| I am currently in San Francisco and plan to be for summer 1998. |
I have not been to Senegal since December 1985, but while there, I stayed at the Miramar (2 star) Hotel in Dakar. The telephone operators & desk clerks at the hotel do speak English.
25 rue Felix Faure, Dakar
Phone: (221) 23 55 98, or (221) 23 30 97
Fax: (221) 23 35 05
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Senegal (from MicroSoft's Encarta) return to top of page
Senegal (sènî-gôl), officially Republic of Senegal, republic (1991 est. pop. 7,952,000), 76,124 sq mi (197,161 sq km), W Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (W), Mauritania (N), Mali (E) and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau (S). The nation of GAMBIA is an enclave in the southwest. Major cities include DAKAR (the capital), Thiès, and Kaolack. Most of the country is low-lying and covered with savanna, which becomes semidesert in the SAHEL region of the north. The 250 -mi (400 -km) coastline is sandy north of Dakar and swampy or muddy to the south. Senegal is primarily agricultural, but industry is expanding. By far the most important cash crop is peanuts, which supplies 75% of farm exports; groundnut processing (oil and oilcake) is the largest industry. The main food crops are millet, sugarcane, rice, and corn. Large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats are raised. Manufactures include cement, chemicals, textiles, fertilizers, and the processing of fish taken by the sizable coastal fleet. The principal minerals extracted are phosphate rock, limestone, and iron ore; deposits of petroleum and natural gas have been found offshore. The chief ethnic groups are the Wolof, Fulani, Serer, Tukolor, Soninke, Malinke, and Diola. About 90% of the people are Muslim, about 5% are Christian, and the rest follow traditional beliefs. French is the official language.History
In the middle of the 1st millennium A.D. the region was settled by migrating Wolof and Serer peoples, followed (9th cent.) by the Tukolor, whose state of Tekrur dominated the Senegal R. valley until the 14th cent. The Portuguese arrived (1444-45) and established trading stations; they were displaced by the Dutch and French in the 17th cent. French influence was extended into the interior after 1697, but control of bases in Senegal alternated between France and Britain from the SEVEN YEARS WAR (1756-63) until 1815, when they were finally returned to France. Senegal became a French colony in 1895, remaining part of FRENCH WEST AFRICA until it was made an autonomous republic within the FRENCH COMMUNITY in 1958. Full independence was achieved in 1960, with Léopold SENGHOR as president. By the mid-1960s Senghor had consolidated his power by removing Prime Minister Mamadou Dia and creating a one-party state. A period of civil unrest followed, marked by demonstrations, strikes, and a worsening economic situation resulting from the drought in the Sahel region. In 1978 Senegal again held multiparty elections, which were won by Senghor's Senegalese Socialist party. After his retirement (1980), Senghor was succeeded (1981) as president by Prime Min. Abdou Diouf, who was reelected in 1988 and 1993 amid allegations of fraud. Since the early 1980s there has been sporadic fighting with separatists in the southern province of Casamance, which is largely separated from Senegal by Gambia. In 1981 Senegal joined GAMBIA in a confederation known as Senegambia, but Senegal ended (1989) the association when Gambia refused to move toward closer union. The nation's relations with neighboring Mauritania deteriorated during the late 1980s over the treatment the citizens of each received in the other country; tensions were aggravated by Senegalese opposition to Mauritania's oppression of its black minority.The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1991 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. return to top of page
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last updated 1 May 1998