Easter Traditions: Galaax

Happy Easter, everyone! Lent is over, and I hope you were all able to enjoy a peaceful Easter Sunday. However, I don’t feel right wishing you all that without remembering that a lot of things happened around the world last Sunday, including bombings in Sri Lanka which killed hundreds of people. Please continue to hold those affected by these events in your thoughts and prayers. Also pray for their Muslim neighbors, who are afraid of the backlash they might wrongfully receive in the wake of these attacks. It was not a peaceful Sunday for everyone.

Now, on to my experience of Easter here in Senegal. This year, I am living with a Christian host family in Linguere. The Faye family – with me taking part – celebrated Easter as they do most years: by making galaax.

Galaax is rather like a smoothie, or a very liquid pudding. The sauce is made out of peanut butter, bouye (which is the fruit of the baobab tree), bananas, golden raisins, sugar, water, coconut flakes, and a few extracts to give more flavor. The sauce is poured over homemade cere (pronounced “che-ray”), which is couscous made out of millet flour and commonly found in Senegalese dishes. The sauce and cere together make galaax. It’s very sweet, but delicious.

Making it is no easy affair. The day before Easter, Rose (my host mom), Tata Vera (my host aunt of sorts), myself, and 2 of Rose’s friends spent all day in the kitchen preparing the galaax. I started by grating nutmeg for the cere at 10 a.m. and spent about 8 hours helping that day.

We mixed water into the millet flour to make the cere in huge bins, which is a lot of arm work. That took a few hours, but once that was done, the bouye powder had to be squeezed off of the seeds by hand before the rest of the sauce’s ingredients were added. All in all, we made about 80 liters of galaax.

Myself and a friend of Rose's making galaax. We only met that morning, but she loved to tease me about not finding a husband yet. Her solution was that I could be her co-wife (and her husband's third wife). Photo credit goes to Rose.

Once we finished, we sat back on our stools/buckets and admired our work. The floor, our clothes, and arms were coated in peanut butter, millet flour, and galaax sauce. But our work wasn’t done yet. The next step was to share this enormous amount of desert with friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family. The kids made rounds all over town that night delivering our freshly made Easter treat.

For Easter, we also went to church, had a special lunch, and had friends and neighbors over on Sunday. However, the biggest event seemed to be the galaax, and I will definitely have to try to recreate it at home.

Our Easter lunch! Grilled goat meat, homemade fries, and sauteed onions, yum!

We stirred the galaax sauce for a looong time. Look at how full these tubs are!

The first pic: Our Easter lunch! Grilled goat meat, homemade fries, and sauteed onions, yum!

The second pic: We stirred the galaax sauce for a looong time. Look at how full these tubs are!

There were no eggs, no chocolate, and no ham. And yet, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, surrounded by good company, sharing in our abundance. I am so grateful for those who surround me this year, for the invitation to partake in traditions which are not my own, and for the new life I experience each and every day here in Senegal.

My host dad, Pastor Adama, made it up to Linguere for Easter. He is the president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Senegal, so is a very busy and important man. Photo credit goes to my host mom, Rose (she was taking pictures of me in my new Easter dress).

Jamm ak jamm! (Peace and peace)!

Watéo Faye