19 images Created 30 Aug 2018
A Kingdom for a Sheep
The sheep are everywhere. They populate house entrances and sidewalks, crowd on the islands of the roundabouts, bleat from the roofs. They cross the streets with a self-confidence reminiscent of holy cows in India. Yes, you can find them even where you wouldn't expect them, sometimes they come out from behind the walls of the barracks.
It only gets spookily quiet once a year. Tabaski, the festival of sacrifice, where Muslims all over the world slaughter a sheep. In the Arab world it is called Eid al-Adha, in North Africa Eid al-Kabir, this year it will probably fall on the 21st or 22nd of August, which will be decided shortly after the state of the moon. Suddenly the bleating of thousands and thousands of sheep's throats stops.
But this is not about death, but about life.
And about love. Because in Senegal, the westernmost country on the African continent, the baker, the seamstress, the mechanic, the miracle healer, the politician share one passion: the sheep. This is a land of passionate sheep farmers and breeders. Elsewhere the sheep may be an animal of pastures and farms, here it has also conquered the cities. Some go so far as to say that the capital Dakar cultivates a "secret life". And whoever wants to explore it learns a lot about the country...
Text by Angela Koeckritz, read in full length at "Die Zeit" Nr. 34, 2018
Year: 2012 - 2018
It only gets spookily quiet once a year. Tabaski, the festival of sacrifice, where Muslims all over the world slaughter a sheep. In the Arab world it is called Eid al-Adha, in North Africa Eid al-Kabir, this year it will probably fall on the 21st or 22nd of August, which will be decided shortly after the state of the moon. Suddenly the bleating of thousands and thousands of sheep's throats stops.
But this is not about death, but about life.
And about love. Because in Senegal, the westernmost country on the African continent, the baker, the seamstress, the mechanic, the miracle healer, the politician share one passion: the sheep. This is a land of passionate sheep farmers and breeders. Elsewhere the sheep may be an animal of pastures and farms, here it has also conquered the cities. Some go so far as to say that the capital Dakar cultivates a "secret life". And whoever wants to explore it learns a lot about the country...
Text by Angela Koeckritz, read in full length at "Die Zeit" Nr. 34, 2018
Year: 2012 - 2018
