The jongué woman

The "Djunguélogie", a word evoking sensuality, voluptuousness and deference to her husband is in Senegal what romanticism is to France of Lamartine and Musset.

In my opinion, everyone has to translate it in their own way because the mentalities in Senegal differ. Although we want to combine him with the typical Wolof woman, nourished by the ideologies of complete allegiance to the husband and well coached by his aunts who give him all the keys to marry a husband, the "Djongué" is present in every woman.

It's like common sense, it's the most shared thing among women. If it is usually colored with intimate sauce (arsenal of nocturnal seduction and others), it is above all a state of mind, this ability to cultivate peace within the couple.

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It starts with a well-oiled communication that uses certain cultural codes such as the joking cousinage.

Moreover, in some cultures, such as the Soninkés, any marriage that does not sprinkle a few doses of joke cousinage is not pleasant.

This pushes us to define the "Djongué" by a simple appetite of the woman to put her husband at ease by the word, by the deeds and the look with a dose of coquettishness on the shoulder.

In the village, for example, simply bringing a seal of lukewarm water to the toilet for her husband can be used in this setting.

Even if feminists will see a tinged domination of man over women, it is a manifestation of the "Djongué".

The kitchen can also be mentioned as the building block of this "Djunguélogy". A delicious dish served with tenderness is enough to unseful the masculine smile.

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Isn't that enough for the harmony of hearts and bodies? Unfortunately, today, it is reduced to nocturnal intimacy while it has other basements.

You have to flaunt your pearls, embalm the incense chamber and go to the HLM market in search of new trends in female coquettishness to get your "new version" Djunguélogie card.

If you have an asthmatic husband, would it be incense of Djunguélogy or endangering the lives of others?

This means that all the artifices of femininity must be used sparingly.

It is not a stack of artifices whose origin is often unknown. It is certainly defined by coquettishness but embellished with know-how and knowing how to be out of measure.


Now, the "Djongué" in the migratory context would be more heresy. Couples are very often emotionally unbalanced.

Mentalities are very fixed because cultural and ethnic legacies resurface very often.

For some, women must be the embodiment of modesty in all circumstances. In this context, can "Djongué" translate in the same way?

Moreover, both do not know the contours of their role within the couple.

When we argue over a cooking tour, cleaning with her husband, do we have time to indulge in The Senegalese Djunguélogie? For me, there is no role.

Everyone must give his soul, his strength, his intelligence and his heart for the balance of the couple.

However, do women in the Western context have time to take the lead with this term if we know the magnitude of the tasks that often await them after work.

It should be noted that there are no maids in their homes as in the countries of origin (Senegal, Mali ...).

So they do all the work if they mostly come across a rigid and closed husband who doesn't want to do the children's homework or take care of the kitchen.

Sometimes he doesn't even deign to do food shopping. Is this type of husband who reduces a woman to a maid even if she has family currency entitled to female deference?


The other part of the Djunguélogie is the attribution of small names to her husband. Wolof is naturally a naughty language. Everything has a figurative meaning.

It is a language that is a suitable vehicle to convey all kinds of messages without the vulgarity being displayed.

This is not the case for other African languages such as Soninké, Peul, Bambara where it is difficult to name anything that relates to femininity.

The Senegauloises, will they call their husbands my kitten, my dog, my loulou?

The transposition seems to me to be very difficult. Every language has its own codes. French, even if it abuses style figures, cannot match the Wolof in the way of connoting words.

Thus, the living conditions and mentalities of girls born in immigration hardly espouse the "Djunguelogy".

Men are also a hindrance in transposing this state of mind.

Some men, closed, may take this propensity for coquettishness for the lightness of manners.

They often think of open women as deflated. Another barrier to development in West African couples in immigration.

To this must be added the lack of communication in couples.

In short, the foundation stone of this "Djunguélogy" is social peace.

If it is present, everything settles down naturally. The coquettishness, the spicy language and other allusions to intimacy cannot take precedence over verbal or even facial communication, a guarantee of the couple's balance.