Political Map of Senegal
Map showing capital Dakar and Gorée Island, port of Saint-Louise, Casamance Province, Senegal River, Gambia River, and significant locations.
The above map shows several significant locations in the history of Senegal.
It shows three of the Four Communes (Dakar, Gorée, and Saint-Louise), which enjoyed French citizenship under French colonial rule due to the Loi Blaise Diagne. The fourth such port, Rufisque, was only about 13 km south of Dakar, and is now a suburb of Dakar. In earlier centuries, Gorée Island was also an important slave-trading port.
Further south on the coast, one can see the city of Joal, the birthplace of Léopold Senghor.
In the map, one can also see how The Gambia, which was a British colony and is now an independent state, is surrounded on three sides by Senegal, making Casamance Province into a strange isthmus. In the 1980s, there was talk of uniting Senegal and Gambia into Senegambia, but this never happened.
Since the early 1980s, there has also been a separatist movement, the Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) at work in the southern portion of Senegal. In 2002, the fighting intensified, and many Senegalese people fled into The Gambia, but nonetheless, Senegal remains a stable state.
Revised and expanded by Angela Thompsell, June 2015
The above map shows several significant locations in the history of Senegal.
It shows three of the Four Communes (Dakar, Gorée, and Saint-Louise), which enjoyed French citizenship under French colonial rule due to the Loi Blaise Diagne. The fourth such port, Rufisque, was only about 13 km south of Dakar, and is now a suburb of Dakar. In earlier centuries, Gorée Island was also an important slave-trading port.
Further south on the coast, one can see the city of Joal, the birthplace of Léopold Senghor.
In the map, one can also see how The Gambia, which was a British colony and is now an independent state, is surrounded on three sides by Senegal, making Casamance Province into a strange isthmus. In the 1980s, there was talk of uniting Senegal and Gambia into Senegambia, but this never happened.
Since the early 1980s, there has also been a separatist movement, the Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) at work in the southern portion of Senegal. In 2002, the fighting intensified, and many Senegalese people fled into The Gambia, but nonetheless, Senegal remains a stable state.
Revised and expanded by Angela Thompsell, June 2015
