“Ataya” is a lot more than just tea…

“Ataya Ataya, mounouma ko bayi, Ataya, Ataya” (remember the song? PBS?)

It gives all the secrets to this social phenomenon… However: the following picture describes perfectly the ingredients of Senegal’s special tea:

The Senegalese youth is the principal tea consumer. You would think that the elders would drink it the most but no sir. They enjoy it but they don’t make it.

Why do young able Senegalese men drink and make tea all day and all night?

BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO!

and because it tastes good…

The UNemployment Rate in Senegal is about 46%. Schools are multiplying, so are young people with numerous diplomas.

We have the most Qualified and Unemployed people ever….

So what do we do? We drink tea to keep ourselves busy, to kill time, to be useful to someone and get recognition for it: there is often a designed tea maker who justs seems to have special tricks that make their tea taste better. That person is often praised and asked to make some more. He is the man and we not drinking if he is not making it… For that person, tea isn’t just a hobby, it is a lifestyle! It prevents him from having to think about the house he doesn’t own, the mercedes he doesn’t drive, the family he can’t support and the parents he cannot take to Mecca, so you damn right he’ll focus on doing the damn thing (=ataya)

It’s always better than selling drugs though…

Dear President, you have 3 more years (=eternity) left, can you do something so we don’t reproduce generations of ‘Ataya youths’; because right now the only youngish person who seems to be working and getting paid like Hova, is your son…

FOUL!

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