Senegal - The Wild West.

Originally published in Travel Africa Magazine

Senegal is one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in Africa and yet remains relatively little known. A stable democracy, friendly people, bearable climate and an efficient communication system combine to make this one of the most accessible of African nations. Michael Hogan summarises the country’s attractions.

Senegal’s capital, Dakar, is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in West Africa. It is where French businessmen and Japanese tuna-canning operatives rub shoulders with representatives of every African culture of the region. The result is a vibrant, crowded metropolis best regarded as the gateway to Senegal rather than Senegal itself.

With modern luxury hotels and items such as toiletries, travel goods, books and electrical items easily available, Dakar is an excellent starting point for the first-time visitor.

A 20 minute ferry ride from the Port of Dakar takes you to Goree Island, once a focal point for the Atlantic slave trade and the original settlement from which Dakar developed in the middle of the last century.

With help from UNESCO, the Senegalese government is working to restore the island’s historical buildings, making this tiny piece of land a microcosm of colonial history. Here the slave traders housed their living cargoes before the voyage to the New World, as well as building stately residences for themselves.

To stroll through the streets of Goree is to experience the volatile history of this region first hand. Buildings 200 years old, including the original Slave House, seem to transport you to another era. There is the Historical Museum, housed in an old fort, and the Museum of Marine Life, as well as charming cafes along the beach.

For residents of Dakar, Goree is not just an historical site but a day out from the city, and their presence breathes life into the old buildings and atmospheric streets.

An hour’s drive east of Dakar is the Pink Lake, where minerals suspended in the water turn it literally pink at certain angles of sunlight. At other times the lake’s surface remains stubbornly and disappointingly blue-gray, but nevertheless provides a habitat for a breathtaking number of wading birds such as flamingoes, egrets and spoonbills.

Whatever the colour of the water this is a spectaclar reminder that Senegal plays host to one of the richest and most diverse populations of bird life in Africa.

In the Sine-Saloum region, a long narrow wooden jetty leads out across the water to where a pirogue — a local fishing canoe painted blue and yellow — is waiting to cast off. The piroguier, a barefooted boy of about 14 wearing ancient jeans and a baggy cotton shirt, flashes the whitest of smiles and starts the outboard motor. Soon we are chugging sedately through the mangrove-lined creeks that form the delta of the River Saloum.

Geographically we are about 30 miles above the Gambia border, 100 miles south of Dakar and close enough to the Atlantic for the waters to be tidal.

But once among the labyrinth of mangrove inlets such considerations of relative position seem utterly irrelevant. As the tide descends, hundreds of small crabs scuttle across the exposed mud banks; clusters of oysters become visible, hanging from the mangrove roots.

Later we shall eat oysters baked on the half-shell and washed down with ice-cold bottles of Flag, the Senegalese beer. With any luck they will be followed by a meal of freshly caught fish — carp and barracuda are just two of the many species that thrive in these waters.

The sun blazes down from a clear blue sky, brightly coloured birds flash through the foliage and, where the mangroves recede around a crescent of muddy beach, two crocodiles slide into the river, reminding even the most expert of fisherman that he faces some stiff competition from the area’s natural inhabitants.

The Sine-Saloum region extends beyond its waterways into bush and forest. French sportsmen come here to hunt wild boar during the first three months of the year. Kaolack, the region’s capital, is Senegal’s second largest city (after Dakar) and there are many villages in the area — although these may be no more than a few tumbledown huts.

Peanuts are the principal local crop, but for many people grinding poverty is a simple fact of life. Their dignity and friendliness in the face of it is as remarkable as it is genuine.

With a pair of plump red carp in the bottom of the boat and the shadows of the mangroves lengthening across the water, my indefatiguable young piroguier steers our brightly painted vessel home. Along the way we pull to within a few yards of a sandy patch of shore. One hundred yards into the bush, along a rough path, I arrive at a small compound erected beneath an enormously tall palm tree.

After the usual greetings and pleasantries in a mixture of Wolof and broken French, I purchase, for the equivalent of a few pennies, a litre of raw palm wine, cloudy white like pastis with water added. The man who sells it to me insists we drink a ladle of his brew together before the transaction is made. The wine has a not unpleasant, almost antiseptic, taste.

Guessing he will have no money for change I tender a note, at least 10 times more than the amount asked.“Be beneen yon,” I say. Until the next time we meet.... “Jere jief”.... Thank you.

Suddenly he has a flash of inspiration and offers me the ladle as a gift. It resembles a Huckleberry Finn-style corncob pipe. He walks back with me to the river and grins and waves as we chug away from the shore.

The Casamance region, lying below The Gambia and stretching as far south as the border with Guinea-Bissau, is a significantly large part of Senegal. It is named for the Casamance River which, one way or another, provides sustenance for the bulk of the local population.

Most visitors, as well as the Senegalese themselves, tend to agree that this is the most beautiful part of Senegal.

The Casamance capital, Zinguinchor, is another elegant testament to the years of French colonial rule. There are wide paved streets of two-storey wooden houses, rich in the atmosphere of a bygone age, as well as several good quality hotels. There is also an airport offering daily flights to and from Dakar which, in themselves, provide a splendid opportunity to view the country below.

Forty-five miles west of Zinguinchor is the Atlantic coast, and it is here that tourism of the beach and water sport variety is catered for. The stretches of palm-fringed white sand are the stuff of holiday brochures, but developement has thus far been maintained at a level that has kept the character of the coastline intact. There is still room for the local fishing villages, providing a traditional form of livelihood for those unwilling or unable to find work in the tourist hotels.

But this is just the tip of the Casamance iceberg, and no more typical of it than the Costa del Sol is of Southern Spain. The river is 200 miles long, with tributaries that carry its waters all through the region. Low-lying and swampy after the summer rains, there are acres of rice fields, simultaneously reflecting brilliant blue skies and lush green foliage.

As you travel further east the climate becomes harsher, the landscape more arid. Further east still, beyond Casamance itself, begin the plains where big game such as lion and elephant are to be found.

But that, as they say, is another story. And in a country as diverse as Senegal there are always a few more stories waiting to be told.

Michael Hogan is a freelance journalist based in the UK. As a keen fisherman, he visits Senegal frequently.


SENEGAL FACTFILE

Access: Air France, Sabena and Alitalia operate regular scheduled services from London to Dakar via Paris, Brussels and Rome respectively. The flight from Paris to Dakar takes about five and a half hours. An alternative (and significantly cheaper) option is to take a holiday charter flight direct from London to The Gambia. There are regular flights between Banjul and Dakar.

Visas: British visitors do not currently require a visa to enter Senegal.

Vaccinations: Not compulsory, but recommended for Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitus A & B and Yellow Fever. Malaria is rife throughout West Africa and visitors should take precautions.

Language: The official language is French, but many native languages are spoken, reflecting the diversity of the population. The principal of these is Wolof.

Currency: The Senegalese Franc, of which there are always 100 to the French Franc.

Costs: As in all Third World countries, imported goods and international hotels are expensive, local goods and modest accommodation cheap.

Climate: The rainy season runs from June to September. The temperature varies from the upper twenties to low thirties (degrees celcius), and never becomes unbearable. Humidity is highest in the summer months.

More information: Senegalese Embassy, London 0171 938 4048