Flag Waving for Ex-Pats

I’m watching TV last night, which I will admit is a rare occurrence here, you're more likely to find me staring at the sun than watching TV (it might be because Senegalese TV is in some combination of French and Wolof, and can be hard to tell which is which, or it might just be because Senegalese TV is just plain weird).
Anyways, I’m watching Senegalese music videos with my Senegalese sister after having eaten some real delicious Senegalese food for dinner (which I ate Senegalese style – on the floor)…point is, I’m doing things Senegalese-style here and feeling pretty good about it, like I've got this place down. So this music video comes on, and it’s got some Senegalese rap group or whatever playing Senegalese music. I notice one of these guys in this group has on a New York Giants (yeah, those Giants) big puffy jacket, which gets me thinking. Do those guys even know who the Giants are? Next, I see a guy wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap, and I’m forced to conclude, that at the very least, the New York motif is intentional. But even so, I wonder sometimes, what is this guy trying to say by sporting these team brands?
For example, does he know about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, without a doubt one of the biggest rivalries in American sports? Does he care that this year was the first year in forever that we haven’t had a Yankees-Red Sox NLDS (or whatever those letters are…I mean I ask if this guy cares but I clearly don’t)? Does the name George Steinbrenner mean anything to him? What about Derek Jeter? Do these names mean anything to you? Does he know that by wearing that hat he’s supporting the so called “Evil Empire” that is New York Yankees baseball?
And what about the Giants jacket? Does Giants stadium mean anything to him? Does New Jersey (probably not...its Jersey why would it)? Did he care that Eli Manning was drafted and does he know that his brother is one of the best quarterbacks in the league? Does he even know who Tiki Barber is???
I ask these questions, not to mock a Senegalese rapper supporting a team that he may or may not know anything about. Because he in fact might be a Giants fan or a Yankees fan, and he may have been legitimately bored when the Yankees didn’t play the Red Sox to see who went to the World Series again. But even if he does, there’s no guarantee that the average Senegalese teenager (his assumed audience) does. And this is where I started thinking.
In the States, wearing a Giants jacket or a Yankees hat in your music video is a statement. If, for example, you wear a Yankees hat, then you are stating, very clearly, that you support evil empires in all their forms. “Win at any cost” is your motto. You throw your lot in with Gengis Kahn and his crew. Maybe Vader wasn’t so bad a guy after all, he was just misunderstood. And it really is a shame that they had to destroy that second Death Star, I mean it wasn’t even finished yet. What about all those innocent contractors? You’re probably that guy who feeds the evil armies of evil goats that roam the streets of Dakar while they plot to take over the world. But then again I don’t like the Yankees.
Now, I’m not Senegalese, but something here tells me that that’s not the message that our rap-video friend was going for. I mean the Senegalese aren’t very confrontational. Aggression is found in mostly the passive form (silent treatment, refusing to take your neighbors fish - we watched a movie on it so I would know). Vader just doesn’t seem like their kind of guy (but then again it probably is because they identify more with the rebels – that whole throwing off the yoke of colonialism thing). Plus, they definitely eat goat here. But on a more serious level, why wear a Yankees jacket if there’s a high likelihood that a good three-quarters of your audience don’t know what a touchdown is (or am I mixing up my sports again?)
As I was watching this video, and our pinstripe-topped friend rapped in a language that I could not, for the life of me understand, I couldn’t come up with a suitable answer to one question: just why was this guy wearing these clothes? I was feeling a little bit outside this whole “culture” business, because surely his Senegalese fans knew why he wore those clothes right? And if I couldn’t figure out what a rapper is doing wearing a Yankee’s hat, then how am I ever going how to learn how to cram 10 goats on top of a station wagon (not to mention the four suitcases and a bike)?
So I sit down to write this and it hits me: people probably don’t have any idea where Giants stadium is, and they’ll most likely stare blankly at me when I make fun of New Jersey to them. All any Senegalese rap fan really needs to know though is that the Giants are an American…thing. What they do or where they do whatever it is that they do is not important at all, but for our Senegalese rap friend, all that matters is the red, white, and blue lettering on his jacket.
Because one of the things that I’ve noticed since I’ve been here is that no matter how much Senegalese people complain about how Americans are rude and their President doesn’t like Muslims (though apparently Bill Clinton is a national hero here – and ‘Monica schmonica, what the president does in his private time is his own business’), I have yet to meet a Senegalese who doesn’t want to go to the States. I’m sure they exist, but they haven’t yet invited me to their secret club where they discuss going to Marseilles and eating fromage while wearing a beret. Meanwhile, American flags (and other American “symbols”) are seen everywhere from the back of wheelchairs to doors to clothing. If you’re planning on coming to Senegal to escape all the flags on pickup trucks and “God Bless America” slogans, then well, I’d start looking elsewhere, because the American dream is alive and fighting here in Senegal.
What’s it fighting you ask (or maybe you’re asking…when’s this going to end? Or did I forget to turn off the oven last night)? Preliminary reports are sketchy, but messengers from the front lines say Dearth Vader has invaded with an evil army of evil goats. Witnesses report seeing George Steinbrenner on goatback leading the charge. As for me, I’m hiding. Goats scare me.

Love,
Jake