Senegal! What an interesting place. My time was spent in Dakar, St Louis and the Casamence. So much to see, so much to learn. Officially a French-speaking nation, the people speak mainly Wolof (80%),with only 15% speaking French. So much for your high school French!
One of the most moving sites in the African Renaissance Monument. This Monument was designed by a Senegalese architect but built by the North Koreans. Its building sparked great a debate over its cost but once built it remains a symbol of what lies ahead. I was very inspired when l visited.
Goree Island. One must not visit Senegal and not go across to the island. The house of enslavement is reported to have been the point of departure to the New World for as many as two million captured Africans. When one stands at the Door of No Return a myriad of feelings embrace you.
I went to St Louis in the northwest of the country. It was from this small island that the French ran the French West Africa colony. To visit the small island is a step into the past and one realizes that the export of millions of Africans was only part of the bitterness of the European colonization of Africa. Minerals were found and shipped to Europe making relatively poor European countries extremely rich so much so that the wealth generated still buttresses their economy to the detriment of the African nations.
It is my hope that these pictures will encourage you to come to visit Senegal to see the artifacts yesterday and the forward looking approach of this Nation on the rise.
