In Senegal, family planning finds a key ally: imams

The mosque loudspeaker crackles to life, just as it does five times a day, every day, in this quiet village just outside the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

But instead of the typical melodious call to prayer, the voice booming from the minaret is all business.

“If you are interested in learning about your family-planning options, please come to the health center immediately,” he begins in Wolof, the local language. “The program will begin shortly.” 

Religion announces itself loudly in Senegal, which is more than 90 percent Muslim. Paintings of  – leaders of the country’s popular Muslim brotherhoods – stare down from above grocery store tills and dangle from the rear-view mirror of yellow taxis. , the wheezing,(“Praise be to God”) – along their sides and on their flaking bumpers. And the word or “God willing,” passes as an affirmative answer to almost any question here, from “Will it rain today?” to “Do you have potato chips in stock?”