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Goree Island took it name from the Dutch island of Goeree-Overflakkee after first being 'discovered' by Portuguese explorer Dinis Dias in 1444. The Portuguese were later to build a
small chapel and cemetery on the island for sailors lost at sea whilst
en route to exploring the rest of the African coastline on
their way to to India and they quickly set up the first
settlements there, displacing the indigenous Wolof speaking
Lebu people who had lived as fishermen and farmers on the
island. Goree Island then changed hands numerous times over the next two centuries
between the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French who all
recognised its useful location for the transport of slaves
between Africa and the New World (from 1536 peaking in the
18th century before being stopped by the French in 1848), as well as a safe harbour for anchorage.
In December 1758 Goree Island again came under British
rule after it was seized during the Seven Years War however
was returned to the French in 1763 under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris. Shortly afterwards its "House of
Slaves" was constructed c 1780 - 1786 with its infamous
and preserved "Door of No
Return" though which slaves passed on their way to
the New World, however the Napoleonic Wars saw
Britain again retake interest in the island before it was
again
returned to France under the short-lived Treaty of
Amiens of 1802. The island then remained under French control
until Senegal's independence in 1960.
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The island was considered ideal for slave
management as it is just over a mile from the Senegal coast and its small 45 acre size meant slaves were easily contained and
the deep waters surrounding it made escape, whilst chained
with a metal ball, impossible. Goree's actual role in the slave trade has recently been
revisited with some claiming it was not the major portal
claimed by others with the size of the island as well as its
modest House of Slaves indicative that it simply was not large
enough to process the tens of millions of slaves history
records. Instead it has been suggested that 'just' 200-400
slaves passed through the island annually with many actually
staying on the island to work for the wealthy European
families who had settled there. Whatever the truth of the matter, today Goree Island is a symbolic point of reflection of the horrors of
those times.
Goree Island: Colonialism in Africa
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Goree Island: Senegal History
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Goree Island: African Slavery
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Goree Island: Senegal Country Profile
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