October through April is the main tourist season in Senegal. Unfortunately sex tourism is on the rise in Senegal. Although perhaps the tourists see themselves as real winners for scoring a PHAT African guy or girl for a week of cheap sex, those of us who live here and are not interested in this kind of tourism are seriously affected. Monday while I was in Ziguinchor I asked directions to the phone company. The man said to me, "Perhaps you need a companion" and turned to a rasta guy standing next to him. I am not sure how..."Can you give me directions to the phone company" got translated into "I'd like a rasta man to be my companion for sex" but apparently it did.
Then not two hours later at the market I got chased down by another rasta guy who said he was MY FRIEND. After I politely refused his aid, he continued to grab me and insist that he was my friend.
This kind of stuff really frustrates me so much in Senegal. I am not in serious danger, for people who are reading this and thinking, "Oh my God..." its just a matter of dealing with the situation, I just can't stand it.
IN THE MEDIA:
Here I am, just off the plane’
Mass-marketing sex tourism
Sexual tourism, a mercantile form of extreme leisure with its roots in prostitution, is on the rise. It can be seen as an extension of the service aspect of mass tourism, in itself a modern version of the old colonial attitudes towards the world.
By Franck Michel
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