Introduction
Photograph:Boats float along the waterfront of Dakar, Senegal.
* Boats float along the waterfront of Dakar, Senegal.
Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is one of the chief seaports along the West African coast. It lies on the southeastern side of Cape Verde Peninsula, close to Africa's most westerly point. The city's name comes from dakhar, a name for the tamarind tree in the Wolof language.
Places of interest
Dakar has fine museums of archaeology and ethnic studies. Nearby Gorée, on Gorée Island, has sea and history museums. The University of Dakar, founded in 1957, is Senegal's main institution of higher learning.
A road cut into the cliff around Cape Manuel offers fine views of the harbor and islands. Dakar also has good beaches.
Economy
Dakar is a leading industrial and service center of tropical Africa. Its industries include peanut-oil refining, fish canning, flour milling, brewing, truck assembly, and petroleum refining. Yoff Airport, north of the city, is an important stopping point for flights between Europe and South America.
Dakar has long been a major port partly because of its harbor, which is one of the best in West Africa. It is protected by limestone cliffs and by a system of man-made barriers called breakwaters.
History
European settlement of the area began in 1617 when the Dutch occupied Gorée. The French captured the island in 1677 but did not occupy Dakar until 1857. West Africa's first railway, opened in 1885, connected Dakar with Saint-Louis to the north. Dakar soon grew into an important center for peanut cultivation. In 1904 it replaced Saint-Louis as the federal capital of the group of colonies known as French West Africa.
During World War I Dakar's port grew in importance. By the 1930s Dakar had become the region's chief peanut-shipping port. The city grew rapidly after World War II. In 1960 Dakar became the capital of the independent Republic of Senegal. Population (1994 estimate), 1,869,000.
