Marrying Uncertainty: Matrimonial Practices and Logics of Emancipation in Touba, Senegal
Zingari, Guido Nicolas
Marrying Uncertainty: Matrimonial Practices and Logics of Emancipation in Touba, Senegal - 2025.
9
Through the narratives of young wives from Murid maraboutic lineages, this article highlights female strategies for navigating between marital rules and the social expectations of their relatives. These case studies reveal that matrimonial decisions in Senegal, particularly in the holy city of Touba, are influenced by complex social dynamics in which lineage and status affiliations intersect with personal aspirations and irreducible logics of emancipation. By placing these young wives at the center of the analysis, the article underscores the indocility and complexity of their relationship to rules and expectations, which ultimately fits into the paradox of conformist forms of emancipation. It is within this paradoxical perspective that these young women imagine, create, and claim their life projects. In conclusion, these narratives highlight that the socio-existential uncertainty characterizing contemporary Senegalese youth, regardless of social and status categories, does not lead to a retreat into conservative models, but rather to dynamics of creative emancipation that open up new possibilities for the future.
Marrying Uncertainty: Matrimonial Practices and Logics of Emancipation in Touba, Senegal - 2025.
9
Through the narratives of young wives from Murid maraboutic lineages, this article highlights female strategies for navigating between marital rules and the social expectations of their relatives. These case studies reveal that matrimonial decisions in Senegal, particularly in the holy city of Touba, are influenced by complex social dynamics in which lineage and status affiliations intersect with personal aspirations and irreducible logics of emancipation. By placing these young wives at the center of the analysis, the article underscores the indocility and complexity of their relationship to rules and expectations, which ultimately fits into the paradox of conformist forms of emancipation. It is within this paradoxical perspective that these young women imagine, create, and claim their life projects. In conclusion, these narratives highlight that the socio-existential uncertainty characterizing contemporary Senegalese youth, regardless of social and status categories, does not lead to a retreat into conservative models, but rather to dynamics of creative emancipation that open up new possibilities for the future.
Réseaux sociaux