was weird was that it was a Thursday and the caption, Monday night Football kept popping up. After the game needed a show from MTV called Room raiders aired. That show is unbelievably stupid. The premise is that either a man or woman gets to raid three candidates’ rooms and choose a partner based on what she/he has found. The people who rooms are being scoured watch their belongings being manhandled and make absurd commentary. There are always illicit and incriminating findings. It is a show that displays the effects of being in the MTV generation. Smarts are not valued but bodybuilding and cool clothing is. After that show was over some terrible movie came on. I concluded that the eclectic mix of shows could only work on the same station is the station was called “What’ Wrong with America.” And they wouldn’t be too wrong.