Dakar, Senegal has a very busy port which is always full of ships. Invaded many times it has changed hands over and over until it regained independence in August, 1960. Twenty million slaves are thought to have been exported from there, and most via the door of no return at Gorée Island.

About twenty minutes from Dakar by ferry is Gorée Island. The small 28-hectare island is 3.5 km from the mainland. It is a car-free island, known for being the main departure point in the African slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries. People were shipped with a number, eventually taking the name of the master who purchased them. The narrow streets of colonial buildings have become homes, small hotels, and workshops, but one remains as a museum. The House of Slaves is open to the public but opens later on a Sunday. The 19th-century Fort d’Estrées houses the IFAN Historical Museum, with exhibits on Senegal’s past. The Henriette Bathily Women’s Museum considers the role of women in West African society.

Families were split. In the main, men sent to mainland America, the Caribbean and Canada. The women went to Brazil, and the children to Haiti. Gorée was at the centre of the rivalry between European nations for control of the slave trade.

There is a safari option that can be taken, a lake nature 4×4 drive tour, a folklore and village tour. Next time we come back we will do something different.

In my fourth book, Cruise Ship Art Theft, one of my characters gets very outspoken about the slave trade. Only too sadly, it still goes on. Being enslaved to a dependancy to drugs, and sex trading which is dealt with in my third book Cruise Traffic: Human Laundry.

#Ilovegoree #goree #goreeisland

DAKAR EXCURSIONS

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