Classroom lesson · Gorée Island · 🇸🇳 Senegal

Gorée Island

A tiny, colourful island just off the coast of Dakar

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Gorée Island (Île de Gorée) is a small, very old island just 3 kilometres off the coast of Dakar. It is only about 900 metres long - small enough to walk all the way around in half an hour. There are no cars on the island, just narrow sandy streets, brightly painted houses, and old stone buildings.

Tell me more

You reach Gorée by a short ferry ride from Dakar. The boat trip takes about 20 minutes. When you step off the boat, you walk into a place that feels like a postcard - pink, yellow and orange houses, bougainvillea flowers, and the smell of the sea.

Gorée has been an important meeting point for sailors, traders and travellers for more than 500 years. People from Portugal, the Netherlands, France and Britain all visited the island at different times in history. You can still see buildings from each of those eras, with red roofs and old wooden doors.

UNESCO has put Gorée on its list of World Heritage Sites - places that are important to the whole world. This means everyone has agreed to look after the island for future generations. School trips from all over Senegal visit Gorée to learn about its long story.

Today, Gorée is home to artists, fishermen and around 1,500 residents. Children walk to school along the same narrow streets their grandparents walked. The island has its own art schools, museums, and tiny restaurants - and goats wandering between them.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01What might it feel like to live on an island where no cars are allowed?
  2. 02Gorée has buildings from lots of different times in history. Can you think of an old building near you with stories to tell?
  3. 03What would change about your day if your school was on a tiny island?
Try this

Classroom activity

Draw a map of an imaginary 'Gorée-sized' island - 900 metres long. Pace out 900 metres on the playground or playing field. Now mark on your map: where would the school go? The shops? The harbour? Compare with classmates.