Dakar

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For other uses, see Dakar (disambiguation).

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Not to be confused with Dhaka.
Dakar
Place de l'Indépendance
Place de l'Indépendance
Coat of arms of Dakar
Coat of arms
City of Dakar, divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement
City of Dakar, divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement
Dakar is located in Senegal
Dakar
Dakar
Location within Senegal
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country  Senegal
Région Dakar
Département Dakar
Settled 15th century
Communes d'arrondissement
19
  • Cambérène
  • Parcelles Assaines
  • Pattie d'Oies
  • Hann Bel-Air
  • Dieuppeul Derklé
  • HLM
  • Biscuiterie
  • Grand Dakar
  • Plateau
  • Médina
  • Fass-Gueule Tapée-Colobane
  • Fann Point-E
  • Mermoz-Sacré-Coeur
  • Ouakam
  • Yoff
  • Ngor
  • Liberté
  • Grand-Yoff
  • Cape Verde Peninsula
Government
 • Mayor Khalifa Sall (2009)[1] (BSS/PS)
 • Regional president Macky Sall (since 2012)
Area
 • City 83 km2 (32 sq mi)
Elevation[2] 22 m (72 ft)
Population (2011 estimate)[3]
 • City 1,056,009
 • Density 12,510/km2 (32,400/sq mi)
 • Metro 2,452,656
 • Metro density 4,484/km2 (11,610/sq mi)
  Data here are for the administrative Dakar région, which matches almost exactly the limits of the metropolitan area
Time zone GMT (UTC+0)
Website villededakar.org

Dakar (English pronunciation: /dɑːˈkɑːr, ˈdækər/;[5][6] French: [da.kaʁ])[7] is the capital and largest city of Senegal.

It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city in the Old World and on the African mainland. Its position, on the western edge of Africa, is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major regional port.

According to 31 December 2005 official estimates, the city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 2.45 million people.[8]

Dakar is a major administrative center, home to the Senegal National Assembly and the Presidential Palace.

History

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See also: Timeline of Dakar

Early history

The Cap-Vert peninsula was settled, no later than the 15th century, by the Lebou people, an aquacultural ethnic group related to the neighboring Wolof and Sereer. The original villages: Ouakam, Ngor, Yoff and Hann, still constitute distinctively Lebou neighborhoods of the city today. In 1444, the Portuguese reached the Bay of Dakar, initially as slave-raiders, but were repulsed by the natives on the shores.[9][10][11] Peaceful contact was finally opened in 1456 by Diogo Gomes, and the bay was subsequently referred to as the "Angra de Bezeguiche" (after the name of the local ruler).[12] The bay of "Bezeguiche" would serve as a critical stop for the Portuguese India Armadas of the early 16th century, where large fleets would routinely put in, both on their outward and return journeys from India, to repair, collect fresh water from the rivulets and wells along the Cap-Vert shore and trade for provisions with the local people for their remaining voyage.[12] (It was famously during one of these stops, in 1501, where the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci began to construct his "New World" hypothesis about America.[13])

The Portuguese eventually founded a settlement on the island of Gorée (then known as the island of Bezeguiche or Palma), which by 1536 they began to use as a base for the export of slaves. The mainland of Cap-Vert, however, was under control of the Jolof Empire, as part of the western province of Cayor which seceded from Jolof in its own right in 1549. A new Lebou village, called Ndakaaru, was established directly across from Gorée in the 17th century to service the European trading factory with food and drinking water. Gorée was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, which gave it its present name (spelled Goeree, after Goeree-Overflakkee in the Netherlands). The island was to switch hands between the Portuguese and Dutch several more times before falling to the English under Admiral Robert Holmes on January 23, 1664, and finally to the French in 1677. Though under continuous French administration since, métis families, descended from Dutch and French traders and African wives, dominated the slave trade. The infamous "House of Slaves" was built here in 1776.

In 1795 the Lebou of Cape Verde revolted against Cayor rule. A new theocratic state, subsequently called the "Lebou Republic" by the French, was established under the leadership of the Diop, a Muslim clerical family originally from Koki in Cayor. The capital of the republic was established at Ndakaaru. In 1857 the French established a military post at Ndakaaru (which they called "Dakar") and annexed the Lebou Republic, though its institutions continued to function nominally. The Serigne (also spelled Sëriñ, "Lord") of Ndakaaru is still recognized as the traditional political authority of the Lebou by the Senegalese State today.

The slave trade was abolished by France in February 1794. However, Napoleon reinstated it in May 1802, then finally abolished it permanently in March 1815. Despite Napoleon's abolition, a clandestine slave trade continued at Gorée until 1848, when it was abolished throughout all French territories. To replace trade in slaves, the French promoted peanut cultivation on the mainland. As the peanut trade boomed, tiny Gorée Island, whose population had grown to 6,000 residents, proved ineffectual as a port. Traders from Gorée decided to move to the mainland and a "factory" with warehouses was established in Rufisque in 1840.

A public water well, 1899.

Large public expenditure for infrastructure was allocated by the colonial authorities to Dakar's development. The port facilities were improved with jetties, a telegraph line was established along the coast to Saint-Louis and the Dakar-Saint-Louis railway was completed in 1885, at which point the city became an important base for the conquest of the western Sudan.

Dakar in 1850
Dakar in 1850.
Dakar in 1888
Dakar in 1888.
Dakar Entrepôt. ca. 1900

Gorée, including Dakar, was recognised as a French commune in 1872. Dakar itself was split off from Gorée as a separate commune in 1887. The citizens of the city elected their own mayor and municipal council and helped send an elected representative to the National Assembly in Paris. Dakar replaced Saint-Louis as the capital of French West Africa in 1902. A second major railroad, the Dakar-Niger built from 1906–1923, linked Dakar to Bamako and consolidated the city's position at the head of France's West African empire. In 1929, the commune of Gorée Island, now with only a few hundred inhabitants, was merged into Dakar.

Urbanization during the colonial period was marked by forms of racial and social segregation—often expressed in terms of health and hygiene—which continue to structure the city today. Following a plague epidemic in 1914, the authorities forced most of the African population out of old neighborhoods, or "Plateau", and into a new quarter, called Médina, separated from it by a "sanitary cordon". As first occupants of the land, the Lebou inhabitants of the city successfully resisted this expropriation. They were supported by Blaise Diagne, the first African to be elected Deputy to the National Assembly. Nonetheless, the Plateau thereafter became an administrative, commercial, and residential district increasingly reserved for Europeans and served as model for similar exclusionary administrative enclaves in French Africa's other colonial capitals (Bamako, Conakry, Abidjan, Brazzaville). Meanwhile, the Layene Sufi order, established by Seydina Mouhammadou Limamou Laye, was thriving among the Lebou in Yoff and in a new village called Cambérène. Since independence, urbanization has sprawled eastward past Pikine, a commuter suburb whose population (2001 est. 1,200,000) is greater than that of Dakar proper, to Rufisque, creating a conurbation of almost 3 million (over a quarter of the national population).

In its colonial heyday Dakar was one of the major cities of the French Empire, comparable to Hanoi or Beirut. French trading firms established branch offices there and industrial investments (mills, breweries, refineries, canneries) were attracted by its port and rail facilities. It was also strategically important to France, which maintained an important naval base and coaling station in its harbor and which integrated it into its earliest air force and airmail circuits, most notably with the legendary Mermoz airfield (no longer extant).

Recent history

During the Battle of Dakar, which took place off the coast of Dakar on September 23–25, 1940, the British navy attempted to rally the colonial administration in Dakar to the Allied cause and detach it from Vichy. In November 1944 West African conscripts of the French army mutinied against poor conditions at the Thiaroye camp, on the outskirts of the city. The mutiny was seen as an indictment of the colonial system and constituted a watershed for the nationalist movement.

Dakar was the capital of the short-lived Mali Federation from 1959 to 1960, after which it became the capital of Senegal. The poet, philosopher and first President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor tried to transform Dakar into the "Sub-Saharan African Athens" (l’Athènes de l’Afrique subsaharienne),[14] as his vision was for it.

Dakar is a major financial center, home to a dozen national and regional banks (including the BCEAO which manages the unified West African CFA currency), and to numerous international organizations, NGOs and international research centers. Dakar has a large Lebanese community (concentrated in the import-export sector) that dates to the 1920s, a community of Moroccan business people, as well as Mauritanian, Cape Verdean, and Guinean communities. The city is home to as many as 20,000 French expatriates. France still maintains an air force base at Yoff and the French fleet is serviced in Dakar's port.

Beginning 1978 and until 2007, Dakar was frequently the ending point of the Dakar Rally. The rally brought worldwide attention to the poverty of Senegal and Dakar.[citation needed]

Geography and climate

View of Dakar from Earth Orbit

The Dakarian climate is generally warm. Dakar has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh), with a short rainy season and a lengthy dry season. Dakar's rainy season lasts from July to October while the dry season covers the remaining eight months. The city sees approximately 495 mm (19.5 in) of precipitation per year.

Dakar between December and May is usually pleasantly warm with daily temperatures around 24–27 °C (75–81 °F). Nights during this time of the year are comfortable, some 17–20 °C (63–68 °F). However, between May and November the city becomes decidedly warmer with daily highs reaching 29–31 °C (84–88 °F) and night lows a little bit above 23–24 °C (73–75 °F). Notwithstanding this hotter season Dakar's weather is far from being as hot as that of African cities inland, such as Niamey and N'Djamena, where temperatures hover above 36 °C (97 °F) for much of the year. Dakar is cooled year-round by sea breezes.

Climate data for Dakar, Senegal
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 37
(99)		 40
(104)		 40
(104)		 39
(102)		 37
(99)		 39
(102)		 40
(104)		 40
(104)		 42
(108)		 40
(104)		 43
(109)		 39
(102)		 43
(109)
Average high °C (°F) 25
(77)		 24.6
(76.3)		 25
(77)		 25.3
(77.5)		 26.3
(79.3)		 28.9
(84)		 30
(86)		 30.1
(86.2)		 30.4
(86.7)		 30.4
(86.7)		 29
(84)		 26.5
(79.7)		 27.6
(81.7)
Daily mean °C (°F) 22
(72)		 21.7
(71.1)		 22.2
(72)		 22.6
(72.7)		 23.4
(74.1)		 26.5
(79.7)		 27.4
(81.3)		 27.4
(81.3)		 27.8
(82)		 28.1
(82.6)		 26.4
(79.5)		 23.6
(74.5)		 24.93
(76.9)
Average low °C (°F) 17.4
(63.3)		 17
(63)		 17.4
(63.3)		 18.4
(65.1)		 20.2
(68.4)		 23.1
(73.6)		 24.5
(76.1)		 24.6
(76.3)		 24.4
(75.9)		 24.3
(75.7)		 22.5
(72.5)		 19.6
(67.3)		 21.1
(70)
Record low °C (°F) 11
(52)		 10
(50)		 10
(50)		 10
(50)		 17
(63)		 17
(63)		 13
(55)		 19
(66)		 17
(63)		 18
(64)		 16
(61)		 12
(54)		 10
(50)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 2.1
(0.083)		 1.3
(0.051)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 10.2
(0.402)		 83.4
(3.283)		 184
(7.24)		 156.5
(6.161)		 51.6
(2.031)		 2.6
(0.102)		 2.6
(0.102)		 495.1
(19.492)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1 mm) 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 9 8 2 0 0 25
Average relative humidity (%) 69 75 76 79 79 78 77 79 81 79 74 66 76
Mean monthly sunshine hours 244.9 245.8 276 288 291.4 252 232.5 223.2 219 257.3 249 238.7 3,017.8
Percent possible sunshine 70 74 74 74 73 65 58 57 60 70 73 69 68.1
Source #1: Spiegel Online Wetter[15]
Source #2: Climate-Data.org for mean temperatures,[16] Voodoo Skies for records[17]
Dakar mean sea temperature[18]
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
21 °C (70 °F) 20 °C (68 °F) 20 °C (68 °F) 21 °C (70 °F) 22 °C (72 °F) 25 °C (77 °F) 27 °C (81 °F) 28 °C (82 °F) 28 °C (82 °F) 28 °C (82 °F) 27 °C (81 °F) 24 °C (75 °F)

Administration

Market street in the working class Gueule Tapée quarter
Typical souvenirs in the street market

The city of Dakar is a commune, (also sometimes known as commune de ville), one of the 67 communes of Senegal. The commune of Dakar was created by the French colonial administration on June 17, 1887 by detaching it from the commune of Gorée. The commune of Gorée, created in 1872, was itself one of the oldest Western-style municipalities in Africa (along with the municipalities of Algeria and South Africa).

The commune of Dakar has been in continuous existence since 1887, being preserved by the new state of Senegal after independence in 1960, although its limits have varied considerably over time. The limits of the commune of Dakar have been unchanged since 1983. The commune of Dakar is ruled by a democratically elected municipal council (conseil municipal) serving five years, and a mayor elected by the municipal council. There have been 20 mayors in Dakar since 1887. The first black mayor was Blaise Diagne, mayor of Dakar from 1924 to 1934. The longest serving mayor was Mamadou Diop, mayor for 18 years between 1984 and 2002.

The commune of Dakar is also a department, one of the 34 departments of Senegal. This situation is quite similar to Paris, which is both a commune and a department. However, contrary to French departments, departments in Senegal have no political power (no departmental assembly), and are merely local administrative structures of the central state, in charge of carrying out some administrative services as well as controlling the activities of the communes within the department.

The department of Dakar is divided into four arrondissements: Almadies, Grand Dakar, Parcelles Assainies (which literally means "drained lots"; this is the most populous arrondissement of Dakar), and Plateau/Gorée (downtown Dakar). These arrondissements are quite different from the arrondissements of Paris, being merely local administrative structures of the central state, like the Senegalese departments, and are thus more comparable to French departmental arrondissements.

Residential street in the upscale Mermoz quarter
The Assemblée nationale on the Plateau, the heart of old Dakar

In 1996 a massive reform of the administrative and political divisions of Senegal was voted by the Parliament of Senegal. The commune of Dakar, whose population approached 1 million inhabitants, was deemed too large and too populated to be properly managed by a central municipality, and thus on August 30, 1996 Dakar was divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement. These communes d'arrondissement were given extensive powers, and are very much like regular communes. They have more powers than the arrondissements of Paris, and are more akin to the London boroughs. The commune of Dakar was maintained above these 19 communes d'arrondissement, and it coordinates the activities of the communes d'arrondissement, much as Greater London coordinates the activities of the London boroughs. The 19 communes d'arrondissement belong to either of the four arrondissements of Dakar, and the sous-préfet of each arrondissement is in charge of controlling the activities of the communes d'arrondissement in his arrondissement.

The commune d'arrondissement of Dakar-Plateau (34,626 inhabitants), in the arrondissement of Plateau/Gorée, is the historical heart of the city, and most ministries and public administrations are located there. The densest and most populous commune d'arrondissement is Médina (136,697 inhabitants), in the arrondissement of Plateau/Gorée. The commune d'arrondissement of Yoff (55,995 inhabitants), in the arrondissement of Almadies, is the largest one, while the smallest one is the commune d'arrondissement of Île de Gorée (1,034 inhabitants), in the arrondissement of Plateau/Gorée.

Dakar is one of the 14 régions of Senegal. The Dakar région encompasses the city of Dakar and all its suburbs along the Cape Verde Peninsula. Its territory is thus roughly the same as the territory of the metropolitan area of Dakar. Since the administrative reforms of 1996, the régions of Senegal, which until then were merely local administrative structures of the central state, have been turned into full-fledged political units, with democratically elected regional councils, and regional presidents. They were given extensive powers, and manage economic development, transportation, or environmental protection issues at the regional level, thus coordinating the actions of the communes below them.

Abdoulaye Wade was re-elected in 2007.

Notable places

The Dakar Railway Station
The Dakar Cathedral
African Renaissance Monument

Attractions in Dakar include major markets, Dakar Grand Mosque (built in 1964), Dakar Cathedral, Gorée Island, the IFAN Museum of West African culture, the newly completed African Renaissance Monument is the tallest statue in Africa, clifftop walks and beaches, and Parc de Hann, aka the Senegal Zoo.

The town serves as a port and is home to the Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport. It is also the terminus of the Dakar-Niger railroad line.

Dakar used to be the finishing point of the Dakar Rally and is a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities. Cheikh Anta Diop University also known as the University of Dakar, was established in 1957.

Notable natives and residents

International relations

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Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Senegal

Dakar is twinned with:

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[23]

References

  1. ↑ L'opposant Khalifa Sall élu maire de Dakar. AFP. 2009-04-19
  2. ↑ climatemps.com
  3. ↑ UN Data. Projection based on 2002 census.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. /dəˈkɑːr, dɑːˈkɑːr, ˈdækər/
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. /dɑːˈkɑːr, ˈdækər/
  7. ↑ Dakar pronunciation: How to pronounce Dakar in French, Spanish, Polish
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Dinis Dias doubled Cap-Vert in 1444, but it is unclear if he sailed into the bay itself. Álvaro Fernandes anchored at the uninhabited island of Goree and lured and captured two natives off a Lebou fishing canoe before being driven off. The large slaving fleet of Lançarote de Freitas anchored in the bay, but their attempts to reach the mainland shore were fended off by missile fire and took no captives. The subsequent fleets of Estêvão Afonso (1446) and Valarte (1447) stopped briefly at Goree, but were also fended off the shores and took no captives. In the aftermath, Prince Henry the Navigator suspended all Portuguese expeditions beyond Cap-Vert for nearly a decade. There are no more recorded attempts until contact was made in 1456. (As reported in the 1453 chronicle of Gomes Eanes de Zurara)
  10. ↑ B.W. Diffie and G.D. Winius (1977) Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415-1580 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp.83-85
  11. ↑ A. Teixeira da Mota (1946) "A descoberta da Guiné", Boletim cultural da Guiné Portuguesa, Vol. 1. No. 2 (Apr), p. 273-326.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 A. Teixeira da Mota (1968) "Ilha de Santiago e Angra de Bezeguiche, escalas da carreira da India", Do tempo e da historia, Lisbon, v.3, pp.141-49.
  13. ↑ Vespucci's letter from Bezeguiche is reproduced in F.A. de Varnhagen (1865) Amerigo Vespucci, pp.78-82.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ L. Bigon (2009) A History of Urban Planning in Two West African Colonial Capitals: Residential Segregation in British Lagos and French Dakar, 1850-1930 Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.

External links

  • Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
  • (French) Dakar official website

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