Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #65 – Yoga: Giver of Love – Yoga in Senegal with Ahmet Sagna

Welcome to Episode #65 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Senegal onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Ahmet Sagna. My conversation with Ahmet Sanga, a yoga teacher from Senegal, was so interesting as we discussed why it’s important for there to be yoga all around the world. As a school gym teacher, Ahmet brings yoga to young people in class, as well as to his larger community in Senegal. 

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Senegal then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Ahmet Sagna 

Ahmet Sagna is a yoga teacher from Senegal. He has been teaching Hatha yoga since 2012, and he first discovered yoga for the first time in Dakar, Senegal through a friend. In 2016 he traveled to India to attend university at the S-Vyasa in Bangalore for yoga certification. Moreover, he is a massage therapist and a gym and sports teacher at a public school in Dakar. He grew up in Ziguinchor, in the south of Senegal, and now lives in the capital of Dakar. He regularly teaches private yoga classes and hopes one day to open his own yoga studio.

Favorite Quote From Ahmet

“I think it’s good to teach people yoga, because yoga will help you to have, to get insight, the outside is a manifestation of the inside. And I think many people do yoga. I think we’ll have peace in the world and we’ll have a better world.

Connect with Ahmet

https://www.instagram.com/sagna.ahmet/

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https://www.patreon.com/wildyogatribe

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https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

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Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #65 – Yoga In Senegal with Ahmet Sanga Transcription

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family, and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast today. I’m so excited to welcome Ahmed Sanga onto the show today. He’s a yoga teacher from Senegal and he has been teaching Haha yoga since 2012. He first discovered yoga for the first time in Dakar, Senegal with a friend. In 2016 he traveled to India to go to S-Vyasa in Bangalore for a yoga certification. He’s also a massage therapist, gym and sports teacher in a public school in Senegal. I’m so excited to talk to him more about his story and his journey. So thank you so much, Ahmed, for being on the show today.

[00:00:40] Ahmet Sanga: Thank you.

[00:00:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: So for starters, how did yoga first come into your life? I know it was through a friend, but walk us through that. What happened?

How did yoga first come into your life?

[00:00:49] Ahmet Sanga: I’m a gym teacher and one day my student missed class. I asked him where he was last week, told me to do yoga, and I was so surprised. He asked me, you want to try? I say, of course, yes, I wanna try. He invited me to this yoga class and it was my first time doing yoga.

[00:01:15] Lily Allen-Duenas: So did you immediately love it or did it take you some time to like yoga?

Did you immediately love yoga or did it take you some time to like yoga?

[00:01:23] Ahmet Sanga: After the class, I immediately listen to my body, with yoga. If you go, you have [00:01:30] more energy to start another class. I say, wow, this, I think it’s, for me, it’s why I decided to learn more about this.

[00:01:44] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. What made you want to go to India to do your yoga certification? 

What made you want to go to India to do your yoga certification? 

[00:01:49] Ahmet Sanga: For me, it’s interesting if a teacher visits yoga. I’m just in India. At the time I have this idea, but I didn’t have money for it. But one day I was at school with my student and here in India. He said, Senegal…

Why do I ask you? If you want, can I give your name to the embassy? I say, okay, yeah. He gave my name and they called me. Why do you want to do it? We answer their questions. And then they finally, and we were two to go to this time after. There are some who went there. Now I think [00:03:00] we’re ten who went to this course now.

[00:03:05] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. So the Indian Embassy in Senegal. The Indian Embassy wanted to send a couple people from Senegal to learn yoga in India. So like on a sponsorship or scholarship?

The Indian Embassy in Senegal Scholarship

[00:03:18] Ahmet Sanga: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:03:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow, that’s amazing. At that time, you got certified and that you went to India, I know that was years ago. Were there any yoga centers in Senegal? Or yoga teachers or yoga teacher training schools, or was that not an option?

Were there yoga teacher training schools in Senegal?

[00:03:35] Ahmet Sanga: Before we had school here. But it’s kinda like who was not, cause it’s only here, people who were doing yoga. Imagine this Santa was here. Since I was 19, I think. 1960. Rich people go to do yoga. It’s only the only center, and this teacher was teaching me, it’s kinda mixed. He was teaching yoga nidra and yoga from, and my first teacher here was taught by this teacher.

[00:04:27] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay, that’s great. So now [00:04:30] we can fast forward to 2022. So now there a lot of yoga studios?

Are there a lot of yoga studios in Senegal now?

[00:04:34] Ahmet Sanga: Now there are a lot of studios and there are also many yogas and also foreigners. Yoga, who are not, Senegalese, but foreigners. There are many here now it’s, you’ll find many, and many of my Yoga nidra and I didn’t see yet. But this yoga, you’ll find it now.

[00:05:17] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wonderful. Do you teach yoga in schools as well? I know you’re a sports and gym teacher, so are you teaching students and children?

Do you teach yoga in schools?

[00:05:26] Ahmet Sanga: Yeah. Yeah, sometimes. Cause I think it’s the most important reason why I decided to do yoga. It’s about to teach, it’s about to. They are young to be 11, 12, 14, 15 and they need some time for yoga to have to develop concentration. Also, here I where I’m, where I went to how to forget, is the name[00:06:00] 

if you’ll have or maybe twenty in the classroom or fifteen.  But here you’ll have, for example, I’ll take one of my classes. The number you’ll find students imagine. It’s Attention from students and sometimes you should do some exercise to improve concentration. But it’s so difficult to do meditation because we don’t have shelves. We do our class outside on the playground and you don’t have to go from. Sometimes it’s for to, to meditation. We do exercise or show sometimes.

[00:06:59] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay. Yeah. So if you don’t have any covering to practice yoga or to practice meditation and you are always outside, then yeah, I imagine it would be really hot sometimes.

[00:07:12] Ahmet Sanga: Yeah.

[00:07:14] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay. And how old are they? How old are your students?

[00:07:18] Ahmet Sanga: At school, you mean

[00:07:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes.

[00:07:22] Ahmet Sanga: 11 to 14. For them it’s, it’s the first time they do yoga, [00:07:30] sometimes they watch movies and they see sometimes one day. Say, my student sit comfort, really close your eyes. They start to do and I say, why? They say it’s, I say, how do you know it? Okay. It’s also yoga, but it’s not really what you’ll think. It’s about yoga. We’ll try to do some, and you’ll see. We try to do some exercise and after they say, ah, is it, yes it’s what we say is not like you’ll sit here and just jump to the mantra. 

[00:08:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay, so obviously a lot of your students have a different idea of what yoga is.

[00:08:27] Ahmet Sanga: Yeah.

[00:08:27] Lily Allen-Duenas: start practicing it. So could you tell us what yoga is, your personal definition of yoga?

What is your definition of yoga?

[00:08:35] Ahmet Sanga: For me, your, if you want to stop action of matter, to focus on your, I mean something higher, something to the highest way. I think it’s what I can call yoga. 

[00:08:50] Lily Allen-Duenas: It’s a stilling of the mind. It’s a calming of the mind. It’s the centering of the mind.

[00:08:55] Ahmet Sanga: Exactly. What I say when I [00:09:00] just explain cause it’s like jumping everywhere.

[00:09:08] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, the monkey that jumps from branch to branch is like the mind.

[00:09:12] Ahmet Sanga: It’s the definition of yoga.

[00:09:18] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay. That’s great. So why do you think it’s important that yoga is in every country around the world? Now, the Indian embassy in Senegal knew that it was important that yoga comes to Senegal. So why do you think it’s important that yoga is everywhere?

Why do you think it’s important that yoga is in every country around the world?

[00:09:37] Ahmet Sanga: If look around the war, you’ll I’ll many vaccines, war, a are not good know. People are doing bad things. I think it’s good to teach people yoga, because yoga will help you to have, to get insight, outside is a manifestation of the inside.. And I think many people do yoga. I think we’ll have peace in the world and we’ll have better world. 

[00:10:11] Lily Allen-Duenas:  I would love to hear about what you think yoga has brought into your life. Like what gifts has yoga given?

What gifts have yoga given you?

[00:10:20] Ahmet Sanga: You give a lot of things, and it’s about  kind and [00:10:30] opportunity India. Cause yoga gives me or I kinda give. I’m always different with, I mean my, with people me. Because the way I think and the way I see. It’s not the same way. It’s maybe because I’m a little bit in a way and people another way and it’s, I’m your guy, so I’m doing say people.

Okay. It’s something very important.  Sometimes I say I don’t have television, and they cannot imagine why I don’t have television. I say I don’t need it. Cause I think if I sit television to something, I mean like my objective. I can’t focus about what I, and then better in life, can everyone have insights? Television? This depends on what you want to watch inside. If you want to watch inside, but since you will have outside. But if you wanna watch good things inside, you’ll have it. Like peace to sadness, to doing [00:12:00] good things, yeah. 

[00:12:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: So it seems like yoga has given you so many gifts. I’ve loved hearing more about how yoga brings you love. I think that’s such a beautiful thing to say. I was also hoping that you could share with us more about Senegal in case some of our listeners aren’t very familiar with Senegal in general. 

What is Senegal Like?

[00:12:22] Lily Allen-Duenas: Can you share with us more about your country?

[00:12:25] Ahmet Sanga: Yeah, Senal is a small country, which is in West Africa West, Senegal. We have a kind of melting pot. We have many if I can call it. We have all of these have Fora. We have at the same time an official language. It’s French.

[00:12:53] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for sharing about Senegal. It was great to hear more about it.

And if some of our listeners want to get in touch with you, I think the best way probably would be on Instagram. Is that correct?

[00:13:04] Ahmet Sanga: Thanks! Yes. 

[00:13:06] Lily Allen-Duenas: Great. So I will link to your Instagram account here in the show notes and on my website, wild yoga tribe.com/yoga in Senegal so you can find Ahmet’s social media, his Instagram there, as well as more details about this podcast episode and a transcript of the podcast itself. So you can read along while you’re listening if you’d like. [00:13:30] So thank you so much, Ahed, for being on the show today. It’s been such a joy to be with you.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. My conversation with Ahmet Sanga, a yoga teacher from Senegal, was so interesting as we really discussed why it’s important for there to be yoga and all the countries around the world. As a school gym teacher, Ahmed brings yoga to young people in classes as well as to his community as a whole. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that’s all about yoga in Senegal, then this is the conversation for you. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. Be well. 

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