A Brief Overview of Senegal

SENEGAL

Pre Colonial: In the 13th and 14th centuries the land that is now Senegal belonged to the Mandingo empires to the East of it.  The first group of people to trade here were the Portuguese in the 15th century. In the 19th century the French took over all of senegal until about 1920 when they declared it a colony and Darkar (now Senegal's capital) was the capital of all French West Africa.  And after 1958 Sengal became a member of the French Community.

Colonial: The French took over in the 19th century Senegal becomes a part of French West Africa. In 1946 Senegal became part of teh French Union. and in 1958 Sengal joins the French community.  The French Colonized Senegal to spread there religion, language, and ideas. 

Independence: In June 1960, Senegal and the Frenched the Mali federation which became independent on June 20, 1960. The federation broke up August 20 of that year because of political difficulties.  Senegal proclaimed independance and Leopold Senghor was elected as Senegal's first president in August 1960. 

Present Day: Angry mobs in Senegal are attacking and humiliating gay's by going to thier local cemetary, diggin up gay mens bodies, and then spitting on them. Also, 5 soilders have died in clashes with rebles in the southern region of Casamance.

Similarities in Creation Myths From all Over the World

Many different cultures around the world have stories about the creation of the Earth.  Each story is told differently but they have many similarities. Here are a few:

The Making of People from Dirt

In most of the creation myth's gods create people out of some form of dirt. Whether or not it be clay, dirt, sand, etc. It's actually very intresting because dirt, mud, and clay are all simple elements you can find easily on Earth. And to even think about people bieng made out of dirt, clay, or mud, is kind of gross to think about. But it's also cool at the same time and it kind of makes the element Earth not seem so boring. I'm not sure why most creation myths use dirt, clay, or mud to create people. But I also find its intresting that most myth use this because it makes it feel not so made up.

Starting the Myth with "In the beginning..."
Another thing I noticed is myths usually start with the phrase "In the beginning..." It sounds like all the stories use the same tone or "voice" in there story which i thought was pretty cool because these stories are all from different cultures and different parts all around the world but yet they all start out the same. I mean, I guess the creation of the world would start in the beginning but I would think they'd phrase it differently.

The Conflict Between Good and Evil
I also noticed how there is always a conflict between good and evil. In every single creation myth there is some evil force trying to take the good side down. It makes it kind of sound like a super hero story. Which I guess in some perspective it is. Like in the story of Theseus. Each story must have some kind of evil force bringing them down which makes sense because that's how it is in real life also. So, I found this very accurate.

In creation myths each story explains how the Earth was formed, how people came to be, and how animals came to be. Each are simliar in some way, wether it be through the creation of people from dirt, the conflict between good and evil, or simply startin the story with "In the beginning...". Each story is created to make us feel comfortable and open our minds to the creation of the world instead of us wondering how it came to be. But the truth is, we'll never actually know because we weren't around.