The Sine-Saloum Delta & the Centre

The delta has been lived in for many centuries. Its people piled up huge middens of shells from harvested shellfish, some used as burial mounds, which are the reason for the UNESCO listing. From the 14th and 15th centuries, the Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum ruled the region. Sine had its capital at Diakhao and was ruled by a king called the maad a sinig; Saloum, with its capital at Kahone near Kaolack, grew rich on salt and trade.

In the 19th century the Muslim reformer Maba Diakhou Ba led a jihad across Saloum and neighbouring lands, but in 1867 he was killed at the battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune by the forces of Sine. The French, advancing from the coast, took control of the region in the late 19th century, and the peanut basin was born as the colonial economy pushed groundnut farming across the interior. Kaolack became the main collecting centre and river port for the crop.

In the 20th century Kaolack also became a religious capital when Ibrahim Niass founded Medina Baye, from which his branch of the Tijaniyya spread across West Africa. Kaffrine was separated from Kaolack region in 2008. Fatick's best-known modern figure is Macky Sall, born there in 1961, who became president in 2012.

This is Serer country, particularly in Fatick and the delta, and Serer identity is strong and distinctive. Many Serer are Muslim, but the region has a notable Catholic minority, and traditional Serer religion survives alongside both. Each year the Xoy, a gathering of saltigués — seers — is held in Fatick to foretell the coming rains and harvest. Wrestling, a Serer tradition, is taken very seriously, and village bouts after the harvest draw crowds.

Kaolack is Wolof-speaking and strongly shaped by the Tijaniyya: Medina Baye draws followers from Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritania and beyond, and its annual gatherings fill the city. The island villages of the delta have their own identity, with Niominka fishermen and women who gather oysters and shellfish in the mangroves.

Manners follow the national norms of greetings, shared bowls and ataya tea. Religious tolerance is widely admired; mixed Muslim and Christian families are common among the Serer.

Kaolack is the largest city, a busy commercial hub with a huge central market, groundnut oil mills and salt works along the Saloum river. Fatick and Kaffrine are smaller administrative towns, and Foundiougne, Sokone and Koungheul serve their districts. Much of the population is rural.

Farming dominates: groundnuts, millet and sorghum in the peanut basin, with cattle and horses in most villages, and horse-drawn carts on every road. In the delta, men fish from pirogues and women harvest oysters, cockles and salt. Tourism provides jobs in the lodges around Toubacouta, Palmarin and Ndangane.

The rhythm follows the farming year: planting when the rains come in July, weeding through the wet season and harvesting peanuts in the autumn. Current issues include soil exhaustion in the peanut basin, low crop prices, salinisation of farmland near the delta, loss of mangroves, and young people leaving for Dakar or abroad.

Peanuts dominate the central diet. Mafé, a stew of meat in a thick groundnut sauce, is everyday food, and roasted peanuts are sold by the paper cone at every bus stop. Millet is the grain of the countryside, eaten as thiéré (steamed couscous) with a sauce, or as the sweet porridge lakh with curdled milk.

The delta adds seafood. Mangrove oysters are grilled over the embers; cockles, crabs and fish from the channels are dried or smoked for sale. Grilled fish with rice is standard in the island villages, and ceebu jën is made with the local catch.

Among Serer Christians, ngalakh — a sweet mixture of millet, peanut paste and baobab fruit — is prepared at Easter and shared with Muslim neighbours. Bissap and bouye juices are sold everywhere, and ataya tea closes most meals.

The Saloum delta is the region's great sight: a maze of mangrove channels, sandbanks and low islands where the Saloum river meets the Atlantic. It is protected as a national park and biosphere reserve, and the delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its shell middens and burial mounds. Pirogue trips run from Ndangane, Djifer, Foundiougne and Toubacouta to island villages such as Mar Lodj, Dionewar and Niodior, where visitors can see fishing, oyster gathering and birdlife — pelicans, herons, terns and flamingos. Palmarin, on the northern edge, has marshes, beaches and palms, and the Pointe de Sangomar is a sand spit at the mouth.

In the south of the delta, the Bandiala channels around Missirah and the Fathala forest reserve, part of the national park, add woodland to the mangroves.

Inland, Kaolack is worth a stop for its large central market and the Grand Mosque of Medina Baye. Beyond, the peanut basin around Kaffrine is flat country of baobabs, millet fields and village markets, where the harvest season of groundnut piles and horse carts is the scene most visitors remember.