The Grid of Saint-Louis du Sénégal

Abstract

The Senegambian coast was on the periphery of the inland African empires of Mali and Ghana. That dramatically changed with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1445 and the onset of North Atlantic trade. Portuguese traders established themselves at several points along the coast and upriver. Over the next several hundred years, English and Dutch interests fought them for control of the West African coast. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the French presence had increased significantly. As political and military entities, European countries were largely ineffectual. The central activity of coastal cities was commerce, and cities grew at locations where African traders sold their goods to North Atlantic traders. An island Africans called N’dar lay at the mouth of the Senegal River. This location was valuable since whoever controlled it controlled trade upriver, inland, and the island was conveniently located for coastal trade routes. In 1633 a French trading company established quarters on N’dar. In 1659, in honour of the French King Louis XIII, they founded the trading post of Saint-Louis (Figure 12.1).