Dakar Senegal...the Pride of Western Africa

So many unique tour options were offered in Senegal…safaris, the pink Lake Retba where salt is harvested, a fishing village that's streets are covered with shells, and of course the fascinating city Dakar itself...yet only one day in this west African country.

 Safaris

Salt Processing

Shell Island

Yes, Dakar Senegal was our only port in western Africa with seven sea days between Namibia and Senegal. Perhaps this was due to time, but it may also have been that western Africa is still in a state of transition and many of the countries are not stable enough for Viking to book a port visit two years in advance. Whatever the reason, we had only one day to see the most western bulge of Africa. 

Dakar, Senegal’s capital is becoming a leader in western Africa. Although facing huge challenges, it is succeeding. It has a stable democracy, has had no military coups since independence with peaceful elections and transitions, and is making many improvements to its infrastructure. Located at an ideal bay at the western tip of the continent. Dakar colonization changed hands several times before becoming a French colony for 150 years. Mining, chemicals, and slaves became its main exports, all of which except for slaves continues today with its biggest export being peanuts.

With the growing unrest of the African colonies in the mid-1900s, and the fact that the colonies were not as profitable as they once had been, Europe began to relinquish African holdings. France offered its nine colonies independence in 1958, but only Ghana took them up on this. However, in 1960, a vote was taken again, and Senegal overwhelmingly voted for freedom. Senegal was fortunate in that its fledgling country started with a good leader, the poet Leopold Senghor, who guided the country for 20 years before voluntarily stepping down. This was and still is most unusual for any of the African countries. Senegal ran into financial difficulties, but it never led to outright fighting or coups. Stability has improved, and China has invested heavily, building a modern airport, freeway, performing arts center, and an impressive Museum of Black Civilizations. France and Spain have an interest in seeing Senegal succeed to help with their own immigration issues. The country needs help managing. Due to drought, more people are coming to the city and Senegal’s population is expected to double by the year 2050.

Goree Island

Our day began with a short ferry ride across the bay to this car-free island, population 1400, settled by the Portuguese for slave trading purposes in the 1600s. It is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Arriving on the Ferry 

After walking the alternating dirt and cobblestone paths through the village to both the lower and the upper forts, we visited the House of Slaves. There had once been many of these houses on the island that kept slaves for up to three months while they were fattened up for the long journey to the Americas.

Fort

House of Slaves

Especially emotional was seeing the “Door of No Return” the opening they walked through to board the packed slave ships. Altogether 12 million African slaves were shipped to the Americas, probably about 30,000 from this island. The house vividly portrays the horror of this slave trade and is now a symbol of hope and freedom and a place where Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Popes have visited.

The Door of No Return

Town Square on Goree Island

Tourism and fishing are now the islands only businesses and despite its dark past, the island is quite charming. It had a Caribbean feel with a mix of inhabited and abandoned stone and pastel colonial buildings, bougainvillea in full bloom, beloved Boabab trees everywhere including the main square where we enjoyed people watching especially the school children. The baobab tree is a symbol of Senegal and has many medicinal and other uses. Villages were often built up around these trees. Local artists abound, eager to sell their beautiful art…textiles, beads, and wood carvings.

Sitting in a beautiful garden setting at lunch we ate rice, vegetables, and lotte, a local fish that tasted like fried chicken, in fact many of us continued to believe it was chicken. Homemade drinks were offered, including a dark purple hibiscus juice, and another from the juice of the Baobab fruit mixed with milk. After again being warned about Senegal water not sitting well with western intestines, most passed, but Carol drank the delicious dark purple hibiscus juice with no problems.

Garbage Collector

Boab Tree in Town Square

Island's Movie Theater

Local School Children

As we waited for our ferry back to Dakar, we enjoyed seeing all the school children with their inherent excitement arriving to learn about the slave trade history of Goree Island and all of Africa. Slave trading had begun long before the Europeans, both among Africans as the consequences of tribal skirmishes, and later with Arab traders.

Children on a Field Trip

Dakar's Infamous Traffic 

Returning to Dakar, we hopped off the ferry and onto the bus to experience Senegal traffic, a mixture of taxis, bikes, motorcycles, city and funky private buses, and donkey-pulled carts. Traffic lights were present but not always obeyed. Even though very congested, horn honing was a rarity. 

One Means of Public Transportation

The main streets were filled with sidewalk vendors selling everything from art to sofas to goats which are sacrificed on Muslim holidays and also when a baby is born. 95% of Senegal is Muslim, and we saw prayer mats for sale and on the ground for use. Mosques with speakers that call followers to prayer five times a day dotted the city skyline. Our guide was proud to tell us as we passed a huge Catholic Cathedral that there are no problems between the different faiths and people are free to intermarry.

Note Viewing Windows in Man's Cap

Monument to African Resistance

At the outskirts of town was a pair of hilltops, called the breasts. On one were all the antennas for the city and a lighthouse. On the other was the most massive bronze statue we have seen. The size of the Statue of Liberty, it portrays a Senegalese family with the wife’s outstretched arm facing down behind as she was forgetting the past and the baby pointing to the future. At 27 million dollars it was quite controversial.

Our Faithful Guide Praying

Dakar from Top of Monument Steps

 

We walked up 182 steps to the base of the monument. The elevator to the viewing windows in the man’s cap was closed, but we had a good view from the base. While we climbed the steps, our guide prayed.

Sand Painting Gallery

At a restaurant and sand painting gallery, an artist painted an image using the sap of the Baobab tree mixed with some glue and then deftly and quickly sprinkled different naturally colored African sand before shaking off the excess, leaving an impressive and durable (unless it got wet) scene of a woman in fine dress, carrying a child on her back and a large bowl on her head. Amazing.

It was an incredible drive around this chaotic, fascinating city…people dressed in western fashion and more often women in beautiful traditional dress…an amazing rainbow of colors in this dry, dusty city.

People hanging out of little yellow buses, children playing on their sidewalk playgrounds while moms patiently sold their wares, a modern university of 60,000 students with several steers attempting to graze on the campus’s brown dirt grounds.

Prayer Mats For Sale

University

We passed the beautiful Presidential Palace and then took the coastal drive back to the ship, passing all the large homes, once belonging to the French colonists and now mainly embassies or homes of the wealthy, some politicians, including the current president. At the ocean cliff's edge was an outdoor gym overlooking the beautiful Atlantic and nearby many wooden benches plopped on dirt overlooking the water.



Senegal's fishing fleet taking an afternoon break before heading back out with their nets.

Local Fisherman

Our bus arrived back at the ship an hour late, and even though we hadn't done much walking, we were exhausted. Within minutes our ship was sailing away from Africa, a place that had certainly touched our hearts. One of us is eager to return.

Freed Slaves  Returning to Their Beloved Africa

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home." James Michener