Links with Drugs: The Saafi and Maniwel Groups in Senegal

Drug usage is an old societal problem, for which both practices and implications have remained major questions globally. The results of research on drugs have suggested a new dimension to understanding the drug problem. The article tries to analyse this phenomenon in relation to Senegalese society in the context of the slave trade and the economy of trade. The two groups, the Saafi and the Maniwel provide illumination by illustrating the transcultural nature of drug usage, as well as associated perceptions, attitudes and behaviour. The Saafi come from the Seereer ethnic-cultural group, who have been for a long time relatively opposed to Islam and who have had, up to the recent past, a reputation of being big consumers of alcohol. The Maniwel are a marginal culture born out of an identity associated with communal methods of transport, who are seen as having cultural values from different national communities. This « transethnic » group has used drugs as a means of marking its own identity in a strongly islamicised environment.