Rufisque (; Wolof: Tëngeéj) is a city in the

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

region of western

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, at the base of the

Cap-Vert Cap-Vert, or the Cape Verde Peninsula, and Kap Weert or Bopp bu Nëtëx (in Wolof), is a peninsula in Senegal and the westernmost point of the continent of Africa and of the Afro-Eurasia mainland. Portuguese explorers called it Cabo Verde or ...

Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

east of

, the capital. It has a population of 295,459 (2023 census).Citypopulation.de
Population of the major cities in Senegal In the past it was an important port city in its own right, but is now a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of Dakar. Rufisque is also the capital of the department of the same name.

History

Originally a Lebou fishing village called Tenguedj (), Rufisque became important in the 16th century as the principal port of the kingdom of Cayor, being frequented by Portuguese (who named it ''Rio Fresco'', meaning "Freshwater River", hence the name of the modern city), Dutch, French and English traders. A Euro-African Creole, or

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

, community of merchants grew up there, in close contact with similar communities in Saint Louis, Gorée and other places along the Petite Côte ( Saly-Portudal, Joal) south to the

Gambia River The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra, French language, French: ''Fleuve Gambie'', Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Rio Gâmbia'') is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward ...

. By the 1650s, the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

had consolidated control over the coastal trade and built a fortified factory at Rufisque. In 1840 a couple of Saint Louis merchants built warehouses on the waterfront to stock

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s. Gorée merchants followed suit. There followed a period of commercial expansion as peanut production in Cayor boomed. In 1859 a fort was built by the French and Rufisque was annexed to the Colony of Senegal. The "Escale" commercial and administrative neighborhood along the waterfront was laid out in 1862—the African inhabitants being pushed out in the process. Rufisque became a "commune" in 1880 and its port was connected to the Dakar-Saint Louis railroad in 1885. In 1909 Galandou Diouf (died 1941) was elected to represent Rufisque in the General Council of the colony in Saint Louis, being the first African elected to that position.

Decline of port

Early in the 20th century the growth of neighboring Dakar, with its superior port facilities, signaled the decline of Rufisque. No longer an active port, Rufisque has experienced steep industrial decline. Relatively neglected compared to rest of Senegal's four historic communes, it has no tourism sector and a chronic lack of investment in public infrastructure.

Industry

Rufisque has a cement works.

Administration

Omar Cissé took office as Mayor of Rufisque on 28 January 2022. Previously, Mbaye-Jacques Diop was Mayor from 1987 to 2002, and subsequently designated as Honorary Mayor, and Ndiawar Touré served from June 2002.

Notable people

* Papa Bouba Diop - footballer * Mamadou Seck (footballer) - footballer * Ousmane Diop Socé - writer and politician * Thierno Youm - footballer * Abdoulaye Sadji - Writer

References

External links

Rufisque News
online version of Rufisque-based newspaper. * Portions of this article were translated from French language Wikipedia's :fr:Rufisque. {{Authority control