Dakar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Dakar (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Dhaka.

Dakar

Place de l'Indpendance

Coat of arms

City of Dakar, divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement

Dakar
Location within Senegal

144134N 172648WCoordinates:
144134N 172648W
Country
Senegal
Dakar
Rgion
Dakar
Dpartement
15th century
Settled
Communes
19[show]
d'arrondissement
Government
Khalifa Sall (2009)[1]
Mayor
(BSS/PS)
Regional president Macky Sall (since 2012)
Area
83 km2 (32 sq mi)
City
Elevation[2]
22 m (72 ft)
Population (2011 estimate)[3]
1,056,009
City
12,510/km2 (32,400/sq mi)
Density
2,452,656
Metro
4,484/km2 (11,610/sq mi)
Metro density
Coordinates:

Data here are for the administrative

Dakar rgion, which matches almost
exactly the limits of the metropolitan
area

Time zone
Website

GMT (UTC+0)
villededakar.org

Dakar (English pronunciation: /dkr, dkr/;[5][6] French: [da.ka])[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.

Contents

1 History
o 1.1 Early history
o 1.2 Recent history
2 Geography and climate
3 Administration
4 Notable places
5 Notable natives and residents
6 International relations
7 References
8 External links

History
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 Gore (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 Gore in the 17th century to service the
European trading factory with food and drinking water. Gore 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, mtis
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 Sri, "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 Gore 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 Gore Island, whose population had grown to
6,000 residents, proved ineffectual as a port. Traders from Gore 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 1888.

Dakar Entrept. ca. 1900

Gore, including Dakar, was recognised as a French commune in 1872. Dakar itself was split off
from Gore 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 19061923, linked Dakar to Bamako and consolidated the
city's position at the head of France's West African empire. In 1929, the commune of Gore
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 hygienewhich 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 Mdina, 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 Cambrne. 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 2325, 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 Lopold
Sdar Senghor tried to transform Dakar into the "Sub-Saharan African Athens" (lAthnes de
lAfrique 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 (Kppen climate
classification: BSh), with a short rainy season and a lengthy dry season. Dakars 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
2427 C (7581 F). Nights during this time of the year are comfortable, some 1720 C (63
68 F). However, between May and November the city becomes decidedly warmer with daily
highs reaching 2931 C (8488 F) and night lows a little bit above 2324 C (7375 F).
Notwithstanding this hotter season Dakars 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.
[hide]Climate data for Dakar, Senegal
Month

Jan

Feb

Mar Apr May

Jun

Dec

Year

Record
high C
(F)

37
(99)

40
40
39
37
39
40
40
42
40
43
39
(104) (104) (102) (99) (102) (104) (104) (108) (104) (109) (102)

43
(109)

25.3 26.3
Average
25
24.6 25
28.9
(77.5 (79.3
high C
(77) (76.3) (77)
(84)
)
)
(F)
Daily
mean
C (F)

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

30
30.1 30.4 30.4
29
26.5
27.6
(86) (86.2) (86.7) (86.7) (84) (79.7) (81.7)

22.6 23.4
22
21.7 22.2
26.5 27.4 27.4 27.8 28.1 26.4 23.6 24.93
(72.7 (74.1
(72) (71.1) (72)
(79.7) (81.3) (81.3) (82) (82.6) (79.5) (74.5) (76.9)
)
)

17.4 18.4 20.2

Average
17.4
17
23.1 24.5 24.6 24.4 24.3 22.5 19.6
(63.3 (65.1 (68.4
low C
(63.3) (63)
(73.6) (76.1) (76.3) (75.9) (75.7) (72.5) (67.3)
)
)
)
(F)

21.1
(70)

Record
low C
(F)

10
(50)

11
(52)

10
(50)

10
10
17
(50) (50) (63)

Average
2.1
1.3
0.0
rainfall
(0.083 (0.051
(0)
mm
)
)
(inches)
Average
rainy
days (

0.0
(0)

17
(63)

13
(55)

19
(66)

17
(63)

18
(64)

16
(61)

12
(54)

10.2 83.4 184.0 156.5 51.6

2.6
2.6
494.3
0.0
(0.402 (3.283 (7.244 (6.161 (2.031 (0.102 (0.102 (19.459
(0)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

24

69

75

76

79

79

78

77

79

81

79

74

66

76

1 mm)

Average
relative
humidit
y (%)

Mean
monthly
244.9 245.8 276.0 288.0 291.4 252.0 232.5 223.2 219.0 257.3 249.0 238.7 3,017.8
sunshin
e hours
Percent
possible
sunshin
e

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 20 C 20 C 21 C 22 C 25 C 27 C 28 C 28 C 28 C 27 C 24 C
(70 F) (68 F) (68 F) (70 F) (72 F) (77 F) (81 F) (82 F) (82 F) (82 F) (81 F) (75 F)

Administration

Market street in the working class Gueule Tape 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 Gore. The commune of
Gore, 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/Gore (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 Assemble 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-prfet 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/Gore, 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 Mdina
(136,697 inhabitants), in the arrondissement of Plateau/Gore. 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 le de Gore (1,034 inhabitants), in the
arrondissement of Plateau/Gore.
Dakar is one of the 14 rgions of Senegal. The Dakar rgion 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 rgions
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, Gore 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 Lopold Sdar 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

Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, footballer

Akon, R&B singer (real name - Alioune Thiam)
Baaba Maal, singer and guitarist
Boris Diaw, basketball player, San Antonio Spurs
Bouna Coundoul, footballer, Achna FC
Cheikh Samb, basketball player, former Los Angeles Clippers
DeSagana Diop, basketball player, Charlotte Bobcats
lage Diouf, singer, songwriter and percussionist (real name - El Hadji Fall Diouf)
Hamady Ndiaye, basketball player Washington Wizards
Ibrahim Ba, former footballer
Ismal L, singer-songwriter
Issa, R&B singer
Macoumba Kandji, footballer, Colorado Rapids
Mamadou N'Diaye, former basketball player for Auburn University and the Toronto
Raptors
Mame Biram Diouf, footballer, Stoke City
Marc Livremont, former rugby player and former head coach of the France national
rugby union team
Mbaye Diagne, United Nations military observer and hero during the Rwandan genocide
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, foreign correspondent for NPR News
Orchestra Baobab
Ousmane Barro, basketball player, Marquette University
Papa Bouba Diop, former footballer
Pape Pat Diouf, football player
Papiss Cisse, footballer, Newcastle United
Patrice Evra, footballer, Juventus
Patrick Vieira, former footballer
Sgolne Royal, French politician born in Dakar
Tacko Fall, high school basketball player
Thione Seck, singer and songwriter
Wasis Diop, musician
Youssou N'Dour, singer and percussionist