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Senegal in eight friendly questions about the essentials, from its coast to its kitchens. No expert knowledge needed: everyone can join in and discover something new.
Curious first-timer 0–3 · Baobab admirer 4–6 · Honorary Senegalese 7–8
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Dakar covers the tip of the Cap-Vert peninsula, where Pointe des Almadies reaches further west than any other spot on the mainland of Africa, Europe and Asia. The peninsula's name means 'Green Cape', and the island country of Cape Verde, about 570 km out to sea, was named after it.
Photo: Jeff Attaway, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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The Gambia follows the winding Gambia River deep into Senegal, yet it is less than 50 km wide, which makes it the smallest country on the African mainland. Only its short coast on the Atlantic Ocean does not border Senegal.
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In places up to 40 percent of the lake's water is salt, so the collectors rub shea butter on their skin to protect it. About 38,000 tonnes are gathered each year and piled in white heaps along the shore, and Senegalese fishermen use much of it to preserve fish.
Photo: Jjm2311, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Peanuts grow on about 40 percent of Senegal's farmland, and they go into mafé, a rich stew of meat or fish in a peanut and tomato sauce. Peanut plants are unusual: after flowering, they push their young pods down into the soil, so the nuts ripen underground.
Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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The drink is called bissap: the dried, deep-red cups around the flowers of a kind of hibiscus are soaked in water, then sugar is added and sometimes mint or a little orange flavouring. It tastes tart, a little like cranberries, and in many countries people drink it hot as a tea or ice cold.
Photo: Emna Mizouni, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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The Senegal River, about 1,100 km long, starts in the highlands of Guinea and forms much of Senegal's northern border with Mauritania before it reaches the Atlantic. Long ago, traders crossing the Sahara called it the 'River of Gold', because it led towards the gold-rich lands of West Africa.
Photo: WILLAV-FR, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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This was the Paris–Dakar Rally, which often ended beside Lake Retba, not far from Senegal's capital. In 2009 the race moved to South America and since 2020 it has been held in Saudi Arabia, but it is still called the Dakar.
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The plan, agreed in 2007, was to plant a belt of trees about 15 km wide and almost 7,800 km long, from Dakar right across Africa to Djibouti. It has since grown into a patchwork of projects in more than 20 countries, where people plant and protect trees and save rainwater to turn worn-out land green again.
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