I had the opportunity to visit île de Gorée or Gorée island again. The last time I was there was actually November 2017, so it was nice to be back. Believe it or not, but I haven’t actually spent much time by the sea or in the swimming pool. Therefore, I decided to team up with Fadieye and visit île de Gorée. In my other blogpost about Gorée Island, I share a lot of pictures with less context. Today, it will be different! Let’s get into this beautiful, historic island 🙂
île de Gorée
Gorée island is a small island near the coast of Dakar. The island was used during the slave trade and was very popular from the 15th to 19th century. Today, île de Gorée is one of Senegal’s most popular destination for sightseeing and since 1978 one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. I personally love visiting Gorée. The history of the island and the fact that so many people come to learn about the history of the island. What is beautiful is that the island is so colorful! For example, buildings and doors have different colors, there are so many different flowers and plants and cool animals like pelicans. Gorée exists of small alleyways and streets and the architecture is definitely 19th-century colonial. If you like Gorée, you’ll definitely fall in love with Saint-Louis.
Maison des esclaves
La Maison des Esclaves, or, the House of Slaves is an important highlight of île de Gorée. Slaves used to be held captive here during the slave trade. According to UNESCO, over 20 million slaves were shipped off from here to other parts of the world including the Caribbean and the USA. In the House of Slaves, you can look at the different rooms where slaves (men, women and children) were kept. Furthermore, you can look through the door of no return, with a view on the Atlantic ocean. Additionally, a lot of people don’t think Gorée shipped off so many slaves. Therefore, it is important to visit Gorée and get a tour from a local guide. Also, you should remember that Gorée served as a place of storage. Meaning slaves were kept there for a short term and those rooms were over-populated.
a day at Gorée
Fadieye and I went to île de Gorée around noon. I was so excited to go to Gorée, Fadieye actually thought that it was my first time lol. It was not, but we went anyways. As you could see in my other post about Gorée island, I really walked around the island to take pictures. I really love walking around Gorée island and capturing the many colors of the island.
If you have any questions about the island of Gorée, you can send an email to info@senegalesetwisted.com. You can watch the les île de Gorée video below. Thank you for reading and watching.
