Senegal: from kingdoms to the gateway of the Atlantic

Before it was a nation, Senegal was a mosaic of kingdoms. From the 14th to the 16th century, the Jolof confederated the Wolof states — Cayor, Baol, Walo — before their emancipation. To the south and east shone the legacy of the early-Islamised Takrur and the influence of the Mali empires.

From the 15th century, the coast became an Atlantic crossroads: Portuguese, then Dutch, French and British trading posts vied for Gorée and the river mouth. Saint-Louis, founded in 1659, became West Africa's first colonial city and a Creole hub, where the signares held a singular role.

This position as a gateway between Africa and the Atlantic — made of exchange, but also of the pain of the slave trade — shaped an open Senegal, a crossroads of languages, brotherhoods and cultures, of which Dakar is today one of the continent's great creative hubs.