Attitudes of Senegalese Secondary School Students towards Traditional African Way of Life and Western Way of Life

Abstract

With the help of an open-ended questionnaire addressed to some 882 Senegalese collegians, we inquired about the opinions of school-going adolescents upon traditional and Western ways of life, including two major problems, polygamy and the bride-price. Nearly half of the Senegalese adolescents (45%) wish to preserve, before everything else, certain traditional virtues such as solidarity, sharing with others, hospitality, respect paid to parents and elders, politeness, honour. Half of the students wanted to get rid of traditional marriage (imposed marriages, bride-price, polygamous marriage, need for maidenhood, prestige ceremonies). One-third of students praised the Europeans' discretion, freedom of mind, know-how, hardworking qualities, modesty. Marriages in the European fashion seemed to appeal to them (11%), but they most envied the better educational opportunities European children had (26%). What they did not like most was the Europeans' racism (26%), then their individualism (21%). The majority of our subjects were against polygamy (79%) and the bride-price (60%).