Gorée

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Gorée (French Île de Gorée, English Goree, Gorea Spanish, Italian Gorea, Dutch Goeree, from Dutch Goede Reede - Safe Harbor ) is an island off the coast of Senegal, to which it belongs. It became known as slave island and should have served to ban slavery in 1848, the shipment of slaves, whose number is likely to have, however, only amounted to 500 annually for Gorée, according to studies from the 1990s.

Since 1978, the island is a World Heritage Site under the protection of UNESCO.

Geography

The island covers 36 acres, is about one kilometer long and 300 meters wide. It is located about three kilometers off the Senegalese capital Dakar on the Atlantic side facing away from the Cap Vert, the westernmost tip of Africa. Gorée can be reached by a ferry from the port of Dakar from.

History

The original name was Barsaguiche. In 1444 the island was occupied by Portugal under Captain Dinis Diaz and was named Ilha de Palma. Supposedly had Christopher Columbus on one of his sailing to America to stay at Gorée, this is rather unlikely.

The Dutch West India Company bought the island in 1617 by the king Betam and named it after the South Holland island of Goeree (now with Overflakkee to Goeree -Overflakkee merged ).

In the course of the fighting, which eventually led to the Second Anglo -Dutch War, Goeree was taken on January 23, 1663 by the British under Robert Holmes. On Oct 11, 1664, the Dutch conquered the island under Michiel de Ruyter back. During the Third English- Dutch War she went to the Dutch finally lost when she was taken on November 1, 1677 by the allied with the English, French under d' Estrées and incorporated into the colony of Senegal. The British contested the legality of French possession. On Feb 4 1693 conquered Gorée for four months. Other occupations by the English were 1758-1763, 1779-1783, 1800-1804, and ( after two months of French reconquest ) from 1804 to 1817. Overall, the island changed seventeen times the owner. Of 1 Nov. 1854 to February 26, 1859 to Gorée was spun off from Senegal and was part of the colony of Goree et dépendances

At the end of the 19th century, the town of Goree, on the same island as well built as described and then had an old one, built by the British fort with a crew of 200 French soldiers, including a large warehouse and (1879 ) 2,956 inhabitants, of whom 750 mulattoes and 50 white civilians.

In the 20th century the island developed into a tourist destination. Especially after the airing of the series Roots in 1977 American descendants of slaves began to visit the island to explore their origins. Gorée is also a popular day trip destination for residents of Dakar. Gorée is a car-free island, there are no paved roads. From the 18th and 19th century, many colonial buildings have been preserved until today.

Gorée in 1978 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Attractions

The island is like a single museum, documenting the changing history of the West African colonies. The historical reputation of the island, an important place of slaves shipped to America to have been, at least since 2006 through the work of Jean Luc Angrand " Céleste ou le temps des Signares " refuted as final.

Until the 1990s and partly still rumored version: As famous especially the last remaining slaves House ( Maison des Esclaves ) was presented, said to have been built from 1776 to 1778 and now a museum on the history of slave shipping in West Africa. The cellars were presented as dungeons where the slaves before shipment should have to endure, and presented a passage to the sea as a porte sans retour ( "Door of No Return" ), had been " loaded " by the slaves on the ships to America.

Corrected version since 1996: Since 1996, this representation is to be regarded as a myth, that of Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, a highly respected Senegalese personality (who died in February 2009), embellished and enriched as a long-time leader of the " Maison des esclaves " and tourist guides in a poetic way had been. Underpinned by recent research, now the island is no longer regarded as the center of slave shipping. It should actually have been "only" 500 slaves annually shipped on Gorée. The alleged " house of slaves " and the shipping from there is now assessed by the works of Abdoulaye Camara and Joseph Roger de Benoist from Dakar so: There were a built by the French in 1783 civic trade house with apartments and office raumen the first floor; ground floor house slaves had worked. Articles of commerce are gum arabic, was ivory and gold. Never had the house been the starting point of the slaves shipped, as Joseph Ndiaye represented by Browsing the open sea leading " door of no return ". ( It would have there can create no ships because of the rocks. ) The symbolic meaning as remembrance for the slave trade is not denied by the more recent historical research, but provided with different emphasis. Of crucial real importance for the slave trade were ports such as Saint- Louis ( Senegal) as well as those in the Gulf of Guinea and Angola.

Economy

There are traditional fishing.