Dakar, Senegal: Gorée Island, West African Art Museums, and Thiéboudienne on the Cape Verde Peninsula

Île de Gorée, 2 kilometres offshore from the Dakar ferry terminal, is the most visited site in West Africa and the most widely cited symbol of the Atlantic slave trade in the region. The island was a Portuguese, Dutch, and then French colonial trading post from the 15th century onward; between the 17th and 19th centuries it functioned as a holding and processing station for enslaved people transported across the Atlantic. The Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves), built around 1776, is the most visited structure on the island: a two-story building in ochre colonial Portuguese-African style with the slave holding rooms on the ground floor opening to the courtyard and the "Door of No Return" — a narrow doorway directly to the sea through which enslaved people were loaded onto ships. Historians debate the actual volume of the trade that moved through Gorée specifically, but the building's function as a material site of memory has given it significance beyond the documented historical record. The island also has painted colonial architecture, a craft market, and beach cafes; the 20-minute ferry from the Dakar port terminal runs frequently.

The IFAN Museum of African Arts (Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire) in the Plateau district is one of the most comprehensive ethnographic collections in sub-Saharan Africa, covering mask traditions, bronze and iron casting from the Sahel and forest zones, weaving, musical instruments, and contemporary works from across West and Central Africa. The permanent collection covers the full range of West African material culture including objects from the Dogon, Ashanti, Fon, and Senufo traditions that appear in major museums worldwide. The Musée Théodore Monod (a separate institution in the same neighborhood) focuses on the Saharan natural history and archaeology.

Dakar's contemporary art scene is active and internationally connected: Dak'Art, the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, runs every two years in even years and draws artists and institutions from across the continent and internationally. Between Biennale years, the Doual'art and Raw Material Company galleries in the Plateau district show contemporary Senegalese and pan-African work. The Galerie Nationale's rotating program covers both historical and contemporary Senegalese art. The Touba suburb has several ateliers where working artists produce and sell work directly.

Thiéboudienne — rice cooked in a rich tomato and fish stock with whole fish, fermented shellfish paste (guedj), vegetables, and a layer of caramelized rice crust at the base of the pot — is the Senegalese national dish and the foundation of the Wolof rice-cooking tradition. It is served at lunch at every restaurant in the Plateau district; the standard version uses thiof (grouper), yeet (dried shell), and a combination of vegetables (stuffed in the fish cavity) that vary by season and cook. Dem ak Tangana, a casual restaurant near the Plateau market, is the most-cited by Dakar's food community for the traditional preparation. The Sandaga Market, central Dakar's main market, sells the full range of Senegalese produce, fabric (the printed wax-resist fabric used for boubous), dried fish, and the cosmetics and shea products of West African beauty tradition. Lac Rose (Pink Lake, Retba), 35 kilometres northeast of the city, is a hypersaline lagoon whose algae content turns the water pink in strong sunlight and whose salt is harvested by workers wading in the shallow edges — one of the more visually unusual natural environments in the Sahel.