Dakar

Why Dakar works

Dakar occupies the westernmost tip of the African mainland, a peninsula city whose fishing culture is impossible to miss: at Soumbedioune and other harbours, hundreds of hand-painted wooden pirogues, each hull a canvas of geometric colour and Quranic inscriptions, land the day's catch in a scene that has drawn photographers for generations. A short ferry ride offshore, Goree Island preserves pastel-coloured colonial buildings and the Maison des Esclaves, a former slave-holding house whose "Door of No Return" makes it, alongside Ghana's Cape Coast, one of the Atlantic slave trade's most visited memorial sites -- the island's car-free, sandy lanes make for an otherwise contemplative half-day away from the mainland's bustle. Dakar's Monument de la Renaissance Africaine, a soaring bronze statue taller than the Statue of Liberty, divides opinion but offers sweeping city views from its viewing platform for those who climb it. The city's real draw for many is its music: Dakar is a birthplace of mbalax, the percussion-driven genre popularised globally by Youssou N'Dour, and live venues across the city host it most nights of the week, spilling onto pavements dense with tailors' stalls selling vividly patterned boubou fabric. The Sandaga and Kermel markets are the places to shop for that fabric, alongside amber jewellery and leather goods, best visited with patience and an appetite for negotiation.

Trip Snapshot

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