Gorée

Gorée is an island off Dakar, Senegal, whose history includes the Atlantic slave trade and whose historic district is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Dakar: Dakar is Senegal’s capital and a major port on the Cape Verde Peninsula. Gorée lies just off Dakar, whose growth later eclipsed the island’s port.
House of Slaves: The House of Slaves is a historic building on Gorée associated with the memory of the Atlantic slave trade. Its exhibitions and Door of No Return make it the island’s most prominent memorial site.
Atlantic slave trade: The Atlantic slave trade was the forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Gorée’s public significance is inseparable from its place in the wider slave-trading system.
Elmina Castle: Elmina Castle is a Portuguese-built fortress in Ghana later used in the Atlantic slave trade. Like Gorée, it is a West African heritage site tied to slave-trade memory, but its history differs.
Portuguese Empire: The Portuguese Empire was a global maritime empire established through overseas exploration and colonization. Portuguese sailors reached Gorée in the fifteenth century, beginning its documented European colonial era.
Fort d’Estrées: Fort d’Estrées is a seventeenth-century fort on Gorée that now houses Senegal’s Historical Museum. The fort links the island’s military history with exhibitions on Senegal’s past.
Door of No Return: The Door of No Return is a doorway at the House of Slaves associated with the departure of enslaved Africans. It condenses the island’s memorial narrative into an evocative image of forced departure.
Cape Coast Castle: Cape Coast Castle is a coastal fortress in Ghana that became a major British slave-trading post. Its documented role in British trafficking offers a comparison with Gorée’s layered colonial history.
Dutch West India Company: The Dutch West India Company was a chartered company that pursued trade, colonization, and warfare in the Atlantic world. The company seized Gorée from Portugal in 1627 and built Fort Nassau there.
Gorée Memorial: The Gorée Memorial is a monument commemorating victims of the Atlantic slave trade on the island. It extends Gorée’s commemorative landscape beyond the House of Slaves.

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French conquest of SenegalRelated: Its earlier French presence formed part of the coastal foothold from which colonial power grew.