Visiting Goree Island

Just outside of Dakar is one of Senegal’s gems, and a must see destination. The small colonial island is known for its colorful architecture, history, small shops and cafes. This photo above shows the island’s harbor, which is the arrival point for all visitors.

In the hundreds of years that people have been visiting Goree, not much has changed in terms of transportation. Goree is only accessible by boat, and the island has no motorized vehicles, so be prepared to walk everywhere. This photo shows the inside of the ferry, which was fairly modern. There are multiple daily ferries so you won’t have a problem coming and going as you please.

Once you step foot on the island, you’ll feel a world away from Dakar and most of west Africa. The colorful colonial buildings and narrow alleys decorated with lamp posts and flowers make this one of the most beautiful places in Senegal.

Goree island is one of the most popular places to visit in Senegal. When you walk the streets here you’ll definitely see lots of other tourists, and sometimes its hard to remember that people actually live here. These two photos show different homes of locals in some of the quieter parts of the island. And of course by quieter I simply mean a ten minute walk from the harbor area.

It’s not just the houses that are colorful, a few vendors sell colorful souvenirs and textiles. There are a number of nice bed and breakfast style hotels here, and plenty of seafood restaurants all on a small strip along the harbor. I wish I had taken photos of them, but I only captured this pelican. He had no fear of people, so I assume he was well fed and learned to hang out by the restaurants.

Photographed above is the Goree museum. I feel I do this sometimes during my travel and always regret it. At the time I didn’t feel like going inside and preferred to stay outside. Since the outside was impressive, I imagine they must have done an equally good job with artifacts, history lessons, and other details of the island. What was I thinking?

I was at least smart enough to visit the Slave House. I read conflicting reports from various sources about the extent of slavery that took place on the island. While all agree there was definitely slave trading here, the extent of it is what is debatable. Goree is often described as a former slave island, giving the impression that its use was primarily to hold and ship slaves to the new world. Other sources say that is not true at all, and nearby regions of Africa were responsible for sending tens of thousands of slaves to the new world while Goree played a minor role. Everyone does agree that the slaves who were in Goree stayed at this house above. The slave house is open to visitors, and is sort of a memorial and museum today. The photo below shows the dark stone hallways that were a nightmare to anyone unlucky enough to be chained to the walls here hundreds of years ago.

Although by now I’ve visited over a dozen memorials and historic areas regarding the slave trade, I can never get over how societies could have been so evil. The slave house was pretty small, but gave some great information. The photo above shows the slave traders selling off people to be sent to the new world. Certain ethnic groups would go out and catch slaves every spring, and then drive them to the coast to be sold to Europeans. The photo below shows where the slaves were sent by population to the rest of the world.

My final two pictures will show the main citizens of Goree. I believe this when I say that there could be more cats than people living on this island. It’s hard to walk a block without seeing a cat or ten. The vast majority looked young and healthy like these two young cats above. A few looked skinny and diseased, or like this one below who has a gross and stuffy nose. As someone who spent most of my childhood suffering in a similar manner, all I can say is I understand!