Gorée 1256117 225390362 2008-07-13T12:42:27Z Parkwells 5326371 Add cite to lead {{otheruses2|Goree}} <!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:Goree Island-from staffan on flickr.jpg|right|frame| View of Gorée from the north end of the island. The ferry and beach are visible in the distance. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/staffan_martikainen/59806959/ photo from Staffan on Flickr.com]]] --> {{coor title dms|14|40|01|N|17|23|54|W|region:CL_type:city}} {{Infobox World Heritage Site | WHS = Island of Gorée | Image = [[Image:Goree1.jpg|250px|Aerial view of Gorée]] | State Party = {{SEN}} | Type = Cultural | Criteria = vi | ID = 26 | Region = [[List of World Heritage Sites in Africa|Africa]] | Year = 1978 | Session = 2nd | Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/26 }} '''Île de Gorée''' (i.e. "Gorée Island") (pronounced {{IPA|/goʀe/}}) is one of the 19 ''communes d'arrondissement'' (i.e. "[[commune (subnational entity)|commune]] of [[arrondissement]]") of the city of [[Dakar]], [[Senegal]]. It is a 0.182 km² (45 [[acre]]s) island located a mere 1 km. at sea from the main harbor of Dakar ({{coor dms|14|40|0|N|17|24|0|W|scale:40000}}). Its population as of [[31 January]] [[2005]] official estimates is 1,056 inhabitants, giving a density of 5,802 inh. per km² (15,028 inh. per sq. mile), which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 ''communes d'arrondissement'' of Dakar. Gorée is famous as a destination for people interested in the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. In fact, however, relatively few slaves were processed or transported from there. The more important centers for the slave trade from Senegal were north, at [[Saint-Louis, Senegal]] or to the south in [[Gambia]], at the mouths of major rivers for trade.<ref>[http://www.h-net.org/~africa/threads/goree.html "Goree and the Atlantic Slave Trade", Philip Curtin, History Net, accessed 9 Jul 2008</ref><ref>''Les Guides Bleus: Afrique de l'Ouest''(1958 ed.), p. 123</ref> ==History and slave trade== {{Refimprove|date=July 2008}} Gorée is a small island 900 m. in length and 350 m. in width sheltered by the Cape Vert Peninsula. Now part of the city of Dakar, it was a minor port and site of European settlement along the coast. Being almost devoid of drinking water, the island was not settled prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Portuguese were the first to establish a presence on Gorée (c. 1450), building a small stone chapel there and using it as a cemetery. Gorée is known as the location of the [[House of Slaves]] ([[French language|French]]: ''Maison des esclaves''), built by an Afro-French [[Métis]] family c. 1780 - 1784. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is used as a [[tourist]] destination to dramatize the horrors of the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world. Well known in the West because of this museum, Gorée was actually relatively unimportant in the slave trade. The claim that the "house of slaves" was a slave-shipping point was refuted as long ago as 1958 by [[Raymond Mauny]], shortly afterward the first professor of African history at the [[Sorbonne]].<ref>''Les Guides Bleus: Afrique de l'Ouest''(1958 ed.), p. 123</ref> Probably no more than a few hundred slaves a year were ever embarked here for transportation to the Americas, and those not on large slave ships but as incidental passengers on ships carrying other cargos. After the decline of the slave trade from Senegal in the 1770s and 1780s, the town became an important port for the shipment of peanuts, peanut oil, gum arabic, ivory, and other products of the "legitimate" trade. It was probably for support of this trade that the "Maison des Esclaves" was built.<ref>[http://www.h-net.org/~africa/threads/goree.html "Goree and the Atlantic Slave Trade", Philip Curtin, History Net, accessed 9 Jul 2008</ref> The island of Gorée was one of the first places in [[Africa]] to be settled by [[European ethnic groups|European]]s, the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] setting foot on the island in 1444. Later it was captured by the [[United Netherlands]] in 1588, then the Portuguese again, again the Dutch — who named it after the Dutch island of [[Goeree-Overflakkee|Goeree]], the British under [[Robert Holmes (admiral)|Robert Holmes]] in 1664, and then the [[France|French]] in 1677. The island remained continuously French until 1960, when Senegal was granted independence. There were brief periods of English occupation during the various wars fought by France and England between 1677 and 1815. Gorée was principally a trading post, administratively attached to [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint Louis]], capital of the Colony of Senegal. Apart from slaves, beeswax, hides and grain were also traded. The population of the island fluctuated according to circumstances, from a few hundred free Africans and Creoles to about 1,500. There would have been few European residents at any one time. In the 18th and 19th century, Gorée was home to a Franco-African Creole, or ''[[Métis]]'', community of merchants with links to similar communities in Saint Louis and south to the Gambia and across the Atlantic to France's colonies in the Americas. Métis women, called ''signares'' from the Portuguese ''senhora'', were especially important to the city’s business life. The signares owned ships and property and commanded male clerks. They were also famous for cultivating fashion and entertainment. One such ''signare'', Anne Rossignol, lived in Saint-Domingue (the modern [[Haiti]]), in the 1780s before the [[Haitian Revolution]]. [[Image:L'Isle de Gore Schley 1772.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Schley]], Jacobus van der, 1715-1779. Island of Gorée and its fortifications]] In February 1794 during the [[French Revolution]], France was the first nation in the world to abolish slavery (with the exception of a few precedents set by some US states such as [[Massachusetts]]). The slave trade from Senegal stopped. However, in May 1802 [[Napoleon]] reestablished slavery after intense lobbying from sugar [[plantation]] owners of the Caribbean ''[[département]]s'' of France. They found support for their position from the wife of Napoleon, [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]], daughter of a rich plantation owner from [[Martinique]]. In March 1815, during his political comeback known as the [[Hundred Days]], Napoleon definitively abolished the slave trade to build relations with Great Britain (Scotland had never recognized slavery and England finally abolished the slave trade in 1807). This time abolition continued. As the trade in slaves declined in the late eighteenth century, Gorée converted to legitimate commerce. The tiny city and port were ill situated for the shipment of industrial quantities of peanuts, which began arriving in bulk from the continent. Consequently, its merchants established a presence directly on the mainland, first in [[Rufisque]] (1840) and then in [[Dakar]] (1857). Many of the established families started to leave the island. Civic franchise for the citizens of Gorée was institutionalized in 1872, when it became a French “commune” with an elected mayor and a municipal council. [[Blaise Diagne]], the first African deputy elected to the French National Assembly (served 1914 to 1934), was born on Gorée. From a peak of about 4,500 in 1845, the population fell to 1,500 in 1904. In 1940 Gorée was annexed to the municipality of Dakar. Gorée is connected to the mainland by regular 30-minute ferry service---pedestrians only; there are no cars on the island. It is Senegal’s premier tourist site and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It now serves mostly as a memorial to the slave trade. The built-up urban core of the island is geared to tourism, and many of the historic commercial and residential buildings have been turned into restaurants and hotels. ==Administration== [[Image:Map of Goree.svg|thumb|250px|Map of Gorée]] With the foundation of Dakar in 1857, Gorée gradually lost its importance. In 1872, the French colonial authorities created the two communes of [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]] and Gorée, the first western-style municipalities in West Africa, with the same status as any [[commune in France]]. Dakar, on the mainland, was part of the commune of Gorée, whose administration was located on the island. However, as early as 1887, Dakar was detached from the commune of Gorée and was turned into a commune in its own right. Thus, the commune of Gorée became limited to its tiny island. In 1891, Gorée still had 2,100 inhabitants, while Dakar only had 8,737 inhabitants. However, by 1926 the population of Gorée had declined to only 700 inhabitants, while the population of Dakar had increased to 33,679 inhabitants. Thus, in 1929 the commune of Gorée was merged with Dakar. The commune of Gorée disappeared, and Gorée was now only a small island of the commune of 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, deemed too large and too populated to be properly managed by a central municipality, was divided into 19 ''communes d'arrondissement'' to which extensive powers were given. The commune of Dakar was maintained above these 19 ''communes d'arrondissement''. It coordinates the activities of the ''communes d'arrondissement'', much as [[Greater London]] coordinates the activities of the [[London borough]]s. Thus, in 1996 the commune of Gorée was resurrected, although it is now only a ''commune d'arrondissement'' (but in fact with powers quite similar to a commune). The new ''commune d'arrondissement'' of Gorée, which is officially known in French as the ''Commune d'Arrondissement de l'île de Gorée'', took possession of the old ''mairie'' (town hall) in the center of the island. This had been used as the ''mairie'' of the former commune of Gorée between 1872 and 1929. The ''commune d'arrondissement'' of Gorée is ruled by a municipal council (''conseil municipal'') democratically elected every 5 years, and by a mayor elected by members of the municipal council. The current mayor of Gorée is [[Augustin Senghor]], elected in 2002. ==Island historical sites== Other attractions on the island include three [[museum]]s, one dedicated to [[women]], one to the [[history of Senegal]] and one to the [[sea]]. The seventeenth century [[Gorée Police Station]], [[Gorée Castle]] and a small [[beach]] are also of interest to tourists. The island is a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]]. Archaeological research on the historical occupation of Gorée has been recently undertaken by Dr. Ibrahima Thiaw (Associate Professor of Archaeology at the [[Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire]] (IFAN); and the [[University Cheikh Anta Diop]] of Dakar, Senegal); Dr. Susan Keech McIntosh (Professor of Archaeology, [[Rice University]], Houston, Texas); and Raina Croff (PhD candidate at [[Yale University]], New Haven, Connecticut). Dr. Shawn Murray ([[University of Wisconsin-Madison]]) also contributed to the archaeological research at Gorée through a study of local and introduced trees and shrubs, which aids in identifying the ancient plant remains found in the excavations. <ref>[http://goree.rice.edu/ "Goree Archaeology"], Rice University, accessed 8 Jul 2009</ref> [[Image:Ile goree1.jpg|frame]] ==Notable residents== * Father of French rapper [[Booba]] (born Elie Yaffa). In his song "Garde la Peche" he mentions the island, saying "Gorée c'est ma terre" (Gorée is my land/hometown). * Djembe musician [[Latyr Sy]]. ==References== {{Reflist}} *Camara, Abdoulaye & Joseph Roger de Benoist. Histoire de Gorée. Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris (2003). ===External links=== * [http://webworld.unesco.org/goree/ UNESCO page on Gorée] * [http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=goree&m=tags Photos of Goree on Flickr] * [http://www.mairiedegoree.org/ Marie de Gorée (FR)] * [http://www.sunmt.org/bushsenegal.html George W. Bush's Visit] * [http://goree.rice.edu/ Archaeological Research on Goree] * [http://www.h-net.org/~africa/threads/goree.html Noted historian discussing the actual role of the slave trade in Gorée's history] {{World Heritage Sites in Senegal}} [[Category:Islands of Africa]] [[Category:Geography of Senegal]] [[Category:World Heritage Sites in Senegal]] [[Category:Former Dutch colonies]] [[Category:French West Africa]] [[Category:Dakar]] [[da:Gorée]] [[de:Gorée]] [[es:Isla de Gorée]] [[eo:Gorée]] [[fr:Île de Gorée]] [[id:Goree]] [[it:Gorée]] [[he:גורה]] [[sw:Gorée]] [[lt:Gorė sala]] [[nl:Gorée]] [[ja:ゴレ島]] [[no:Gorée]] [[pl:Gorée]] [[pt:Gorée]] [[fi:Gorée]] [[sv:Gorée]] [[wo:Beer]]