48 Fun Facts About Senegal

Senegal almost completely surrounds which small country?

The Gambia follows its river inland as a narrow strip because an 1889 deal between its British rulers, who held the river, and the French colony around it fixed the borders that Senegal inherited.

Senegal anchors the western end of which African Union project to plant a belt of trees across the Sahel?

The Great Green Wall was first drawn as a strip of trees 15 km wide from the Senegalese coast to Djibouti; it has since become a patchwork of land-restoration schemes across the Sahel.

The Senegal River forms nearly all of the country's northern border with which neighbour?

Mauritania: a 1989 clash over grazing rights on the river border grew into a crisis in which the two countries broke off relations and thousands of people fled or were driven across it.

Which language, the mother tongue of about two in five Senegalese, serves as Senegal's lingua franca?

Wolof has more second-language speakers than native ones: most Senegalese whose mother tongue is Pulaar, Serer or another language speak it as well.

Which island off Dakar, home to the House of Slaves, was among the first UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1978?

Goree and its 'Door of No Return' draw world leaders as a memorial to the slave trade, though many historians doubt that large numbers of captives ever left through that doorway.

Which medieval state united Cayor, Baol, Sine, Saloum and Waalo?

The Jolof Empire was formed, oral tradition says, when those kingdoms gave up their independence willingly, but it was broken up by force after Cayor rebelled in the mid-1500s.

Which colonial governor led the 1850s conquest of the Senegalese mainland kingdoms?

Louis Faidherbe, governor from 1854, pushed a chain of forts up the river and, short of French troops, raised the first Senegalese Tirailleurs in 1857 to do the fighting.

The 1940 Battle of Dakar was an unsuccessful Allied attempt to seize the port from whom?

Vichy French forces fired on de Gaulle's envoys and held off the Royal Navy for three days in September 1940, the crippled battleship Richelieu fighting on as a floating gun battery.

Senegal gained independence in 1960 as part of a short-lived federation with which neighbour?

French Sudan (Mali) and Senegal became independent together in June 1960, but the federation split within two months, and French Sudan kept the federation's name as the Republic of Mali.

Who was Senegal's first president, a poet later elected to the Académie française?

Leopold Sedar Senghor, a leading poet of the negritude movement, was president from 1960 until he stepped down voluntarily at the end of 1980; he entered the Academie francaise in 1983.

Who was elected in March 2024 to become the youngest president in Senegal's history?

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44 when sworn in on 2 April 2024, won the March election outright in the first round, ten days after his release from prison alongside his ally Ousmane Sonko.

Senegal's separatist conflict since 1982 has been centred on which southern region?

Casamance, the region around the Casamance River in the far south, has been the MFDC's base since a December 1982 independence march in Ziguinchor was put down, starting the insurgency.

Which colonial city was capital of the whole West African federation from 1895 until 1902?

Saint-Louis, founded in 1659 on an island at the river mouth, lost the role in 1902, and its fortunes waned as steamships found its port ever harder to reach.

Senegal's tricolour flag bears what symbol at its centre?

A green five-pointed star replaced the stylised human figure on the flag of the short-lived federation Senegal left in 1960; the green, yellow and red stripes stayed as they were.

Senegal's national football team is nicknamed the Lions of what?

Teranga means hospitality, a value so bound up with national pride that the team took it for its name; the lion itself is Senegal's national symbol.

Which reigning champions did Senegal beat 1-0 in the 2002 World Cup's opening match?

France, the 1998 winners and Senegal's former colonial ruler, lost 1-0 to a Papa Bouba Diop goal in Senegal's first World Cup, and the newcomers went on to the quarter-finals.

Senegal won its first Africa Cup of Nations by beating which team in the 2021 edition's final?

Egypt lost 4-2 on penalties in Yaounde after a goalless draw, Senegal's goalkeeper Edouard Mendy making the decisive save; Senegal had lost the finals of 2002 and 2019.

Which Senegalese forward became Africa's most expensive player when Liverpool signed him in 2016?

Sadio Mane joined Liverpool from Southampton for about 34 million pounds in 2016 and later paid for a school and a hospital in Bambali, the village he had run away from at 15 to chase a football career.

Which traditional sport is described as Senegal's national obsession?

Wrestling, known as laamb, began as a village contest and is now a professional stadium sport in which fighters may also trade punches; champions such as Yekini and Balla Gaye 2 are national celebrities.

Which Olympic event did the IOC award to Senegal in 2018, the first ever for Africa?

The Summer Youth Olympics were awarded to Senegal's capital in October 2018 for 2022, then pushed back to 2026 by the pandemic; it is the first Olympic event of any kind awarded to an African nation.

The famous rally to Senegal's capital, first run in 1979, originally started from which city?

Paris was the start line of Thierry Sabine's first rally in December 1978; after the 2008 race was called off over security fears, the event moved to South America and then Saudi Arabia and has not returned to Africa.

Lake Retba near Dakar is famous for what colour, caused by Dunaliella salina algae?

Pink is the colour of Lake Retba, or Lac Rose: Dunaliella salina algae make a red pigment to soak up sunlight in its very salty water, where salt is still harvested.

What is Senegal's national dish?

Thieboudienne (ceebu jen), fish cooked with rice, tomato and vegetables, was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2021 and is claimed as the ancestor of jollof rice.

Which Senegalese dance music, driven by sabar drums, was popularised worldwide by Youssou N'Dour?

Mbalax took shape in the 1970s, when city bands raised on Cuban dance music began singing in local languages over the rhythms of the sabar drum.

Youssou N'Dour's 1994 hit '7 Seconds' was a duet with which singer?

Neneh Cherry sings in English on '7 Seconds', whose title refers to a newborn's first moments, before it knows of the world's problems; the single topped the French chart for nearly four months.

Which country's state art studio built Dakar's giant African Renaissance Monument, unveiled in 2010?

North Korea: its Mansudae Overseas Projects studio built the bronze, and Senegal is reported to have paid in land instead of cash for a statue criticised for its 27 million dollar cost.

Most of Senegal's small Christian minority belongs to which church?

Roman Catholic: Christians are under 5 percent of a largely Muslim country, yet its first president was one of them, a mission-school boy who entered a seminary before choosing letters and politics.

Senegal's powerful Mouride and Tijani brotherhoods belong to which tradition within Islam?

Sufism: most Senegalese Muslims follow one of four main brotherhoods, and the Mourides are still led by a caliph chosen from their founder's descendants.

Which captain of Senegal's 2002 World Cup side later coached the team to its first Africa Cup of Nations title?

Aliou Cisse missed a penalty in the shootout that cost Senegal the 2002 final, lost another final as coach in 2019, and at last lifted the trophy in February 2022.

Which currency does Senegal use?

The West African CFA franc is shared by eight countries and pegged to the euro; CFA first stood for 'French colonies of Africa' and now stands for 'African Financial Community'.

Senegal's highest point, only 648 m up, lies in the far southeast on the border with which country?

Guinea: the 648 m ridge near Nepen Diakha sits right on the frontier, the roof of a country so flat that its average elevation is under 70 m.

Which president's 2016 referendum cut Senegal's presidential term to five years?

Macky Sall had promised to cut his own first term short as well, but the Constitutional Council said the change could not apply to it, so he served the full seven years until 2019.

Which American R&B star spent much of his childhood in Senegal?

Akon announced a futuristic 'Akon City' on the Senegalese coast in 2018, but no significant building followed and the government shelved the project in 2025.

Fishing provides roughly how many Senegalese jobs?

About 600,000 jobs come from fishing in Senegal, but overfishing, much of it by foreign vessels, has pushed more than half of its fish stocks towards collapse.

Senegal severed diplomatic ties with which country in 2011, accusing it of arming southern rebels?

Iran was cut off in February 2011 after an arms shipment seized in Nigeria the previous year was traced to Tehran and suspected of being bound for the rebels in the south.

Which youth movement led protests against President Wade's disputed third-term bid in 2011-12?

Y'en a Marre ('fed up') was founded in January 2011 by rappers and journalists angry at power cuts; it signed up young voters in large numbers, and Wade lost the 2012 runoff and conceded.

Tabaski is the Senegalese name for which Muslim festival?

Eid al-Adha, known in Senegal as Tabaski, recalls Ibrahim's readiness to sacrifice his son, which is why families who can afford it slaughter a sheep or another animal and share the meat.

Ninety-two Senegalese soldiers died in a single transport-plane crash while serving in which conflict?

The Gulf War drew about 500 Senegalese troops into the coalition; 92 died on 21 March 1991, after the fighting had stopped, when a Saudi plane bringing them back from a visit to Mecca crashed in oil-fire smoke.

Which creole, a legacy of early European traders, survives around Ziguinchor?

Portuguese Creole survives around Ziguinchor because Portuguese traders founded the town in 1645 and the area stayed Portuguese until 1888; the local variety is close to the creole of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau.

Which prime minister was jailed in December 1962 after a showdown with Senegal's first president?

Mamadou Dia, Senegal's first head of government, was accused of an attempted coup when he had deputies removed from the assembly during a censure vote; he stayed in prison until 1974.

Senegalese troops put down a 1981 coup in which neighbouring capital?

Banjul: President Dawda Jawara was in London for the wedding of Charles and Diana when the coup struck; he called in Senegal's army, and the two countries formed a confederation that lasted until 1989.

Which Senegalese deputy, namesake of Dakar's international airport, became in 1914 the first black African elected to the French parliament?

Blaise Diagne won full citizenship for the people of the Four Communes in 1916, at a time when the colonial power needed their men as soldiers, and later held government office himself.

Who succeeded Senegal's first president when he stepped down at the end of 1980?

Abdou Diouf, prime minister since 1970, took over on 1 January 1981 and held power until 2000, when he lost the election to Abdoulaye Wade and stepped aside willingly.

Which holy city did the Mouride founder Amadou Bamba establish?

Touba holds Bamba's tomb in its Great Mosque and is run by the Mouride order, which forbids alcohol and smoking there; its Grand Magal pilgrimage draws more than a million people.

Which Senegalese novelist and director of 'Black Girl' is often called the father of African film?

Ousmane Sembene, once a docker in Marseille, took up the camera because his novels in French reached only an educated few, while films could speak to a far wider African audience.

Which city on the Saloum River is the hub of Senegal's groundnut trade?

Kaolack exports the crop through its river port, which a rail spur links to the Dakar-Niger line, and it remains Senegal's main centre for trading and processing peanuts, as groundnuts are also called.

Which Atlantic archipelago off West Africa takes its name from a peninsula in Senegal?

Cape Verde is named after Cap-Vert, the 'green cape' on the Senegalese coast, which Portuguese sailors named in 1444, a few years before they came upon the islands.

Senegal's national anthem, with words by its first president, opens by calling on everyone to play which instrument?

Koras: the anthem begins 'Pluck your koras, strike the balafons', naming the West African harp-lute and xylophone, though its tune was written by a Frenchman, Herbert Pepper.