With its just over one thousand residents, Gorée Island sits two kilometers (1.2 miles) off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. For tourists, the small island is a recognized cultural destination and UNESCO World Heritage site, based on its famed history as a slave-trading station as part of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. But for island’s residents and businesses, it’s…
For 10 days in April, graffiti artists from around the world gathered in Dakar, Senegal for the fifth annual Festigraff, the Festival international de Graffiti en Afrique/Senegal. While the term “graffiti” can carry a negative connotation, spray can art is Dakar’s most ubiquitous urban art expression, ranging from vandalism to approved and encouraged art. As…
Here in Dakar, it seems that the entire urban landscape is full of color: The walls, the sidewalks, the transport, houses and buildings, as well as the bright clothes of urban dwellers themselves. For example, the bright contrast between the light brown sands of this Sahelian city and the azure sky. The walls dressed in…
Bonjour de Dakar! Here, graffiti is everywhere; it’s as if every wall is an opportunity for artistic, political and/or social statement. The more you look, the more you can learn about the city, its people, and their sentiments. It’s my first day in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and one of the first things that…
If you haven’t discovered it already, The Guardian has started a Cities site, thanks to funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Here are some fantastic reasons why you should be following this initiative:
As March 6th approaches, in schools all over the country, teachers and students prepare for the infamous Independence Day parades. A celebrated ritual of patriotism on national days, children file along roads, marching in line to music in synchronized steps. Here’s a short video of students in a school in Ghana’s Central Region preparing for…
…. featured on the Guardian Cities website as one of the 50 “best city blogs around the world!” (not my words, theirs, but I’ll still accept the compliment.)