About Senegal
Stable, Resource Poor, Land of Hospitality

Senegal itself is a country of some 11 million inhabitants located on the westernmost point of Africa, just south of the Sahara Desert.  It is a former French colony, whose urban coastal inhabitants enjoyed democratic self-rule and representation in the French National Assembly for much of the colonial period, which ended with independence in 1960.  Since then, Senegal has been one of only three African countries to maintain unbroken democratic civilian rule since independence: it has a free press, vibrant opposition parties (one of which won the 2000 Presidential and Parliamentary elections), active civil society watchdog groups, a pro-US foreign policy, and one of the most professional militaries in the region.  There has been an on-again, off-again rebellion in the southern Casamance region (almost completely separated from the rest of Senegal by the Gambia, a former British colony), but the northern part of Senegal, where Dakar is located, has been among the most peaceful and stable places in all of Africa.  

This in spite of the fact that Senegal is economically rather poor, historically reliant on peanuts for export, more recently enjoying some success with tourism, phosphate mining and fishing.  Benefits from these activities are not widespread, and the approximately 60% of the population that lives in the countryside faces unreliable rainfall, the southward expansion of the desert, and worsening soil fertility, thus depending more and more on money sent by relatives working in Dakar or abroad.  In spite of tough conditions, the Senegalese, especially in the countryside, are a remarkably warm, open and generous people whose culture places great emphasis on teranga, or hospitality, especially toward guests.  In this culture, the further the distance a guest has traveled, the more the visit honors the host, and this should be reflected in giving the honored guest the best of everything, even if resources are limited. 

For more information on Dakar and Senegal as well as links to related web sites, see the Senegal page on the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center web site, or the equivalent page form the Stanford University Center for African Studies.