Chapter 01
The thiéboudienne tells you everything
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Destination · Senegal
Dakar, Senegal
The Atlantic end of everything
A peninsula city that faces the ocean on three sides and has been absorbing the world — and sending itself back out — for centuries.
12 chapters ahead
Climate
Hot and dry most of the year, with a humid rainy season from July to September — the harmattan blows dust off the Sahara in winter, and the ocean keeps the heat from becoming unbearable
Best season
November through February: the air is clear, the heat is manageable, and the city is fully alive without the weight of the rains
Atmosphere
- coastal
- urban-dense
- cosmopolitan
- culinary
- artsy
- spiritual
- nocturnal
- maritime
- intense
- colonial-layered
- sprawling
The chapters
12 ways to get lost here
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Chapter 02
Teranga is not a slogan
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Chapter 03
The Atlantic shapes everything here
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Chapter 04
The river holds the older Senegal
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Chapter 05
Plateau to Medina: two cities, one map
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Chapter 06
The light changes everything after five
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Chapter 07
Thiébou yapp, café Touba, and the rest
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Chapter 08
Glass painting is the vernacular art form
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Chapter 09
Touba swells once a year. Go.
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Chapter 10
Mbalax is not background music
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Chapter 11
Lagos rhymes with Dakar, differently
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Chapter 12
Ziguinchor rewards the extra distance
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Keep wandering
You’ve finished Dakar. Where next?
Pull a thread at random, fall into the world map, or step back to the front door for the latest dispatches.