After the first World Festival of Negro Arts was organized here in 1966, a number of institutions were reoriented toward African traditions, and others such as the Dynamique Museum, the Daniel Sorano Theatre, and the Tapestry Factory of Thiès got created. The craft village of Soumbédioune as well as Goree Island in Dakar have become popular marketplaces and centres for Senegalese artisans. The Fundamental Institute of Black Africa (Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire; IFAN) Museum in Dakar explores the anthropology of Africa and has a collection of African art, while the IFAN Museum in Saint-Louis focuses on the history of the Senegambian region.
Welcoming, hearty and hospitable, Senegal is a crossroads of ethnicities, rich cultures and traditions drawn from the Wolofs, Pulaars, Soninke, Dilas, Lebous, Sereres from Sine and the Mandingos. Such wealth of human spirit and culture was experienced when delegates as well as participants were accorded the rare opportunity of sailing by ferry to the well preserved and habited island of Goree where memories of the greatest dehumanization of man was perpetrated. Goree is a stark reminder of such violations of human beings and the need to remain ever vigilant and bonded in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood to combat the tyranny that would deny the humanity of another human being.
On the island, a small fort known as Slave House which is recorded to have been built in 1776 by the Dutch was one of the slave warehouses through which Africans passed on their way to the Americas. Though it is recorded that slaves were being shipped from here as early as the 16th century. Millions have passed through this island and other similar trading posts to work in the plantations of the New World.
This slave House is one of several sites on the island where Africans were brought to be loaded onto ships bound for the New World. The owner’s residential quarters were on the upper floor whilst the lower floor was reserved for the slaves who were weighed, fed and held before departing on the transatlantic journey. The Slave House with its famous “Door of No Return” has been preserved in its original state. The shipping of slaves from Goree lasted from 1536 when the Portuguese launched the slave trade to the time the French halted it 312 years later. The Portuguese, Dutch, French and British all fought and killed each other over the trade from there
Just 3 kilometres off the Senegalese coast, the tiny size of the island made it easy for merchants to control their captives. For the surrounding waters are so deep that any attempt at escaping would mean certain drowning. With a five kilogram metal ball permanently attached to their feet or necks, a captured African would know the certain calamity jumping into the deep sea would bring.
Other points of historical interest here include:
The Botanical Gardens: Located on the Rue du Port founded by the French in 1667.
The Church of St. Charles: Located on the Place de l’Eglise built with public contributions in 1830 in the style of provincial churches in western France.
The Castle: Originally built by the Dutch in the 17th century, this fortress has been razed and reconstructed several times. In the 18th century it housed the residence of the Governor of Senegal and in 1940 it was bombarded by a combined British and Free French naval force.
William Ponty School building: From 1913-1937 housed the Ecole Normale William Ponty where many African leaders were educated.
Strickland House: The site of the first American Consulate established in West Africa was the home of American businessman Peter Strickland who came to Africa in 1878 as a representative of the Boston trading firm and was named the US Consul in 1883.
Université des Mutants: founded by former Senegal President Senghor, was established to bring together the best minds of Africa and has hosted frequent conferences on current cultural and economic issues for developing nations.
Hostellerie du Chevalier de Boufflers: is a well-known restaurant named after the first French Governor of Senegal, a colorful figure who moved to Goreé from the Capital of St. Louis (northwest coast) and is reported to have broken many hearts upon his return to France in 1788.
Other attractions on the island include three museums, one dedicated to women, one to the history of Senegal and one to the sea. The Historic Museum was opened in 1989, and has exhibits on anthropology, West African pre-history and the political and religious history of Senegal. There is also the seventeenth century Goree Police station, Goree Castle, the Church, the picturesque ruins of Fort Nassau, Saint Michel (the Castle), the Historical Museum in the old Fort Estrees and a small swimming beach near the ferry slipToday modern cargo ships go past the island, on their way to and from Dakar’s harbour.
The island, with some 1,300 inhabitants is tranquil with no cars, no crime. Visitors seem to be behaving more like pilgrims visiting a holy shrine During his visit in 1981, the former French prime minister, Michel Rocard, said, “It is not easy for a white man, in all honesty, to visit this Slave House without feeling ill-at-ease.”
The Pope visiting in 1992 asked for forgiveness because lots of Catholic missionaries were involved in the slave trade.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela who toured the island three years before his election, insisted on crawling into a cramped holding cell whilst touring the slavehouse.
Visits there have been made by two American Presidents George Bush’s lasting just 20 minutes and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, who visited the island in 1998. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030708-1.html
Today, a quiet and quaint haunt for tourists with about 1,000 permanent residents, Goreé remains significant in the history of Africa, particularly in the development of the slave trade. Only three kilometers from Dakar at its nearest point, the island is a flat plain ending in a steep basaltic hill (the Castle), and is only 900 by 300 meters. Possibly sighted by Phoenicians and others in antiquity, it was probably first discovered by the Portuguese explorer Dias in 1444.
The island was colonized in 1817. The Dutch bought the island from a local chief for a pittance. Goreé thus became a way station for Dutch ships plying the route between their forts on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the Indies. The Dutch gave the island its name, most probably for “Goeree” Island in Holland, or more fancifully - according to some - for its sheltered harbor, “Goode Reede” (good harbor). Goreé changed hands many times. The British took it from the Dutch; The Dutch then recaptured it, but had to give it up again to the French during French maritime expansion under Colbert. In 1802, by the terms of the Amiens peace agreement, the island became French and remained so until Senegalese independence in 1960Goreé was the principal entry point off the coast of Africa for slavers and merchantmen flying the French flag. Thousands of Africans passed through this island fortress on the continent’s bulge. After the abolition of the slave trade in France in 1848, Goreé was an outpost for policing the seas. As its role in trade declined, it became a stepping off point for French colonization of the interior of West Africa.
Goreé had the first school and the first printing plant in French Africa. It was also one of the “four communes” which in the 19th century were electing deputies to the French National Assembly. Many buildings on Goreé have undergone renovations, sponsored by Senegal and other government and international organizations.
In 1978 Unesco designated Goree as a World Heritage site.
Arthur Smith was born, grew up and was schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He has taught English since 1977 at Prince of Wales School and, Milton Margai College of Education. He is now a Senior Lecturer at Fourah Bay College where he has been lecturing English, Literature, as well as Creative Writing for the past seven years.
Mr Smith is widely published with his writings appearing in local newspapers as well as in West Africa Magazine, Index on Censorship, Focus on Library and Information Work amongst others.
He was one of 17 international visitors who participated in a seminar on contemporary American Literature sponsored by the U.S.State Department in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be read at lisnews.org.
His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity, and ‘The Struggle of the Book’
Tags: african culture, Dakar, Goree, International PEN, LEOPOLD SENGHOR, slave depots