Senegalese Gathering In Duffner Park

The Senegalese community of Oklahoma  City came together on the afternoon of Sunday, May 8^th, 2022, at Duffner Park in the  suburban community of the Village. The attendees gathered at the silver tables that are located in that facility as two  male members of the community manned large circular  grills that occasionally produced flames that flickered under a pale blue sky as hamburgers and small ears of corn were flipped   in a timely manner with silver spatulas.  Tuba coffee is a popular beverage in  the West African nation of Senegal,  which had been a colony of France until 1960, and a container of that sweet but also tart concoction was offered from a silver container  in small red cups that resembled shot glasses. While most of the guests were residents of the Oklahoma City area, one guest who was wearing a black robe was a visitor  from New York City, and it was explained that his name was Hafez Diallo and that he was here visiting a nephew. Diallo is a multi-lingual scholar who serves as an interpreter in the courts of the Big Apple  and he  is also known for his scholarly study of  the Muslim Quran. He had come of age in Senegal and migrated to the U S decades ago, and he spoke gently  to one of the other guests  who identified himself as a  Roman Catholic of his conviction that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, are essentially the same faith since  Islam recognizes all of the prophets found in both the Old and New Testaments. The linguist also spoke proudly of how two of his five children served in the U S Military. He and several other of the men present spoke critically of France’s colonization and current influence  in Senegal, but the lingering influence of that European state may  also have been reflected in the stylish attire worn by many of the attendees. The guests included many  couples with small children,  most of whom were dressed in bright clothing and  soon many of those young people were  climbing on the playground equipment that is  present in that park, and some of them could be heard squealing with delight as they soared towards the heavens on the swing sets that are also found there. The  seemingly ever present Oklahoma wind on occasion sent the circular paper plates that were in use onto the exposed necks  and noggins of several of the attendees, but that did not seem to affect the cheerful and friendly nature of the gathering, where  French, English and the African language of Wolof were spoken interchangeably. Before the onset of the coronavirus, Duffner Park served as a location for soccer games between  different groups of  young men of West African origin, and as the sun began to descend an impromptu soccer game  began to take place that included small  portable nets on both ends of the field.  The vigorous performance of one of the  players prompted several of the other guests to explain that that young man is the son of a Senegalese immigrants who has lived in Oklahoma  City for years, and he is the recipient of a soccer scholarship to a university on the nation’s East Coast.