Ile de Goree, The Dark History of Senegal

In today’s age of globalization, there are not many places left in the world that can make you forget about the concept of time and age. Even in the remotest of places you will find the facilities like cell phones and find luxurious cars moving in their streets. But there are still a few places that are spared by this explosion of communication; the Senegalese island of Ile de Goree is one such place. You will not find a single car in its alleyways and the only means for communicating with the rest of the world is through the landline phone on the mainland. It is just not its remoteness that makes it such a great relaxing vacation spot but the colonial architecture of the island is its biggest attraction. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the island of Ile de Goree was used by the Portuguese as a prison and also as a centre of their slave trade in the region. So yes it has a dark history attached to it and this has made the island a symbol of the Africa and the African people.

Goree is one of the first places in Africa that were settled by the Europeans, as the Portuguese started a settlement here in 1444. The island has seen quite a lot of wars and changes of its mastery, as it was captured by the Dutch from the Portuguese. Later on in 1664, the island was captured by the British who lost it to the French in 1673 who ruled the island until the independence of Senegal in 1960. Today the tiny island is visited by thousands of the tourists each year to understand the plight of the people who were taken slave during those centuries. If you are arriving from abroad then first you’ll have to take a cheap flight to Dakar the capital of the country and then take a drive to the Rafique port of the country from where you can get a ferry for Goree Island.

After arriving in the island you will have to pay a small entry fee at the public booth close to the island’s police station which also acts as the tourism office of the Goree. The island is small enough to explore independently but if you want to know about the history and architecture of the island then hiring a guide is recommended. There are a couple of good restaurants on the western side of the island that serves some of the best cuisines of the country but at a higher price as compared to the mainland restaurants.

There are no sealed road in Goree just the alleyways and you will not be able to find a car to explore the island so you have to do it on foot. The eastern beach of the island provides a nice relaxing atmosphere to the visitor and you can always take a swim in the turquoise waters of the Atlantic. But keep in mind Goree is not a romantic vacation spot but one where you can meditate as the colonial brick buildings that you see in the island were once the centres of the human slave trade.