Tour de la ville

I got to explore the city of Dakar a bit today! One of our program leaders took me and the one other American student who is currently here on a city tour, showing us some popular tour destinations, mosques and beach spots.

Monument de la Renaissance 

The following massive statue that is only half-shown in the picture below was huge project constructed in 2010 as a tribute to African Renaissance. It’s controversial for a number of reasons, including the millions of dollars that was invested in it, the portrayal of the woman in the statue that isn’t quite in accordance with Muslim values, and some of the political implications it has. However, it’s big and beautiful, and the 200 stairs we walked up to the top were totally worth it for the breeze and the view.

Mosquée de la Divinité

This gorgeous mosque was built in 1997 by Mohamed Seyni, who had a dream in which Allah ordered him to build this mosque, in this exact place and way, where another had supposedly fallen. It’s located almost right on the water (which you can’t see in these pictures), and absolutely breathtaking.

Plage de la point des Almadies

The most Western part of Africa! There were a lot of really pretty shells chilling in the sand, the water was clear and blue, and I’m definitely coming back here to swim at some point.

Plage de Fann

The first ocean view I saw here (yep, these pictures are all terribly out of order). I don’t think this area is swimmable, but it’s very close to where I’ll be taking classes here, and potentially a new study spot? We’ll see.

The statue below possesses some dope name that I can’t remember, but holds a lot of symbolism that I do recall for the most part! There are three gates below the figure; the smallest one represents Senegal; the second represents Africa; the third represents the world. The idea is that after obtaining their independence from the French colonizers in 1960, Senegal was open to Africa, Africa was open to the world. Moving in the other direction, the hope is that the world is open to Africa, and that Africa is open to Senegal. The woman sitting on top of the second port is blowing a trumpet to signal and alert everyone of the good news of this structure!

When I was first accepted into this study abroad program, I spent hours researching everything I could about Senegal and watching videos of people simply driving down the streets of Dakar. Something that was really fun for me today was driving down the very streets that I had digitally seen nearly a year ago. I spotted a lot of restaurants, parks and cafés that I would really like to visit before I leave here, so I’ve already started constructing a small bucket list of my future destinations! I’m way too pumped to get to know this city.