SENEGAL (Documentary, Discovery, History)

[Music] the history of senegal goes back a long way a good many centuries before colonization from the 5th to the 15th century the region was dominated by the powerful ghanaian al-muravid malian and sungoy empires which forged the social structure and ethnic diversity that even today characterizes the population of senegal throughout the entire middle ages salt silver gold ivory and other riches of africa crossed the sahara by caravan and poured into the royal coffers of france england and portugal [Music] the 15th century ushered in the age of the caravels the portuguese ships struck out to the south along the coast of africa they seized the gold mines and established trading settlements along the new route to india blazed by vasco da gama the portuguese and soon after the french and english used these trading posts for the slave trade which supplied manpower to the plantations in america in the middle of the 17th century the french company of the west indies prompted by the french minister of finance colbera established a trading settlement in san luis which at the crossroads of the atlantic sea routes and saharan land routes occupied a strategic position yet it was not until the mid-19th century that the french began their push inland and established trading posts along the senegal river then for nearly a century boats traveled up and down supplying the villages on the river [Music] those days are now gone but the bu el moghdad carries on that tradition and for the duration of a cruise brings the legendary trade route back to life san luis de senegal the morning mist clings to the delicate silhouette of the federer bridge as if to prolong the mystery that enrobes the city the buu el moghdad is still a long ways off in podor a few hundred kilometers upriver that's where we'll be boarding the boat but in the meantime san luis is waiting for us with open arms at first glance sanui looks like all the other cities of senegal the streets are bustling with all sorts of vendors and tiny shops here they never throw anything away and everything is repaired reused recycled this is a society where some manage to live by their wits and others barely survive all those who move from the interior lured by the mirage of the big city and yet st louis has a singular history founded in the early 17th century on an island in the mouth of the senegal river the town served as a hub for the slave trade at the beginning of the 19th century the city had a second period of prosperity thanks to the thriving trade in gum arabic after the abolition of slavery in the french colonies in 1848 san luis made a decisive changeover to commerce a number of warehouses were built on the docks where goods brought down the river from the interior were exchanged for manufactured goods shipped in by sea sanui grew sanri grew more beautiful and in 1895 became the capital of french west africa now it's important to mention that there was one simple reason for this mix during the period of slavery there were some slaves the women's slaves especially that became lovers of their slave masters one can read the history of san luis through its unique architectural heritage but it's also evident in the proud bearing of its inhabitants certain of who are descendants of the senior our guide talks about this group with obvious relish but their beauty was bewitching intoxicating like an angel or a fairy in the evening when the sun was low and the colors so rich and warm they would come out onto their balconies with their hair done up in a cone and a silk or madras dress imported from the east indies with a sort of veil clinging to their hips that would just let you catch a glimpse of their slippers a stole draped casually over their left shoulder they were radiant and stunning with a slave on one side and her griot on the other the griot would chant the praises of her ancestors and the slave would work the fan to give her a bit of fresh air and all that eventually left a sort of show-off culture in san luis obispo a culture of oceantation which meant that every time they'd go out they'd have to be accompanied by as many slaves and grio as possible in 1902 the capital of french west africa was transferred to dhaka and that marked the beginning of san luis decline paradoxically that exodus may have been a blessing in disguise the old colonial buildings that were abandoned or not kept up have become run down but on the whole the island has kept its former aspect and charm even though san luis buildings were classified unesco world heritage site in 2000 it won't be possible to save them all it's an enormous job nevertheless maricolin has undertaken the task of bringing one house back to life this commitment is also returned to her roots this house first belonged to the diverse family and it was originally a warehouse put it back to work give it a function based in because this was originally a house of commerce like many of these houses this one has two floors the ground floor was where they carried on business and on the floor above you had the living quarters so the ground floor with all these arches we can see where the merchandise was stored this was where the administration was and then we go up the stairs and into the courtyard and on the floor above we see where the people lived each of these buildings was built around in your courtyard [Music] i realize that there are many people here with their own very moving stories and that's very important mine is my mixed ancestry the senegalese side of my family because i'm senegal norman my senegalese family is from salute my grandparents and great were born here my grandfather left salwie for the war in 1914 as part of the famous senegalese he went to verdant and luckily came back so a salary means a lot to me it's not just a showtime not a museum town and that's another reason i'd like to see it restored by the people and remain a very active town [Music] [Music] salui a child of the river and the sea this is no secret for the flux of pelicans on the lookout on the barbary spit the long slim tongue of sand that still separates the river from the atlantic ocean but for how much longer nobody knows [Music] for a long time the fishermen launched their craft from the beach to tackle the waves that bar their access to the open sea now they've chosen the river as home port and when the fishing boats come in the riverbanks are overflowing with and that's for a very simple reason because it's calmer and the boats don't get split open or damaged they don't get smashed [Music] fishing is san luis only real industry when the fishing business is good everything is good if fishing's no good things are bad all round when fishing's good that's the time to take a wife that's when you get together for the family ceremonies baptisms and a lot of other occasions fishing is all we have left there's no more farming no more cattle raising those activities just don't work anymore the only real economic activity left in san luis is fishing wow our last moments in san luis a last look at the boats as they head down river and vanish into the smoke of the fires drying the fish tomorrow will be in podor despite its respectable age it still cuts a fine figure it doesn't ship cargo as it used to in the early days in 1950 but no matter when it made its grand comeback as a tourist boat in 2005 all the river people gave it a rousing welcome the boo as they call it here is a friend and even more a member of the family the buu is docked in front of the old trading post that used to do a thriving business trading with mauritania senegal and french sudan now mali when the french realized that the river was navigable up to puda all year round they started setting up trading places after the somber times of the slave trade when they abolished slavery in 1848 the french government decided that they should change senegal over to an agricultural colony all the african products plus france would send manufactured goods for a long time all the businesses of the trading posts run by the french italian and lebanese traders enjoyed a valuable asset all year long the water level is sufficient to bring boats all the way to the docks of podor simply shifted from the riverbanks to the streets of the town and now the inhabitants of all the nearby villages come to the market in horse carts or bush taxi the river used to be the only route inland the only route of conquest would have kept on working but the closing of the post plus the erie highway that really brought the town to its knees [Music] many of the townsfolk can still remember the days before asphalt before the paved road when the bu el moghdad only link with the rest of the country [Music] there were no cars there was nothing at all for the young people it was rare to see the big ships like the bueller and at the end of every month the boat would bring in food for the families here sent by their people working down in dakar so that was important for the families here and they'd all run down to see the buu arrive because that was quite a joyous event a celebration because it meant that there would be food for everyone the mail would arrive they'd celebrate weddings so that's why the boo means so much to people here i remember there were songs people would sing each time arrived so if there was a wedding the wedding party would always sing on m [Music] [Music] so that song was really like a lovers farewell the crew is busy with the final maneuvers it's still early in the morning but the departure is fast approaching this is when the children of podor gather on the dock to bid goodbye to the [Music] voyagers [Music] the boo casts off our senegalese adventure is underway [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] after a few hours on the river we arrive at a tukulea village it's a regular stop for the buu's passengers we drop anchor in the middle of the river and head for the village in the launch it's fairly clear that the women and children were expecting us anzu the guide on the buu al-mughdad respects the time-honored tradition and comes bearing gifts [Music] i receive them at the post office and then i bring them up here and give them out [Music] [Music] these broken down tractors which were a donation of an ngo are proof of the absurdity or in any case the limits of western aid so just how does the headman see the future of the village and its youth the village earned its livelihood from fishing and from farming as well the river has always been the center of our activity but there is the land as well that's our [Music] livelihood the young people of the village would like to travel they'd like to have a different life but for that you have to have the means and if they were to go away who would take them can you look it up the fatalism of the village chief is a reminder that islam is senegal's dominant religion and that the tukula and the pul a similar ethnic group are rather orthodox muslims [Music] in the warm glow of the evening light we leave the tucula village and get back on board [Music] while we're on route to dagenha our next port of call we climb up to the wheelhouse to pay a visit to babasar 76 years old baba is the living memory of the boat and he's been navigating the river since he was a child so he knows it like the back of his hands there's nothing i can't do on board really i know how to do everything this youngster who's at the wheel he's been around three months three months he doesn't know any of that he doesn't even know if we're shipping water then i went off and learned how to pilot on another boat in podor in 65. february 7th 1965 i got my captain's license and i came back here you could say that i really know how to do everything on a boat and as if to drive home his point baba steers straight towards the bank to beach the boat with his personal touch once the prow is stuck into the bank all the crew has to do is tie the boo off to the trunks of these majestic mango trees where the passengers can enjoy the cook's to be gen in the shade it's stuffed with a bit of hot pepper it's not too spicy here you have the really hot stuff and what's that that's tamarind um [Music] we heard that a group of pull herdsmen have made camp less than a kilometer from where the buu is moored the pole are nomads and live in flimsy huts made out of branches which they can easily rebuild each time we can only live in the bush even though they live in vast clearings out in the bush the pool never wandered too far from the senegal [Music] river [Music] [Laughter] that's why we left the arid region to come live close to the river the pearl have a very close relationship with their cattle slaughtering or selling them is out of the question the herds are continually growing and it's sometimes difficult to keep them fed but for the pull a cow or a sheep is not only an economic asset it has a spiritual value [Applause] you can recognize it simply by its sound even when i'm in the hut if a sheep bleeds i know which one it is [Music] [Music] uh [Music] we reluctantly leave the poetic simplicity of the pearl village and make our way back to the bu el mogdad anchored in the middle of the [Music] river [Music] hey in the morning we arrive at dagana like podor dagenau was once a thriving riverport on the trade route the docks with their abandoned warehouses are now visited only by the women who come to do their laundry do any of the inhabitants of dagenha still remember what these buildings along the river used to be whether on foot or by taxi which means horse and cart all the inhabitants of dagenha and its outskirts come to the market the market is the focus of all the town's activities all the interchanges huh in a swirl of colorful booboos they sell fish or buy some fruit or grapes there's bargaining laughter arguments it doesn't matter the tone calavere is a way of life here just the stones throw away from this delightful chaos the pupils are entering baganas elementary school but before starting class there are the chores get the school and span [Music] is [Music] [Applause] not all the children of dagenham are fortunate enough to attend this school where they can learn to read write count and especially learn how to speak french for the french language is the only way the country's various ethnic groups with all their different dialects can [Applause] communicate [Applause] the deuce-behaved meal from the calcium disposed in look at some people after arithmetic they move on to [Music] geography [Music] once again the bowel mug dad gets underway we leave the trading posts of dagana and head for richard our next port of call [Music] everyone is at their post on board there are even certain crew members that have two jobs like buba the barman carpenter their grandfathers and their parents who would all make the trip from san luis to my time back in those days there was no road nothing the only means of transportation was this boat a lot of the country's present managers ministers politicians well when they were students at the lycee of san luis they would travel on this boat for the vacations that go up river to matam etc do you think that your children grandchildren and great grandchildren will continue traveling on the boo oh sure and why not when the boat arrived i was already four maybe five years old back then and now i'm 62 and still this boat is really something special we're coming into richard this town got its unusual name from mr richard a botanist who founded a plantation with an irrigation system here in 1830 then tull was tacked on which means garden in wolof the gardens of mryokisha are long gone now it's the sugar refinery that has become the powerhouse of the whole region the refinery employs several thousand people a good number of whom are seasonal workers even though irrigation has allowed the region to diversify its crops the local economy still depends mainly on the refinery it's the refinery that finances the town's school among other projects one can appreciate the industrial aesthetics with its forceful aura but there's no denying that the symbols of power and wealth have changed greatly since the days of baron or jay when baron jacques roger became governor of senegal in 1822 he moved into this folly as they called the mansions built by the aristocrats in the late 18th century the baron rogers folly has now been abandoned muhammadin has moved in with his family and earns his living by telling the story of the mansion to the rare tourists that manage to make their way here and he had a lot of material imported from france to bring european civilization here to build this folly this mansion here in senegal recently the falibbahn roger received the visit of a group of unesco representatives for muhammadin this could mean a steady job unless on the contrary it means that he'll have to leave the premises they say they want to make it an art museum but we're still waiting they say it's going to be an african art museum i have to watch over the house otherwise there won't be anything left of it when they come back it'd be all stolen look there are no more armchairs the shower is gone they stole the doors and windows you have to keep an eye out tie things down do the repairs to save what's left i'm in fact the official guide to the following [Music] we're back at the sugar refinery these men may look like soldiers of fortune but they're cane burners their job is to set fire to the plots of sugarcane in order to burn off the leaves and make the cutter's job easier in just a few seconds the field is ablaze the heat becomes unbearable it's a scene out of dante's inferno [Applause] while the cane burners head off to another plot we get back on board the bouel mogdad after a night sailing down river we come to the juge national bird sanctuary on board a little motorboat we head out to explore this reserve that is home to one of the world's largest bird colonies [Music] in this huge park founded in 1971 in the delta of the senegal river a large variety of birds come to winter side by side with the 20 or so species of mammals that are year-round residents so [Music] [Music] we leave the juge bird sanctuary and the buu el moghdad pursues its voyage on the senegal river towards the diyama dam which keeps the saltwater of the atlantic from mixing with the fresh river water good so please once we pass through the lock the bouel magdad comes into the final stretch of river that will take us to san luis [Music] [Music] with the outline of the feder bridge that appears in the distance we know we're nearing san luis we slip past the banks of the island and approach the war where the buuel mogdad has docked for decades every week a crowd of curiosity seekers gathers to greet the large white boat jean-jacques has never missed the arrival of the mogdad since 2005 when he put the boat back into service on the senegal river she's a survivor for the time being she's the last of the riverboats there will be others i hope but now she's the last boat afloat on the river so we all have the same hope we're hoping that the river will come back to life thanks to the boot and she's allowing us to relive the river's history by calling at the old trading posts and i think it's a childhood dream for me it's a dream for a lot of the river folks to once again see this boat going up and down the river you fall in love with it it's not easy to explain to express but it's not just a boat it's not just a workhorse it also has a soul and even the passengers who are enjoying the cruise become attached to the boat as well and i think that's what makes the magic of the boat what makes the connection with river people and through this boat we try to recreate the bonds with the communities to give life to the places on its route oh [Music] and now we'll be leaving senegal in the company of a native son of san luis hable he's the son of a glio and no one can outdo him in singing the poetry of the city born of the river and the sea 50 meters i composed them all here this is why i wrote all the songs that come from my heart speaking about san luis obispo i can't find the words to talk about this town it's the spirit the calm tranquil spirit [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] i [Music] you

Channel: Stop Over - Documentary, Discovery, History

Views: 1,263,829

Rating: 4.6759043 out of 5

Keywords: travel, adventure, boat, sail, trip, ocean, sea, river, sailboat, cruise, stopover, stop, over, Queen Elizabeth 2, Royal Clipper, Le France, Le Norway, Sun Boat II, Classica, Vat Phou, Bolero, Wind Song, Grigoriy Mikheev icebreaker, Silver Cloud, Stopovertv, Discover, Travel, travels, explore, Stop Over, History, Senegal

Id: IMv75BKmMsQ

Length: 50min 43sec (3043 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2015