Wednesday, February 1 The cloth market

At 4:30, Sue was able to leave her office and showed me how to get to the “biggest cloth market in Senegal” per her claim. Without a guide the first time, it would be easy to not arrive at the hoped-for destination. A walk along a couple of dirt roads, then up 30 steps or so and down again to cross the railroad tracks, then up another series of steps and back down again to cross a 4- or 6-lane road, then through sand on the edge of a paved road led us after 15 or 20 minutes to HLM Market, where there were aisles and aisles of people selling cloth of all sorts. I was looking for a specific type, but even so there were hundreds of colors and designs to choose from.

Sue had told me that the kind of cloth I wanted should cost about 5000cfa (approximately $18) for 6 yards (the minimum length most vendors normally sell since they get it in 12-yard lengths), but when I asked the price for what I was interested in, it was always higher than that. I offered 4000, with the idea that if they came down to 5000, I’d accept, but the first several vendors resisted my negotiations, clinging firmly to 6000, which they claimed was “bargain basement” so they could go no lower. Each time, I moved on, but I did begin to wonder if I’d ever be able to find anyone willing to sell for the price Sue had told me was right. On about the fifth try, however, I found a vendor who agreed to my offer of 5000—only after I had begun to walk away, mind you—and I bought two different patterns from him.

As I continued my search in other booths there in the market, I encountered many who admantly insisted that 6000cfa was the least they could accept for their cloth, but through persistence, I eventually bought four or six yards of five different patterns/colors at the price of 5000cfa. I received the compliment of the day from a woman who sold me four yards of my favorite design for 3500cfa. She wondered why a white person—someone who has so much money—would quibble over the paltry sum of 500cfa. I told her that the process of bargaining was all about social interaction, and I was trying to fit into the culture. That’s when she said that I was Senegalese the way I had bargained her selling price down. When Sue told her that I had worked elsewhere in Africa but was new to Senegal, the woman insisted that I was Senegalese nonetheless.

The material I bought will be used to make shirts for me, a dress for Anita, a shirt for a friend, and several 2-yard pieces of cloth for our friend who decorated our living room.