Saint-Louis and Paradoxes of Landscape

For this week’s blog post, I decided to focus on a part of Senegal that I haven’t explored yet: Saint-Louis.  Saint-Louis is located at the mouth of the Senegal River and is the former French capital of Senegal.  Saint-Louis is a very physical manifestation of its history; the town is filled with 19^th century colonial buildings that speak of a bygone era.  Yet more than being simply a place that stands for the past, it could help explain some of the complexities of Senegalese culture as we know it today.

Africa Map: Red triangles on the far left showing the location of Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River

The French influence in Senegal is undeniable.  It is evident in the most abstract and in the most obvious.  The official language is French and most of the place names are French; however, only those educated in the colonial style French schools really speak it regularly.  Most people speak their own ethnic language, with Wolof being the most widely spoken.  This immediately introduces one of the many paradoxes in Senegalese culture. 

Africa Map: Map showing the French Colonies in 1930

Today, Saint-Louis seems to represent a lot of those paradoxes.  Its location places it both at the mouth of the Senegal River and at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean so that it is a bridge between river and ocean.  It is also located at the border of Senegal with Mauritania, making it a bridge between savanna and desert.  Finally, its deep involvement with the French connects it to Europe in a way that no other African city is.

Picture showing the Feidherbe Bridge to Saint-Louis.  Source: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/senegal_saint_louis.htm

From this short analysis we can see the fruitfulness of exploring the city of Saint-Louis in terms of trying to understand a part of Senegalese culture.  Hopefully seeing it as more than merely a beautiful place can bring out more interesting paradoxes and lead to deeper analyses grounded in the history of the landscape.   

 Chronology: Senegal and The Gambia 

1360: Wolof people establish the Jolof Empire

1443: Portuguese ships reach the mouth of the Senegal River, and a year later they land on the coast of Senegal at a peninsula they name Cabo Verde, meaning Green Cape.

1617: The Dutch turn the trading station on Île de Gorée into a major slave port.  The French eventually take Gorée from the Dutch in 1677.

1633: The French establish La Compagnie du Cap Vert et du Sénégal, the main trading company operating in France’s African colonies.

1659: French traders put down roots on the barely inhabited island of N’Dar at the mouth of the Senegal River.  They rename the place Saint-Louis, after the French emperor, and build and important urban center.

1677: The French gain control over the trading station of Île de Gorée, founded in 1455 by the Portuguese, then fought over by the Dutch, British and French.  Gorée’s architecture shows the legacies of all of its occupants.

1756: Britain and France are opposed in fierce territorial battles lasting seven years.  Britain briefly gains control of all of France’s possessions in the Senegal area, though soon has to return them.

1783: The Treaty of Versailles delineates the spheres of Anglophone and Francophone influence that dominates the region to this day.  Gambia is given to the British, and Gorée returned to the French.  Later attempts at unifying the territory fail.

1794: The slave trade is abolished in France, only to be reinstated by Napoleon eight years later.  It is finally abolished once and for all in 1815.

1820: Gambia is declared a British protectorate and, after failed attempts by Britain to exchange it for other colonial territories, it becomes a full colony in 1886.

1848: The key colonial centers of Rufisque, Dakar, Gorée and Saint-Louis become self-governing communes, where citizens enjoy the same rights as those of France.

1857: France opens a military post at Lebou village of Ndakaru.  This act is considered by many as the official founding of Dakar.

1864: Omar Tall’s forces are finally defeated by the French, but his missionary zeal inspires followers to keep fighting jihads for another three decades.

1884-1885: Colonial powers gather at the Berlin Conference to “carve up” the African continent in line with their territorial interests. 

1889: After the demarcation of colonial territories at the Berlin Conference, it takes France and Britain another five years to agree on the current borders between Senegal and Gambia.

1895: Saint-Louis in Senegal becomes the capital of the vast, French owned area of Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF; French West Africa), stretching from Senegal in the west to present-day Sudan in the east.

1906: Léopold Sédar Senghor is born in a small fishing village in the Siné-Saloum region.  A sharp intellectual, he follows simultaneous careers in politics and poetry, and becomes the first president of independent Senegal.

1960: On 4 April Senegal and Mali are granted independence as a joint federation—an idea strongly supported by Senghor.  But the alliance only lasts four months before the two countries split.

1965: The Gambia becomes and independent country with David Jawara as prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II as titular head of state.

1970: Gambia becomes a full republic. 

1980: Senegal proves its democratic maturity when president Senghor steps down after losing the elections and makes room for former Prime Minister Abdou Diouf. 

1981: Newly elected Senegalese president Abdou Diouf leads his first military intervention—in neighboring Gambia.  Though his army’s support helps thwart a coup, 500 people are killed in the events, causing hostilities between the two nations.

1990: Throughout this difficult decade, the separatist movement in Senegal’s Casamance clashes frequently with government forces, claiming the lives of hundreds of people and damaging the tourist industry that flourished in the region.

2000: Abdoulaye Wade, leader of the Parti Démocratique Sénégalais, becomes president of Senegal in democratic elections, running a campaign with the slogan sopi (change).

2002: Nearly 2000people are killed when the ferry MS Joola capsizes between Dakar and Ziguinchor, a catastrophe provoked at least partly by dangerous overcrowding.  Senegal’s biggest disaster leaves the country in shock.

2003: President Jammeh’s claims that major oil resources have been found off the Gambian coast provoke skepticism on one side; hope on the other.

2004: Prominent Gambian journalist and government critic Deyda Hydara is assassinated while under surveillance by secret service agents.  They still unsolved murder brings the issue of press freedom in Gambia into sharp focus.