The African island with a sinister past is now a haven for dark tourism | World

Just 2 km off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, lies the Île de Gorée, or Île de Gorée, a 45-acre island, famous today for a dark reason.

It is a popular destination among people interested in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, as it served as an outpost from 1536 to 1848, when slavery was finally abolished in Senegal.

Gorée was visited for the first time in 1444 by Portuguese sailors. The island’s indigenous Lebu people were later relocated and fortifications erected.

Historians debate whether Gorée was a major import for trade or simply one of many centers from which Africans were taken to the Americas.

Its small size allowed merchants to easily control their captives, and the surrounding waters were too deep for escape attempts. It is almost completely devoid of drinking water.

Other important centers in Senegal were further north, in Saint Louis or south in Gambia.

Gorée changed hands several times, but from 1817 until Senegal’s independence in 1960.it was under the control of France. From 1848, Gorée participated in French elections and was represented in the French Parliament during the first half of the 20th century..

With the end of the slave trade, the city became an important port for shipping much nicer things – peanuts, peanut oil and gum arabic – products of “legitimate” trade.

In February 1794, during the French Revolution, France abolished slavery and the slave trade from Senegal reportedly ceased. However, it was not until March 1815 that Napoleon definitively abolished the slave trade in order to establish relations with Great Britain.

Today, several museums and remains of colonial-era forts attract tourists, including the Maison des Esclaves, built in 1786, which tells the history of trade and displays artifacts.

In 1978, Gorée was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and many of its historic structures were restored in the 1980s and 1990s.

Today, the island is still inhabited and is home to around 2,000 residents with an average age of 23. The former upper military part of the island is home to illegally inhabited underground passages.

Gorée is connected to the mainland by a 30-minute pedestrian ferry service. The first tourist site in Senegal, it now serves mainly as a memorial to the slave trade.

Many historic commercial and residential buildings have been converted into restaurants and hotels to support tourist traffic.

The Dakar-Gorée Swim was launched in 1985 as a tribute to victims of slavery who demonstrated resilience by attempting to swim to freedom. This has been a recurring occurrence throughout its history.