After travelling for 20 years in Afrika and staying two weeks in Dakar in 2017, I can say: Africans know how to party and Dakar, with its colours, great party locations (have you ever partied in a lighthouse above the westernmost point of Africa?), ingenuity to make things somehow work, dancing without reserve and live music until the wee hours in the morning is one of Africa’s great party capitals. Just to be topped by Lagos and Kinshasa. The love for live of the Dakarois embraces me in a whirlwind. The food is awesome, too – I eat frogs‘ legs and deliciously toasted fish baguettes baguettes on a open air fish market next to the ocean. Dakar is another example that people in seaside cities, I think of Rio, Maputo, Muscat, Bombay and the likes, are more relaxed than elsewhere. Actually the Sahel, translated the „banks of the desert“ comes close to Dakar but in this city of beaches, it feels far away.

Most Senegalese are devotees of the Sunni branch of Islam, almost all belong to a Sufi brotherhood. Sufism deviates from the ancient greek term for „close your eyes“. Tolerance is king. The magic of sufism keeps its devotees relaxed and problems smaller. On my promendades through Dakar I was asked many times: „Yaangi noos?“ – Are you enjoying life and having fun?