Ode to the Ile

May 28, 2008

The Ile de Goree, or Goree Island, is quite simply the most beautiful area I have yet encountered so far during my stay in Dakar. You get there via ferry, known here as a chaloupe, much as New Yorkers access Staten Island. Given its geographical location on Africa’s western tip, it is predominantly associated with the idea of the Atlantic slave trade (although according to Wikipedia “probably no more than a few hundred slaves a year were ever embarked here for transportation to the Americas”), and there is a museum called the Maison des Esclaves built around 1776 which attempts to do justice to the history of slavery (see an artist’s rendition of the property). Some are convinced that the House of Slaves is a hoax, as from an architectural point of view the house is one of the finest homes on the island and would almost certainly have been a trader’s house, emphatically not a place where slaves would have been kept. (This reminds me of my expensive visit to see the Jane Austen house in Bath – which, as it turns out, is not really where Jane lived at all: the museum is in a Georgian townhouse just a few doors down from where Jane actually lived for a few weeks. However, disappointed as I was, the use of period costumes etc. did give a nice flavor of the Regency era).

Be all that as it may, the tour of the Maison des Esclaves includes a lecture on how the slaves were sorted and separated (much as they were on Ellis Island), and how the sickly and infirm were ushered out one particular door of no return (it led directly to the ocean). Hoax or not, this is one of the most important pilgrimages any visitor to Dakar can and should make, if only to increase our awareness of man’s inhumanity to man; in fact, Goree was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

The island itself is simply gorgeous, with colorfully painted houses, a small beach near the ferry slip, palm trees, a big basaltic hill with an artist’s colony and a lovely view. As you climb the hill, you will see all sorts of local arts and crafts, from paintings to jewelry, sold by the Baye Fall; at the top you will enjoy a glorious view while hearing members of this breakaway religious group playing the djembe. A number of artists live and work in underground studios which are fascinating to visit; for my informal tour, I climbed down a shaky wooden ladder (guess that wraparound skirt was not such a good choice after all!) which led to a veritable warren of small spaces holding different kinds of art, including paintings of an unusual golden hue which I was told involved use of the juice of the kola nut in the pigment.

Back when I was studying in the beautiful medieval city of Freiburg, there was a big event every summer, usually in June, called the Fest der Innenhoefe. Courtyards of some of the most beautiful and historic buildings such as the Haus zum Walfisch and the Historisches Kaufhaus, normally closed to the public, were opened. Concerts ranging from baroque and renaissance to jazz and world music were on offer, plus there was wine and stars and moonlight – with all this (not to mention the cobblestones!) few things could be more romantic.

Imagine my delight when on Goree, half a world away, I discovered that there was also a courtyard festival (this time not limited to the month of June!), a time when owners of the most beautiful private homes and villas on the island agreed to open their courtyards to the public. Here, the additional attraction is not music but art; artists are given the opportunity to display their work. For visitors, it is hard to decide whether to marvel at the art or gape at the view: needless to say, these island homes tend to have breathtaking views of the sea, beautifully framed by bougainvillea and palms.

The Goree Institute, currently directed by Breyten Breytenbach, the South African anti-apartheid activist, writer and artist, owns one of these gorgeous buildings and rents it out for conferences, company retreats, etc. to earn money for its activities, which include “promoting electoral reform, peace building, community development and cultural development in Africa,” so do come if you can! The island is also home to the last all-girls’ elite boarding school in Senegal. Named after the renowned Senegalese author Mariama Ba, it accepts only the top 25 students in the nation, which seems like a schoolteacher’s fantasy come true.

There is a lovely small beach, many little oceanfront gargottes serving typical Senegalese fare as well as more upscale restaurants, and life on the island moves on a much more comfortable pace than in the capital, so I suspect that this is one ferry ride I will be taking quite often.

About the Author : Tamara-Diana Braunstein brings us her stories from Senegal every week. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a restless wanderer who earned an MA from the University of Freiburg and has worked in a youth hostel in the French Alps, a law firm in Montreal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in university press publishing. At the moment her home base is Dakar, Senegal, where she is supposed to be teaching but is doing far more learning, as you will see by reading her blog at www.senegalschoolmarm.blogspot.com