Gorée Island

Gorée Island, just over 3 km off the coast of Senegal (20 minutes by ferry from Dakar), has played a very important role in African history. Positioned at the center of the Atlantic routes and, at the same time, close to the continent, it was a key junction for trade with the coastal kingdoms.
The Portuguese arrived there in 1444, driven out in 1621 Dutch who occupied it until France took control in 1677 part a brief British interlude. Slaves stopped on this small island before being loaded onto ships bound for the Americas. Among the various buildings constructed to house them is the Maison des Esclaves, with its “gate of no return,” which slaves were forced to pass through to embark. Today it houses a museum whose history has been passionately disseminated, mostly orally, by its first curator, Joseph N’Diaye. Gorée was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, and is one of the world’s best-known places of memory of the Atlantic trade