Attaya- A Part of Senegalese culture

Attaya

What is Attaya you may ask, well Wikipedia has described it to a "tea" so I'll just let you read it for yourself.

"Senegalese tea culture is an important part of daily social life. In and around Senegal, tea is prepared and presented in an elaborate process known by the Wolof word, attaya or ataaya. People sometimes drink tea at breakfast but more particularly after meals, and it is the beverage that is offered to friends and visitors. Drinking tea promotes conversation and maintains friendship because it takes a long time to prepare properly.

Senegalese-style mint tea is served in three separate stages, called "the three concoctions":

Chinese green tea leaves are put into the teapot with some water and mint leaves and boiled over a charcoal stove. Sugar is added to the teapot and the tea is poured into small glasses of a certain height and then poured back and forth from the glass to the teapot several times so that foam appears in the glass. The thicker the foam, the better the tea.

The Western African style of serving involves holding the tea pot high above the table and pouring the hot tea at least twelve inches through the air into small glasses. (Glasses made of glass, not porcelain cups.) If the sugar is added to the pot, the tea is sometimes poured from the glasses back into the pot (before anyone has sipped) and the process is repeated. This mixes the sugar into the tea. Western Africans generally drink their tea very sweet.

The first glass of tea is quite bitter, the second is sweeter and the third is very sweet but does not have much taste because the same leaves are used to prepare all three glasses."

Attaya Pot on charcoal stove and glasses. (Not my picture.)

A young boy making Attaya. (I'm sorry to say this is not my picture, I found it on the internet.)

If you happen to be out driving in the afternoon you will see men all over town sitting around a little stove making tea and shootin' the breeze. You will also see women enjoying tea, but it's not as common.

Having afternoon Attaya has been a wonderful way for us to build relationships with our neighbors as well as opening the door for us to learn a new language. Wolof is a trade language used for communicating between different villages and tribes. You are more likely to hear Wolof spoken on the street than you are to hear French. This being said, J and I would really like to learn Wolof. 

So we drink tea, share God's love and learn Wolof. Who knew having afternoon tea could be so important?

~B