Senegal is a country full of contradictions. Wide open to modernity and the outside world, Senegal, nevertheless, remains deeply rooted in its tradition based on
Diom (honor),
Teranga (hospitality), and respect for the elderly. From the great Leopold Sedar Senghor to Mariame BA, Senegal has produced some of the best African artists and still plays a key role in West Africa's arts, culture and politics, despite its small size and population. Senegalese music, particularly the
Mbalax, has become well known internationally over the last couple of decades thanks to artists like
Youssou N'dour and Baba Maal, and Senegalese food is considered among the best in Africa.
The country gained independence from France in 1960. Ever since, it has been held up as one of Africa's model democracies, with an established multi-party system and a tradition of civilian rule. Although Senegal is the most industrialized country in French West Africa after Côte d'Ivoire - poverty is still widespread, however, and unemployment high. The areas around the cities of Dakar and St Louis, colonized in the 1840s, were the earliest parts of the formal French empire in sub-Saharan Africa. Dakar, the capital of French West Africa from the early 1900s and the capital city of Senegal, is a bustling modern city and a major cruise ships port with good restaurants and shops.
Tourism has been a growing industry in Senegal for well over a decade. In 2000, it was ranked as the country’s second largest industry after fishing and before groundnuts and phosphates. The sector has created economic growth particularly in the Petite Côte, Senegal’s principal tourist region where a resort originally built around a fishing village, Saly, has become an international tourist destination.
Senegal has a variety of first-rate natural assets that help make it an attractive destination: six national parks and four reserves, a variety of birds, some wildlife, and access to big game fishing and scuba diving. But it is its peoples, their music, culture and handicrafts that make Senegal what it is: a great, diverse and very colorful country.
GeographySenegal is bordered by Guinea Republic and Guinea-Bissau to the south, Mali to the east and Mauritania to the north, and encloses the confederated state of The Gambia. To the west lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most land is less than 100m (330ft) above sea level, except for the Fouta Djallon foothills in the southeast and the Bambouk Mountains on the Mali border. On the coast between Dakar and St Louis is a strip of shifting dunes. South of Dakar there are shallow estuaries along the coastline, which is fringed by palm trees. In the northern part of the country, south of the Senegal Basin, lies the arid Fouta Ferlo, a hot dry Sahelian plain with little vegetation.
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