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Senegal is a country full of contradictions. Wide open to modernity and the outside world, Senegal, nevertheless, remains deeply rooted in its tradition based on Diom (honour), Teranga (hospitality), and respect for the elderly. From the great Leopold Sedar Senghor to Mariame BA, Senegal has produced some
of the best African artists and still plays a key role in West Africa’s arts, culture and politics, despite its small size and population. Senegalese music, particularly the Mbalax, has become well known internationally over the last couple of decades thanks to artists like Youssou N’dour and Baba Maal,
and Senegalese food is considered among the best in Africa.
The country gained independence from France in 1960. Ever since, it has been held up as one of Africa’s model democracies, with an established multi-party system and a tradition of civilian rule. Although Senegal is the most industrialised country
in French West Africa after Côte d’Ivoire - poverty is still widespread, however, and unemployment high. The areas around
the cities of Dakar and St Louis, colonised in the 1840s, were the earliest parts of the formal French empire in sub-Saharan
Africa. Dakar, the capital of French West Africa from the early 1900s and the capital city of Senegal, is a bustling modern city and a major cruise-ship port with good restaurants and shops.
Tourism has been a growing industry in Senegal for well over a decade. In 2000, it was ranked as the country’s second largest
industry after fishing and before groundnuts and phosphates. The sector has created economic growth particularly in the Petite Côte, Senegal’s principal tourist region where a resort originally built around a fishing village, Saly, has become an international tourist destination.
Senegal has a variety of first-rate natural assets that help make it an attractive destination: six national parks and four reserves, a variety of birds, some wildlife, and access to big game fishing and scuba diving. But it is the people, their music, culture and handicrafts that make Senegal what it is: a great, diverse and very colourful country.
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