Goree Island, Senegal 2024

Goree Island, located about a mile off the coast of Dakar is a small island (45 acres) that was the largest slave-trading center on the African coast.

It was ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French.

Now it serves mostly as a memorial to the slave trade and the atrocities slaves faced waiting to be shipped out.

Some say over 20 million people were sent from Senegal and other say it’s more like 10 million. Some 6 million might have perished just from local disease.

As many as 30 men would sit in an eight foot cell with only a small slit of the window facing outward. They were chained and shackled 23 hours daily.

The last step a slave would have in Africa was onto the wooden plank leading to the slave ship through the Door of No Return.

Our entire group agreed that the day was extra grim, but the tour was important.

These days the island is inhabited by about 1,000 people who live mainly from tourism.

The goats were fun to look at and listen to. They smelled disgusting though.