“You can glorify your daughter in her song”: Exploring Musical Narratives of Gassuus Initiates

Abstract

Gassuus is a Jola women's ritual that prepares girls and young women for their futures as mothers while reinforcing women's vital roles as community leaders. In this article, Rosner examines the ways Jola women from one community in Thionck Essyl, Senegal, establish and strengthen gendered relationships through musical narratives. Songs from the gassuus ritual are performative sites for expressing Jola women's worldviews and collective identity, as girls are prepared for the responsibilities of motherhood. Decades later, women still remember the songs written by the women who shaped their lives, and they recall this period as a time when they began to define themselves and their futures.