Marche' HLM African Fabric Market Dakar

HLM African Fabric Market

Marche' HLM African Fabric Market Dakar

On Dakar’s streets, you will see people in handsome-tailored ensembles cut from colorful fabrics. But almost none of the city’s ready-to-wear shops sell traditional clothing. To get and outfit first you must head to the Marche' HLM Dakar's African fabric market.

Marche' HLM, " HLM is pronounced " ash-el-em and stands for Habitations a Loyer Modere, Meaning  affordable Rent Housing." Opened in 1976, this African fabric market has become one of the largest  African markets in West Africa. In recent years, it has becames a favorite destination for Senegales . They can find cloth at the best possible prices.

Marche HLM ," smaller market than Sandaga African 

HLM African Fabric Market

Market,"is  geared primarily towards  African fabric vendors, Marche HLM is slightly less crazy than Sandaga. You will find an endless selection of African fabric that you can buy and then get custom tailored into traditional or modern outfit of you choice. Senegalese fabric vendors usually won't sell less than 3 to 6 meters of fabric. A reasonable price is 1000CFA/meter.

HLM African Fabric Market

You have your choice from hundreds of rolls of wax-dyed bazin (dyed fabrics beaten to a shine with wooden clubs), vibrant prints, embroidered cloth, lace and silk. You can get matching shoes, bags and jewellery at the same place.

Festival of Jazz - 20th Annual - St .Louis Senegal - May 2012

St. Louis Jazz Festival Senegal

Festival of Jazz  - 20th Annual  - St. Louis - Senegal May  24th - 28th,  2012

St. Louis Jazz Festival 2012 will be showcasing Jazz, blues, gospel and related music. More than an event, the Festival International de Jazz de Saint-Louis has become a must in the cultural and musical landscape of Senegal,a major African Festival, but which is always something unexpected!Past musicians who took part in the Saint Louis Jazz Festival include Herbie Hancock, Randy Weston, and Joe Zainul. The African Festival is also an excellent platform for new jazz groups to perform infront of an international audience. At least 30 new groups perform each year. Enjoy some of the world’s best jazz, exotic food, art and crafts, culture exhibits and also some African drum-beat dancing. 

St. Louis Jazz Festival Senegal

The proposed programming for the 20th Edition Saint Louis Jazz Festival will be electric, bringing together big names of jazz from all  generations.

Featured Artist 2012

• Kate Winter Sextet

Will keep you updated on confirmed artist for event

Featured Artist in Past

• Mike Del Ferro  
• Malouma Duo 
• Enjhambre Quartet
• Chico Correa 
• Sonja Kandels
• Michaela Rabitsch
• Kenny Barron Trio
• Jean-Pierre Como 
• Mina Agossi



St. Louis Jazz Festival Senegal

• Ablaye Cissoko

Art Show
During this African Jazz festival of St. Louis, all the artistic expressions are invited.There will also be a Art show featuring artist for all over Senegal and the children of St. Louis.

Official Website: Festival of Jazz 2012

Saint-Louis- Senegal -UNESCO World Heritage Site

Saint Louis - Senegal

Saint-Louis- Senegal -UNESCO World Heritage Site

Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until 1902. From 1902 until its independence from France the capital was Dakar. From 1920 to 1957 it also served as the capital of the neighboring colony of Mauritania. 

Geography

Saint Louis - Senegal Map

The heart of the old colonial city is located on a narrow island (just over 2 km long and about 400 m wide) in the Senegal River, 25 km from its mouth. At this point the river is separated from the Atlantic Ocean to the west by a narrow sand spit, the Langue de Barbarie (300 m wide), which has also been urbanized (the seaside neighborhoods of Ndar Tout and Guet Ndar). Yet a third part of the city, Sor, lies on the eastern mainland and is nearly surrounded by tidal marshes. Saint-Louis is situated on the Mauritanian border, though the border crossing is at Rosso, 100 km upstream.Three characteristics give Saint-Louis its distinctive geographic appearance: the Sahel, the marshes and the Langue de Barbarie.

Saint-Louis only has two seasons, the rainy season from June to October, characterized by heat, humidity and storms, and the dry season from November to May, characterized by cool ocean breeze and dust from the Harmattan winds. Saint- Louis unfortunately is known for its floods. 

Saint Louis - Senegal

History

Saint-Louis was established in 1659 by French traders on an uninhabited island called Ndar.It was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. Saint Louis became a big trading post for the Senegal River. Slaves, hides, beeswax, ambergris and, later, gum  were exported between 1659 and 1779. As in Gorée, a Franco-African Creole, or Métis, were important to the economic, social, cultural and political life of the city. They created a distinctive urban culture characterized by public displays of elegance, refined entertainment and popular festivities.  A Métis mayor was first designated by the Governor in 1778. 

Saint Louis - Senegal  Faidherbe Bridge

Louis Faidherbe, who became the Governor of the Colony of Senegal in 1854. His large-scale projects included the building of bridges, provisioning of fresh drinking water, and the construction of an overland telegraph line to Dakar. Saint-Louis became capital of the federation of French West African colonies in 1895, but relinquished this role to Dakar in 1902. Faidherbe Bridge is the the symbol of the city.

Saint Louis - Senegal

Tourism

Following independence, when Dakar became sole capital of the country, Saint-Louis slipped into a state decline.Saint-Louis, however, has remained an important tourist and trading center and the city's economy, though not entirely recovered, is gradually reviving.Today, rich in three centuries of history, in cultural background, geography, architecture and other characteristics, Saint-Louis is a bridge between the savanna and the desert, the ocean and the river, tradition and modernity, Islam and Christianity, Europe and Africa.

Saint-Louis' colonial architecture along with its location on an island at the mouth of the Senegal River and the system of quays.This gives Saint-Louis the distinctive appearance and identity that has made it since 2000 a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Home to a society with a distinctive lifestyle, Saint-Louis has retained its unique identity. “No one comes without falling in love with the city," proudly say its people who consider Saint-Louis as the birthplace of Senegalese Teranga, the Wolof word for hospitality.

Saint-Louis remains the most characteristically French colonial destination in West Africa along with Gorée Island.

Attractions and Events

Saint Louis - Senegal

• Saint-Louis’ Research Center
• Governor’s Palace
• Historic airport at Dakar-Bango 
• Grande Mosquée
• Faidherbe Bridge 
• Servatius Bridges
• Fanals, which are night-time processions of giant paper lanterns, take place at Christmas time.
• The Saint-Louis Jazz Festival
• The Festival Métissons
• Annual Reggata
• The Magal of the Niari Rakas

Saint Louis - Senegal

The People

The Wolofs and Lebous who are the main inhabitants of Saint-Louis are mostly fishermen that live in fishing communities like Guet-Ndar on the Langue de Barbarie. The Fulas live in the inland and practice pastoral farming. The Maures who are migrants from Mauritania (Saint-Louis Senegal is less than six miles south of the border with Mauritania) are mostly merchants, traders and shopkeepers found everywhere in Saint Louis.

Hiring a Private Tour Guide

Private Tour Guide

Why you must hire a Private Tour Guide
I am a strong advocate of hiring a local private tour guide when touring. I know some of you are thinking ..."I paid all this money for this Lonely Planet/Frommers guide book, why do I need a human guide?"


When I first started traveling I felt the same way. Why spend the money on a private tour guide when I am an educated woman who can figure things out on my own.. It's crazy that money I save ,I can spend now in the gift shops. Who wants to follow some silly know-it-all guide waving a a umbrella around?

Private Tour Guide

When touring a site there is much more to see and experience then what it in the guide books. I found myself ease dropping in on other guided tours. I was dismayed to hear tidbits not found it my books. The last time I visited Versailles I hired a private tour guide. It was money well spent,even though I had been before,at which time I paid for one of those audioguided tours. An audio tour or audio guide provides a recorded spoken commentary, normally through a handheld device. I remember being very stressed out during my self guided tour because of the crowds and fiddling with the headset.

Private Tour Guide

Having my own private guide was like night and day. My guide Antonio not only knew how to navigate the crowds (it was even more crowded that day)  he also was able to answer any questions I had at the moment. What a relief not having to try and find the answers in a guide book. He was also able to make the tour more interesting  because of his endless knowledge on the history of Versailles. He could gage my reactions and go in depth on the the things that I was interested in and skim over what was boring to me. I was so happy with Antonio I also hired him to show me the Louvre.


As far as the cost , yes it was more than an audio tour but there was a group of us that chipped in, so it helped with the cost. Remember, you get what you pay for.There was other ways he saved us money. We where going to take a private car to the Louvre not being comfortable with the train system. He told us to meet him at  certain metro stop  he would show us the way.  It was so easy we felt silly afterwards  thinking about the money we would of wasted on a car.


Still not convinced...here are my reasons for hiring a private tour guide.

• Their Brains..what they know

Private Tour Guide

 You see a building and want to know more about it. A guide book will give the facts in black and white. A good guide will tell you anecdotes about the building and its history in color.  You see the building in a new light, your guide has given it a soul. They will tell you facts that you will find interesting that you would not of even known to ask. I find that every place has its tantalizing secrets that the local tourism board doesn't like to advertise but your guide will tell you.

• Saves you time

 You will not waste your time reading plaques or trying to decider maps . Your guide will know where he/she is going and will guide you around in a efficient manor. While doing this they make sure that you don't miss out on anything of importance. You should never feel rushed because the guide knows how to get you the information you need in a timely manner.

• Helps with other aspects of your journey

Private Tour Guide

A good guide will question you on your trip. They will want to know what you have seen and what you plan on seeing. Partly yes , to see if they can maybe pick up more business guiding you again. You know that as much enthusiasm as they have for guiding it is not a hobby. For many guides this is the way they support their family. Even if you don't hire them again they are usually more than willing to give you free advice on your itinerary. Most guides will tell you about the best ways to exchange money. Where its not safe to venture on your own. They will give suggestions for dining, shopping and entertainment. Remember that sometimes the guides do make commission on these tips. I found though that they usually don't steer you wrong because their reputation is also on the line. They also realize that word of month is how the get a huge share of clients.


You spent a lot of money and time 

to get to your destination. While you do not need a  private guide 24/7, but just  for a couple of hours a day. You will find that hiring a private guide will greatly increase the value of your trip. Finding a good guide can be tricky. I think the best way is word of mouth. Ask around, do your research, get referrals. After all that has been said... some of the best guides I had... I just picked up along the way.

Lodge des Collines de Niassam -Palmarin / Sine-Saloum

Lodge des Collines de Niassam -Senegal

Lodge des Collines de Niassam
Only four hours from Dakar, this is an eco-resort in the delta of the Saloum river .Only 13 individually designed rooms on an ideal site. Wake up in the morning in the arms of a powerful baobab. Breakfast will be served with a smile. Contemplate the golds and carmines of dawn from your private terrace, fulfilled and content. A beautiful day has started.

The Library
At the Lodge we multiply the opportunities to 

Lodge des Collines de Niassam -Senegal

encounter Africa.The library can offer you a selection of African literature: African writers, explorers’ stories, cultural studies ……And also novels, detective stories, strip cartoons and children’s books.

The Restaurant

You will be treated with fresh basic products with local flavors: Bissap, the flower of Africa, the baobab fruit known as “monkey bread” or tamarind fruit.The sheer choice of the day’s fishing catch means we can offer fresh fish to taste marinated and accompanied by a cucumber and tomato sorbet, or simply grilled with a sauce of creative flavours. You’ll also love the village duck simmered with cashew fruit honey or zebu in a spicy marinade. Ending with a ginger sorbet or the more classical grapefruit or lime sorbet.

Lodge des Collines de Niassam-Senegal

The Pool
It’s up to you : cool down in the swimming pool while tasting one of our cocktails or , if you prefer to swim in the lagoon – a natural and beautiful spot. For those of you with more energy, a dip in the ocean is a half-hour walk away.

Accommodations.

Lodge des Collines de Niassam-Senegal

You have your choice from four different types.Guests can relive a childhood dream, sleeping in one of the tree houses set in a majestic baobab tree; built over 3 levels,.In one of the stilted water lodges. A stylish mud lodges in the grounds with their wooden and straw roofs, or finally Berber style in a tent.

Contact
In Sénégal : Lodge des Collines de Niassam
Palmarin Ngallou, BP 08 JOAL - Sénégal

Lodge des Collines de Niassam-Senegal

Phone:
In Sénégal
(00221) 77 639 06 39

 In France
0033 6 24 70 75 99

Email :resa@niassam.com

Website :  niassam.com

Palmarin Nature Reserve - Senegal

Palmarin Reserve - Senegal

Palmarin Nature Reserve - Senegal

Another one of the best places to visit in Senegal’s southern region is the . Palmarin Nature Reserve is located at the southern tip of the Petie Cote above the Sine-Saloum Delta. It is close to the border with The Gambia. Visitors to Palmarin can enjoy the area’s beaches, go on river cruises through the delta,

The majority of the area’s residents live in one of five villages, from north to south Ngallo, Ngueth, Gounamane, Diakhanor and Djiffer. The dominant industries in the area are traditional fishing and tourism. Other smaller industries include salt, oyster and clam harvesting. The dominant ethnic group in the area is Sereer, speaking a distinct Soloum area dialect. French and Wolof are secondary languages also commonly spoken.

Palmarin Reserve - Senegal

Palmarin Nature Reserve’s 10,430 hectares of pristine coastal environment includes a combination of Atlantic seaboard, shallow inter-coastal mangrove channels, and expansive low-level salt flats. Wildlife in the reserve is diverse and plentiful from the elusive hyena, mongoose and monkeys to the broad spectrum of permanent & migratory birds that pass through the region.

Palmarin Reserve - Senegal

Bird Watching - The region of Senegambia is a bird watcher’s dream, hosting over 600 species of migratory and resident avifauna. Due to the unique convergence of coastal, estuary and forest habitat, Palmarin Nature Reserve provides an ideal opportunity to view many of these species in a single locale.

One way of getting around Palmarin is via a horse driven cart or Charret. Charrets make accessing Le Reserve de Palmarin, the local villages and even the beaches an easy task. At the same time it lets visitors experience travel on a local level and a pace that lets you take in all your surroundings. Tours are organized on request and accompanied by an experienced guide knowledgeable on the local environment and culture.

Accommodations

• Djidjack, Palmarin Gounoumane, ☎ (221) 33 949 96 19 (campalmar@orange.sn),
• Lodge de Palmarin, Palmarin Diakhanor, ☎ (221) 33 957 12 56 (tpa@sentoo.sn)
• La Pointe de Sangomar, ☎ (221) 77 536 44 25.  
• La Tulip Noire, Palmarin Diakhanor, ☎ (221) 77 636 70 01. 
• Lodge des Collines de Niassam, ☎ (221) 77 639 06 39 (resa@niassam.com),



Palmarin Reserve - Senegal




• Yokam, Palmarin Gounoumane, ☎ (221) 77 567 01 13. 

Visit page for other Senegal Destinations

Senegals New culture and tourism minister Youssou Ndour. What can he do to promote tourism?

House of Slaves - Goree Island Senegal

House of Slaves - Goree Island Senegal 

House of Slaves - Goree Island

House of Slaves and its Door of No Return is a museum and memorial to the Atlantic Slave Trade on tiny Goree Island, 3 km off the coast of the city of Dakar, Senegal.It is said to memorialise the final exit point of slaves from Africa. Historians differ on how many, if any African slaves were actually held in this building, as well as the relative importance of Goree Island as a point on the Atlantic Slave Trade,but visitors from Africa, Europe and the Americas, along with world leaders, continue to make it an important place to remember the human toll of African slavery.

Door of no Return - Goree Isand

Its museum, opened in 1962 and curated until his death in 2009 by Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, who was a tireless advocate of both the memorial and the belief in that slaves were held in the building in great numbers and from here transported directly to the Americas. Eventually he becoming curator of the Museum, Ndiaye has claimed that more than a million slaves passed through the doors of the house. This belief has made the house both a tourist attraction, and the site for dozens of state visits by world leaders to Senegal.

Statue Des Esclaves - Goree Isand

Since the 1980s, academics have downplayed the role that Goree played in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Ndiaye and other Senegalese have always maintained that the site is more than a memorial and is an actual historic site in the transport of Africans to French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese colonies of the Americas.

Built around 1776, the building was the home in the early 19th century to one of a class wealthy colonial Senegalese Métis woman trader Anna Colas Pépin. Researchers argue that while the houseowner may have sold small numbers of slaves and kept a few domestic slaves, the actual point of departure was 300m away at a fort on the beach. The house has been restored since the 1970s.

Slave ship

Academic accounts, such as the 1969 statistical work of historian Philip D. Curtin, argue that exports from Goree began around 1670 and continued until about 1810, at no time more than 200 to 300 a year in important years and none at all in others. Curtin's 1969 accounting of slave trade statistics records that between 1711 and 1810 180,000 enslaved Africans were transported from the French posts in Senegambia, most being transported from Saint-Louis, Senegal and James Fort in modern Gambia.

Even those who argue Goree was never important in the slave trade view the island as an important memorial to a trade that was carried on in greater scale from ports in modern Ghana and Benin.


Visit the Page for the Woman's Museum on Goree Island

Visit page for other Senegal Destinations

Senegals New culture and tourism minister Youssou Ndour. What can he do to promote tourism?

Goree Island - Senegal

Goree Island

Goree Island 

Île de Gorée is one of the 19 communes d'arrondissement of the city of Dakar,Senegal. It is a 0.182 square kilometres (45 acres) island located 2 kilometres (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) at sea from the main harbor of Dakar. 

Goree Island

Its population as  of 2005 of was estimated at 1,056 inhabitants. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 communes d'arrondissement of Dakar.Gorée is famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade and the slaves that were processed or transported from there. The more important centers for the slave trade from Senegal were north, at Saint-Louis, Senegal, or to the south in the Gambia, at the mouths of major rivers for trade.

Goree Isand

Gorée is a small island 900 metres/3,000 feet in length and 350 metres/1,165 feet in width sheltered by the Cape Vert Peninsula. Now part of the city of Dakar, it was a minor port and site of European settlement along the coast. Being almost devoid of drinking water, the island was not settled before the arrival of Europeans. ThePortuguese were the first to establish a presence on Gorée ( circa 1450 CE/AD ), where they built a small stone chapel and used land as a cemetery.Gorée is known as the location of the House of Slaves, built by an Afro-French Métis family about 

House Of Slaves

1780–1784. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is now used as a tourist destination to show the horrors of the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world. Gorée was relatively unimportant in the slave trade. The claim that the "house of slaves" was a slave-shipping point was refuted in 1959 by Raymond Mauny, who shortly afterward was appointed the first professor of African history at the Sorbonne.

Catholic Church St. Charles Barrome

The island of Gorée was one of the first places in Africa to be settled by Europeans, as the Portuguese settled on the island in 1444. It was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, then the Portuguese again, and again the Dutch. They named it after the Dutch island of Goeree, before the British took it over under Robert Holmesin 1664.After the French gained control in 1677, the island remained continuously French until 1960. There were brief periods of British occupation during the various wars fought by France and Britain. In 1960 Senegal was granted independence. The island was notably taken and occupied by the British between 1758 and 1763 following theCapture of Gorée and wider Capture of Senegal during the Seven Years War before being returned to France at the Treaty of Paris.

Statue Des Esclaves - Goree Island

Civic franchise for the citizens of Gorée was institutionalized in 1872, when it became a French “commune” with an elected mayor and a municipal council. Blaise Diagne, the first African deputy elected to the French National Assembly (served 1914 to 1934), was born on Gorée. From a peak of about 4,500 in 1845, the population fell to 1,500 in 1904. In 1940 Gorée was annexed to the municipality of Dakar.

Ferry Goree Isand

Gorée is connected to the mainland by regular 30-minute ferry service, for pedestrians only; there are no cars on the island. Senegal’s premier tourist site, the island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It now serves mostly as a memorial to the slave trade. Many of the historic commercial and residential buildings have been turned into restaurants and hotels to support the tourist traffic.


Visit the Page for the Woman's Museum on Goree Island

Official site of the mayor of Gorée