Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Went ashore yesterday on the first skiff run.
Went into town to a very nice hotel, the F’aidherbe, and got a room to use for the night. Then after doing
the obligatory internet updates :-) we headed out to take the ferry over to Goree island.
This island off of Dakar was the original capital of French West Africa, it was also the largest slave
transport center in West Africa. It has along and bloody history. Originally occupied by the Portuguese,
then the Dutch, the English and finally the French. For 300 years it was the main point for sorting and
shipping “black ivory” to the New World. In all nearly 20 million men and women passed through this
little island. Of these 6 million or so died by disease, malnutrition or harsh treatment.
In the “Slave House” on the island there is a small doorway that opens out onto the sea it is called the
“door of no return” once a slave passed through that door they never returned. They were either loaded
onto ships for tranport or tied and tossed into the shark filled waters for disposal, if they were sick or
undersized! The other name for this island in slave times was “shark island”.
It is a moving and horrifying place.
There is also a big fort built by the French after slavery was abolished and the area became a colony of
France. It is a massive structure with huge guns. In 1960 when Senegal became independent the French
destroyed the fort (nice of them huh). The biggest set of guns are still in their position looking out over the
sea although the barrels and mechanisms are destroyed.
Interestingly they were only ever fired once and that was at a British merchant ship just offshore during
WWII. It seems the French were worried that the Brits were going to try and take the island from the
French after France fell to the Germans. The British ship was sunk and is marked by a buoy. Every ferry
that comes into Goree needs to make a swing around the wreck.
The island has many baobab trees. These trees can live for a thousand years and grow with trunks almost
9 meters across. They store water when it rains. Big ones can hold almost 100,000 liters of water.
By the time we got back it was rush hour! Amazing that anyone would want to drive here but they sure
seem to move along.
There are pictures from my trip to the island here.
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