Saint-Louis, Senegal
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Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal at the mouth of the Senegal River, and 200 miles north of Senegal's Capital City Dakar, it has a population of 171,000 and it is one of the four most important cities of Senegal.
Founded on St-Louis Island, the city has long spread on to the Langue de Barbarie spit, home to the districts of Ndar Tout and Guet Ndar, right up against the Mauritanian border at the north end and home to the fishing port and main market. The city has also spread on to the mainland, where the district of Sor is home to the seldom used train station.
Capital of the former French Western Africa from 1895 to 1902, and capital of Senegal until 1958, Saint-Louis became the leading economic, commercial, artistic and urban centre of sub-Saharan Africa during the 1700's.
Today, rich in three centuries of history, in cultural background, geography, architecture and many other characteristics, Saint Louis is a bridge between the savanna and the desert, the ocean and the river, tradition and modernity, Islam and Christianity, Europe and Africa.
Home to a society with a distinctive lifestyle, Saint-Louis has retained its unique identity. “No one comes without falling in love with the city," proudly say its people who consider Saint-Louis as the birthplace of Senegalese Teranga, the Wolof word for hospitability. [1]
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[edit] History
[edit] Ndar's discovery
Discovered in 1659 by France and baptized Saint-Louis-du-Fort in homage to the French king Louis XIV, the city was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. It was a centre for slave and gum arabic trading. After the French Revolution, most of its inhabitants were given French citizenship.
[edit] Saint-Louis: economic crossroads
A crossroads of the Atlantic, the Saharan and the Sudanese roads, Saint-Louis became a very busy commercial centre through the intensification of the slave trade and the exploitation of the gold, gum Arabic, ivory and other natural African resources. Between 1659 and 1779, nine trading companies succeeded one another in Saint Louis, permitting its development and urbanization. "Saint-Louis became the leading urban centre in sub-Saharan Africa”. [2]
Louis Faidherbe who became the Governor of the colony in 1854 greatly participated in this development and growth in importance of Saint Louis, through his large-scale projects such as the building of the bridges Gaol, Faidherbe and Servatius, and the construction of the Dakar-Saint Louis railroad. [3]
[edit] Saint-Louis: political capital
Political Capital of Senegal in 1840, Saint-Louis became a proper commune of France with all its privileges in 1872 and was propelled to the rank of Capital of French Western Africa by 1895. [3]
[edit] The Rise and Fall of Saint-Louis
The period of great economic, social and cultural development of Saint-Louis brutally ended when the city lost its status of Capital of French Western Africa in 1902 and that of Capital of Senegal in 1957. As its French population and military started departing, most of the town’s shops, offices and businesses were closed. [2] This generated a loss of jobs and human potential, and less investment in the economic activities of Saint Louis, causing thus its economic decline. For some people, however, Saint-Louis' decline was not just limited to its economy, but was spread to all aspects of its life as the loss of its past status had meant less recognition and lack of interest from the colony’s officials and, after Senegal’s independence, from the Senegalese government.
[edit] Geography and climate
Another very important aspect of the town of Saint-Louis is its unique and interesting geography. It is located on the northwest of Senegal near the mouth of the Senegal River. Three characteristics give Saint-Louis its distinctive geographic appearance: the Sahel, the marshes and the Langue de Barbarie.
[edit] The Sahel
Part of the Sahel, a transitional desertic band that separates the “[…] the dunes of the Sahara from the baobabs of the savanna”, [1] Saint-Louis’ landscape is characterized by occasional acacias and is disturbed by sand storms during the dry season.
[edit] The marshes
The marshes are flood basins that form during the rainy season when the river overflows into the country side, creating ponds and stretches of mangroves that attract birds like flamingos and pelicans.
[edit] The Langue de Barbarie
The Langue de Barbarie is a 600 km long stretch of sand, from Nouadhibou in Mauritania to Saint-Louis, which separates during 25 km the Senegal River from the Atlantic Ocean. Its vegetation mainly consists of filao trees.
[edit] Climate
Saint-Louis only has two seasons, the rainy season from June to October, characterized by heat, humidity and storms, and the dry season from November to May, characterized by cool ocean breeze and dust from the Harmattan winds.[1]
[edit] Economy
[edit] Economic decline since 1902
Saint-Louis’ economy is a third important, yet critical, facet of its identity. As is supported in the [1] article, Saint Louis has economically declined since the transfer of the Capital of French Western Africa in Dakar. This has caused the dispossession of Saint Louis of all its past economic attributes and is said to have “[…] reached its paroxysm in 1960 when the main town of the independent Senegal was transferred to Dakar”. Saint-Louis, however, has remained an important tourist and trading center [4] and the city's economy, though not entirely recovered, is gradually reviving.
[edit] Tourism
Tourism constitutes an important part of the economy of Saint-Louis. Thanks to its distinctive appearance, numerous sites of attraction and its international music festivals and cultural exhibitions, Saint-Louis attracts many tourists each year.
Saint-Louis remains the most characteristically French colonial destination in West Africa along with Gorée Island.
[edit] Natural sites
Among Saint-Louis’ numerous natural sites we have the National Park of the Langue de Barbarie, the National Park of the Birds of Djoudj, the Fauna Reserve of Gueumbeul, beaches like that of the Langue de Barbarie, the colonial French Usines de Mbakhana, the palace of Baron Roger at Richard-Toll, the Maka-Diama dam, and various hunting lodges on the south side of the Senegal River.
[edit] National Park of the Langue de Barbarie
This park, which is 20 square kilometres large, occupies the southern point of the Langue de Barbarie, the estuary of the Senegal river and part of the continent. It hosts thousands of water birds like cormorants, brushes, pink flamingos, pelicans, herons and ducks each year.
[edit] National Park of the Birds of Djoudj
The world’s third ornithological park, it is located 60 kilometers north of Saint-Louis. This park occupies over 120 km² and includes part of the river, and many lakes, basins, and marshes. About 3 million migrating birds of 400 species visit it each year.
[edit] Fauna Reserve of Gueumbeul
Located at a dozen kilometers south of the city of Saint-Louis, this reserve has an area of 7 square kilometres and shelters birds and endangered species such as the Dama Gazelle, the Patas monkey and the African Spurred Tortoise. [5]
[edit] Museums, monuments and edifices
Saint-Louis’ Research Center and Documentation Museum of Senegal offers interesting panoramas of Senegal’s history and ethnical movements over the years, expositions of traditional clothes and musical instruments, etc. Other interesting and attractive monuments and edifices are the Governor’s Palace, the Gouvernance where are located the town’s administrative offices, the Parc Faidherbe named for the French governor at the centre of town Louis Faidherbe, colonial-era hotels, the historic airport at Dakar-Bango on the mainland, the Grande Mosquée, the Faidherbe Bridge that connects the island to the Langue de Barbarie and the Gaol and Servatius bridges that connect the island to the continent.
[edit] Events and festivals
As for the yearly events and festivals held in Saint-Louis, we can mention the Saint-Louis Jazz Festival which is the most important jazz festival in Africa, the 1, 2, 3 musiqueS that exhibits various genres of music, the Fanals that take place around April and May during the Jazz Festival and is a procession of lampions made by the inhabitants, the Magal of the Niari Rakas, a yearly commemoration of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba’s (the founder of Mouridism) two prayers in the Palace of the Governor of ex-French Western Africa during the colonial period and the Reggatas which are boat races organized by the fishing villages of Guet-Ndar on the river.[3]
[edit] Other economic activities
Beyond tourism, Saint Louis is also a commercial pole and an industrial centre of sugar production. Its other economic activities are fishing, irrigated alluvial agriculture, pastoral farming, trading and exportation of peanuts skins. It is important to note that each of these economic activities is assured by a particular ethnic group. The Wolofs and Lebous who are the main inhabitants of Saint-Louis are mostly fishermen that live in fishing communities like Guet-Ndar on the Langue de Barbarie. The Peulhs live in the inland and practice pastoral farming. The Maures who are migrants from Mauritania (Saint-Louis is less than six miles south of the border with Mauritania) are mostly merchants, traders and shopkeepers found everywhere in Saint Louis. [6]
[edit] Saint-Louis:World Heritage
Saint-Louis' characteristic colonial architecture along with its regular town plan, its location on an island at the mouth of the Senegal River and the system of quays, gives Saint-Louis the distinctive appearance and identity that have raised the Island to the rank of world heritage since 2000. The Island of Saint-Louis is inscribed on the World Heritage list on the basis of criteria ii and iv:
Criterion ii The historic town of Saint-Louis exhibits an important exchange of values and influences on the development of education and culture, architecture, craftsmanship, and services in a large part of West Africa.
Criterion iv The Island of Saint-Louis, a former capital of West Africa, is an outstanding example of a colonial city, characterized by its particular natural setting, and it illustrates the development of colonial government in this region. [2]
[edit] Education
Education is another important facet of Saint-Louis. Very influencing in terms of education during the colonial era, Saint Louis is nowadays a pole of excellence. It is home to the University Gaston Berger and The Military Academy Charles Ntchorere.
[edit] Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis
Senegal’s second university, the University Gaston Berger, which was created in 1990, offers studies organized in Formation and Research Unities in response to the needs in formation of the Senegalese nation. [7]
[edit] Prytanée Militaire of Saint-Louis
The Military Academy Charles Ntchorere, commonly known as the Prytanee Militaire of Saint Louis, was created in 1922. The school’s mission today is to provide pupils from various African countries not only with a secondary education, but also a moral formation on the principles of patriotism, honor and discipline. [8]
[edit] Flow of important men
Another important attribute of the town of Saint-Louis that needs to be mentioned is its flow of famous men. “In the course of its history, Saint Louis has given birth or received the calling of famous men such as El Hadj Oumar Tall, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, the father Daniel Brattier, Louis Faidherbe, Blaise Diagne, Jean Mermoz, the boxer Mbarick Fall aka Battling Siki, the soccer player El-Hadj Diouf and many others. [1]
[edit] Sister Cities
[edit] Works cited
- ^ a b c d e Saint Louis of Senegal.(2002). Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://www.sunugal.com/en/st-louis.html
- ^ a b c Saint Louis (Senegal) No956. (2000). Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/956
- ^ a b c Saint-Louis History. (2006). Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.saintlouisdusenegal.com/english/histoire20901.htm
- ^ Saint-Louis. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/S/SaintLou.asp
- ^ Saint Louis and the delta, between the river and the ocean. The parks and reserves. Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://www.au-senegal.com/decouvrir_en/parc_barbarie.htm
- ^ A Young and Varied Population.(2005). Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.au-senegal.com/decouvrir_en/pop.htm
- ^ Gaston Berger University. Saint Louis. (2005. Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://www.ugb.sn/accueil.htm
- ^ Mbengue, M. (2005). History and Presentation. Annuaire des anciens enfants de troupe. Recherche-Inscription-Modification. Retrieved March 18, 2006 from http://www.prytanee.com/new/
