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Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye displays the chains that the slaves wore when they went to relieve themselves outside. © UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar - Senegal |
It was in the mid-fifteenth century that the Portuguese first arrived in Senegal. They settled on Gorée – a small island three kilometres out to sea from Dakar – which for a very long time was the main entrepôt of the slave trade.
Gorée Island’s strategic importance soon attracted the Dutch, who took it over and renamed it Goede Reede (good harbour). They bought the island from the indigenous population and built two forts to defend their interests in the slave trade.
Gorée Island subsequently established itself as a place of transit for slaves and merchandise, and its fate came to be linked to that of the European trading companies. In the eighteenth century, when the slave trade was at its height, this trading post was the subject of bitter disputes among the various powers vying for its control. Accordingly, the French and the English took turns in taking over until the early nineteenth century. With the proclamation of the end of slavery, Gorée became the base of the naval division in charge of cracking down on illicit slave trading.
>> Seminar in Dakar, Senegal, 7-11 January 2002
>> Slavery in provincial Senegal
Gorée Island subsequently established itself as a place of transit for slaves and merchandise, and its fate came to be linked to that of the European trading companies. In the eighteenth century, when the slave trade was at its height, this trading post was the subject of bitter disputes among the various powers vying for its control. Accordingly, the French and the English took turns in taking over until the early nineteenth century. With the proclamation of the end of slavery, Gorée became the base of the naval division in charge of cracking down on illicit slave trading.
>> Seminar in Dakar, Senegal, 7-11 January 2002
>> Slavery in provincial Senegal
