Last week we visited my friend's sister in law; in Africa (as it is in South Italy) it's extremely important if not vital to keep a strong connection with every member of your huge family.
When we got there we met a young couple also waiting for the arrival of the homeowners. We started to make some questions until my friend, with his Senegalese attuned feeling discovered the real reason of their visit.
Tabou and Izhak, both 21yo students (a good student should finish his college studies at 18-19), the boy comes from Kolda, in the south region of Casamance, while Tabou is orphan and comes from Keur Moussa, on the outskirts of Dakar. "By fault" they got a small baby and immediately their families stopped their financial support. Senegal is a traditional muslim country and despite its tolerant culture from many points of view, to get a baby out of a marriage is considered a deep shame for all their families.
My friend had a serious, honest and frank talk with them in order to understand how they could manage this situation, what would they do, how could they be so foolish and irresponsible? Didn't they know about the existance of condoms which are given for free in the hospital? Izhak seemed more sincere than her, he realized how silly were they and added that she didn't want to use any condom, she confirmed it saying that she was virgin and that she "didn't want to be a woman for every man". We were just astonished, they had no money for food nor for transport, they were desperate and...dangerous. Their tiny baby, that ebony angel was sleeping in my hands, this newborn kid who still had no name (they had no money for the traditional offer of a slaughtered mutton during a baby baptism) was risking to be killed and thrown away in a black bag.
The following days we called them to offer to adopt their baby or at least to take him to a catholic monastery where the noons could take care of him...we were so sad.
