Goree Island

Goree
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

Goree Island is a 45 acre island located one kilometer at sea from the harbor at Dakar, Senegal. Due to a lack of drinking water, the island was not settled until the Portuguese arrived in 1444. Goree was an essential place in the triangular slave trade between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Owned at different times in its history by the Portuguese, the United Netherlands, the Portuguese again, the Dutch , and finally the French in 1677, Goree was named after the Dutch island of Goeree. From 1677 until Senegal was granted its independence from the French in 1960, Goree was owned mainly by France, with brief intervals of ownership by Great Britain between 1677 and 1815.

The Portuguese built the first slave trading post on Goree in 1536. After the French took possession in 1677, Goree became a lucrative trading post for slaves for the French until Napoleon abolished slavery in 1807. The French however, did not vigorously enforce their anti-slavery laws so a covert slave trade existed until 1815. Most of the slaves who passed through Goree went to the Caribbean, Brazil, and the French owned portions of North America.

While Goree is a place of history and beauty now, it must never be forgotten that unspeakable crimes against humanity and the peoples of Africa took place here. Major European powers at the time, Portugal, Netherlands, England, and France stole African’s major resource, its people, and used them to build incredible wealth for themselves.

Please enjoy your photographic visit. Clicking on the photograph will take you to a gallery of photographs from Goree Island.


information source: Wikipedia