Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint Louis (French: Saint-Louis) is named after Louis IX, a canonized 13th-century king of France.[4] Obliquely, the name also honored Louis XIV, the reigning king of France at the time of the island's settlement in 1659.[4] It was originally known as Saint Louis of the Fort (St-Louis-du-Fort) after its stronghold and to distinguish it from other places of the same name. The Langue de Barbarie takes its name from the French for "Barbary Tongue", after an old name for the land of the Berbers.

The local name Ndar or N'dar is Wolof for a kind of island[4] and has been borne by the island since before the French settlement. Ndar Tout or Toute is a Gallicized form of a Wolof name meaning "Little" or "Lesser Saint Louis".[5] The neighborhood of Guet Ndar takes its name from a Wolof word for "pasture".[6]

Langue de Barbarie

Saint-Louis is situated in northern Senegal, on the border with Mauritania, although the nearest border crossing is at Rosso, 100 km (62 mi) up the Senegal River.

The heart of the old colonial city is located on a narrow island a little more than 2 km (1.2 mi) long but only about 400 m (1,300 ft) wide. The island lies in the Senegal River. It is 25 km (16 mi) north of its mouth, but is only separated from the Atlantic Ocean to its west by the Langue de Barbarie, a 300 m (980 ft) wide sand spit. The Langue de Barbarie is the location of the seaside neighborhoods Ndar Toute and Guet Ndar. On the mainland, the east bank of the river is the site of Sor, an older settlement now considered a suburb of Saint-Louis. It is nearly surrounded by tidal marshes.

Three characteristics give Saint-Louis its distinctive geographic appearance: the Sahel, the marshes and the Langue de Barbarie.

Negresse of quality from the Island of Saint Louis in Senegal, accompanied by her slave, Illustration from Costumes civils de tous les peuples connus, Paris, 1788, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur.

A Wolof settlement at what is now known as Guet Ndar dates from around 1450 and was a meeting and departure point for Muslim pilgrims traveling to Mecca in Arabia.[6] Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders visited the area over the next two centuries but the first nearby colonial fortification was erected by the French in 1638 on Bocos Island, about 25 km (16 mi) away.[4]

Repeated flooding prompted the removal of the fort to the island known to locals as Ndar in 1659.[4] The island was uninhabited at the time,[16] supposedly because the local people believed it to be haunted by spirits.[4] The Diagne of Sor, the local leader, permitted French settlement on the island for annual payments of "three pieces of blue cloth, a measure of scarlet cloth, seven long iron bars, and 10 pints of eau de vie."[4]

French view of the fort at Saint-Louis island, from "L'Afrique ou histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des Africains", by René Claude Geoffroy de Villeneuve, 1814.

The fortification permitted its factory to command foreign trade along the Senegal River. Slaves, hides, beeswax, ambergris and, later, gum arabic were exported. During the Seven Years' War, British forces captured Senegal in 1758. In February 1779, French forces recaptured Saint-Louis. In the late 18th century, Saint-Louis had about 5,000 inhabitants, not counting an indeterminate number of slaves in transit.

Colonial Saint Louis c. 1900. Europeans and Africans on the Rue Lebon.

Between 1659 and 1779, nine chartered companies succeeded one another in administering Saint-Louis. As in Gorée, a Franco-African Creole, or Métis, merchant community characterized by the famous "signares", or bourgeois women entrepreneurs, grew up in Saint-Louis during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Métis were important to the economic, social, cultural and political life of the city. They created a distinctive urban culture characterized by public displays of elegance, refined entertainment and popular festivities. They controlled most of the up-country river trade and they financed the principal Catholic institutions. A Métis mayor was first designated by the Governor in 1778. Civic franchise was further consolidated in 1872, when Saint-Louis became a French "commune".

Wreckage of the Medusa: La Méduse was a French naval frigate that boasted 40 guns and fought in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Remarkably, the ship survived these maritime battles only to crash on a sandbank in 1816 during the reestablishment of the French colony after the British handover. A shortage of lifeboats sent sailors scrambling to build a raft. Only 10 of approximately 150 people who boarded the raft lived through this catastrophe. Shortly thereafter, Géricault drew his inspiration from the accounts of two survivors.

Louis Faidherbe, who became the Governor of the Colony of Senegal in 1854, contributed greatly to the development and modernization of Saint Louis. His large-scale projects included the building of bridges, provisioning of fresh drinking water, and the construction of an overland telegraph line to Dakar.[17] Saint-Louis became capital of the federation of French West African colonies in 1895, but relinquished this role to Dakar in 1902.

Faidherbe Bridge, the symbol of the city.

Saint-Louis's fortunes began to wane as those of Dakar waxed. Access to its port became increasingly awkward in the age of the steamship and the completion of the Dakar-Saint Louis railroad in 1885 meant that up-country trade effectively circumvented its port. Large French firms, many from the city of Bordeaux, took over the new commercial networks of the interior, marginalizing the Métis traders in the process. Saint-Louis nonetheless maintained its status as capital of the Colony of Senegal even after Dakar assumed the role of capital of the French West Africa federation. The colonial institutions set up in the city in the 19th century, such as the Muslim Tribunal and the School for Chiefs' Sons, were to play important roles in the history of French Africa. Though relatively small in size (population of 10,000 in 1826; 23,000 in 1914, and 39,000 in 1955) Saint-Louis dominated Senegalese politics throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, not least because of its numerous political parties and associations and its independent newspapers.

Following independence, when Dakar became sole capital of the country, Saint-Louis slipped into a state of lethargy. As its French population and military departed, many of the town's shops, offices and businesses closed.[18] This generated a loss of jobs and human potential, and less investment in the economic activities of Saint-Louis, thus causing its economic decline. For some people, however, Saint-Louis' decline was not just limited to its economy, but spread to all aspects of its life as the loss of its past status meant less recognition and lack of interest from the colony's officials and, after Senegal's independence, from the Senegalese government. When its most famous political son, the French-educated lawyer Lamine Guèye, died in 1968, the city lost its strongest proponent.

Today, rich in three centuries of history, in cultural background, geography, architecture, and other characteristics, Saint-Louis is a bridge between the savanna and the desert, the ocean and the river, tradition and modernity, Islam and Christianity, Europe and Africa.

Home to a society with a distinctive lifestyle, Saint-Louis has retained its unique identity. "No one comes without falling in love with the city," proudly say its people who consider Saint-Louis as the birthplace of Senegalese Teranga, the Wolof word for hospitability.[7]

Saint-Louis' economy is a third important, yet critical, facet of its identity. As is supported in the[7] article, Saint Louis has economically declined since the transfer of the Capital of French Western Africa to Dakar. This has caused the dispossession of Saint Louis of all its past economic attributes and is said to have "[...] reached its paroxysm in 1960 when the capital of the independent Senegal was transferred to Dakar". Saint-Louis, however, has remained an important tourist and trading center [19] and the city's economy, though not entirely recovered, is gradually reviving.

The city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 and cultural tourism has become an engine of growth. As a result, a process of gentrification has set in, with many historic buildings on the island being turned into restaurants and hotels.[3]

Pirogues, many painted with names of Sufi leaders, jam the Saint-Louis wharf. Today they are used for fishing, transport, and tourism.

Culture constitutes an important part of Saint-Louis' economy. The city preserves much of its 19th-century morphology, reminiscent of other cities of the "Creole Atlantic": Bahia, Cartagena, Havana and New Orleans. Thanks to its distinctive appearance, numerous sites of attraction and its international music festivals and cultural exhibitions, Saint-Louis attracts many tourists each year.

Saint-Louis remains the most characteristically French colonial destination in West Africa along with Gorée Island.

Museums

Colonial architecture lines the streets of the old city.

World War I Memorial

Saint-Louis' Research Center and Documentation Museum of Senegal offers interesting panoramas of Senegal's history and ethnic movements over the years, expositions of traditional clothes and musical instruments, etc.

Events and festivals

Saint Louis is famous for its urban culture. The heritage of the signares lives on in the city's many festivals and its cultivated sense of public display, and it is helping Saint-Louis emerge from decades of neglect. "Fanals", which are night-time processions of giant paper lanterns, take place at Christmas time.

The Saint-Louis Jazz Festival is the most important jazz festival in Africa. Jazz first became popular in the 1930s when records produced in Cuba were aired on the radio. After World War II, visiting U.S. GIs popularized jazz bands and by the 1950s local groups had adopted a "Cuban" sound. Another music festival, 1, 2, 3 musiques, exhibits various genres of music.

The Festival Métissons, held for the first time in 2010, is a grassroots music festival organized by local communities and small businesses. Every edition sports international, national and local musical talent.

The annual reggata, or pirogue race organized by teams of fishermen from Guet-Ndar, takes place on the "little branch" of the river, between Ndar Island and the Langue de Barbarie.

The Magal of the Niari Rakas, a yearly commemoration of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké's (the founder of Mouridism) two prayers in the Governor's Palace in 1895, is the city's largest religious gathering.[17]

Girls gather on a street in Saint-Louis, 2007.

Among interesting and attractive monuments and edifices are the Governor's Palace, the Gouvernance where are located the town's administrative offices, the Parc Faidherbe named for the French governor at the centre of town Louis Faidherbe, colonial-era hotels, the historic airport at Dakar-Bango on the mainland, the Faidherbe Bridge that connects the island to the Langue de Barbarie and the Gaol and Servatius bridges that connect the island to the continent.

Grande Mosquée

Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Muslim mosques.[22] There are also Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Louis du Sénégal (Catholic Church), Assemblies of God, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Among Saint-Louis' numerous natural sites are the National Park of the Langue de Barbarie, the National Park of the Birds of Djoudj, the Fauna Reserve of Gueumbeul, beaches like that of the Langue de Barbarie, the colonial waterworks at Makhana, the palace of Baron Roger at Richard-Toll, the Diama Dam, and various hunting lodges on the south side of the Senegal River.

The main tower at University Gaston Berger, 2007.

Education is another important facet of Saint-Louis. With a large influence over education in colonial times, Saint Louis is now a centre of educational excellence. It is home to the University Gaston Berger and The Military Academy Charles Ntchorere.

Saint Louis has been the birthplace or home of:

• El Hadj Malick Sy
• Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké
• Alfred-Amédée Dodds
• Jean-Baptiste Labat, Abbé David Boilat, Daniel Brattier, the fathers
• Michel Adanson, naturalist
• Louis Faidherbe
• Blaise Diagne, Lamine Guèye, politicians
• Mbarick Fall aka Battling Siki boxer
• El Hadji Diouf football player
• BK VEF Rīga center Bamba Fall
• the French photographer François-Edmond Fortier
• Ismaïla Sarr football player

Saint-Louis is twinned with:

• Lille, France (1978)
• Fez, Morocco (1979)
• Liège, Belgium (1980)
• Bologna, Italy (1991)
• St. Louis, United States (1994)

• Aïdara, Abdoul Hadir (2005), Saint-Louis du Sénégal: d'hier à aujourd'hui, Grandvaux, Brinon-sur-Sauldre.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint-Louis (Senegal).

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Saint-Louis.

• Senegal's decaying city of charm, Tidiane Sy, BBC News, 13 May 2005.
• saintlouisdusenegal.com: "Le portail touristique et culturel de Saint-Louis du Senegal". Saint-Louis news and culture portal.
• Saint-Louis du Sénégal, Ville de l'élégance et du raffinement, Radio France International, 2004.

Events in Saint-Louis, Senegal

• saintlouisjazz.com
• festivalmetissons.com