Goree Island

Today we went to Goree Island for the day. We took the ferry to the island from the port of Dakar. It was really crowded and lots of fun. When we arrived, we were given a short tour of the main "downtown" area by one of the local curators of the museum. Some background history . . .

Goree (pronounced Gor-ay, Im not able to add the correct accent over the first "e" on this keyboard) was a launching point for many of the Atlantic slave trade ships bound for the Caribbean Islands from the 1400's to the early 1700's. The island now has two museums dedicated to illustrate the awful conditions and treatments that the slaves endured during their "stay" at Goree and during their departure to the West. After the slave trade, the island was used for "legitimate commerce", such as peanuts, peanut oil, ivory, and millet.
An interesting social experiment that happened on the island was the development of a new social class called the Signares, from the Portugese word "Senhora". These were people of mixed backgrounds, mainly those of European men and West Africa women who were brought to the island to become slaves. This social class enjoyed having a greater voice in society than the Africans, but not quite as much as the Europeans. The women are often pictured wearing rich european fashions with elaborate hair styles. They were also able to own land, ships, and property. This is interesting to me because in my past experiences I had found that people of mixed backgrounds were often placed in categories located at the bottom of the soical pyramid and given little to no rights at all. I wonder what had become of the people who are decended from the signares and how they view themselves within modern day society . . .

We visited Le Maison des Esclaves, which was a sad and powerful place. The courtyard leads into different cell rooms on the ground level, and two sets of stairs that lead dramatically up to the second floor where the slave masters lived. The slaves would be loaded onto the boat directly from the maison through the “Door of No Return”. Although the restoration of the site was quite dramatic, it was really effective at showing how scary it must have been for the Africans. The cells were incredibly small with no obvious ventalation for the amount of people that they literally stuffed into the small rooms. I felt uneasy the whole time that I was there just thinking about the cruelty that had happened and all the souls who had passed through those doors never to return to their home. The statistics showed that although the Maison Des Esclaves was only able to hold around 200-250 people at a time, over six million people died at this location died before even setting foot on a boat. They died from starvation, dehidration, disease, sickness, miscarrages (young African girls were often obligated to sleep with the slaves masters), and from lack of general sanitation. It is crazy to think that a number comparable of the atrocities of the Holocaust in Germany happened right in the rooms that I stood in at Goree. I was talking about the restoration of the location site with a friend, and how strange that would have been for a Senegalese person to be restoring a place with such a strong role in the history of their people, but not necessarily a positive one. of course, it was a job that someone had to do, but I wonder how the workers must have felt in that situation, if they felt any sort of moral dilemma of preserving something that destroyed so many people's lives. I do think that it is important to keep for educational purposes, but I just wonder about how the locals feel about it, apart from the fact that it gathers money.

After lunch we went to the Musee des Femmes (Women's Musem), which was basically a tribute to women in higher education and who have made important political, literary, economic, and social contributions. It was great to see all the photos and hear the tour guide tell us about the exhibits in her passionate style. She had really clear French, which was great because sometimes the accents from around here are kind of hard to understand. After that museum we went to a larger historical museum that was on the end of the island. There was so much more information and cool displays, but by then it was 4:30 and we had been going going going all day long. I was very interested in the topics, and tried to take my time so that I could stay inside the cool building and out of the heat.

Although the day was filled with museums and short lectures, I took a lot away from it not just through direct observation but also from reflecting on the information later on my own time. Its a lot to wrap your mind around, let alone live and act in a society that was and is part of such a story. In class this week we have discussed the history of Senegal in several different contexts, going so much deeper into it than any history class that I have ever had. I feel like Im a sponge, and Im trying to soak up as much as I can during every minute of every day. This blog allows me to wring out my thoughts a bit and try to have them make sense.