ABSTRACT
The presence of the pointed arch on “colonial” mosques in Senegal is what sparked the question of why this particular aesthetic – normally associated with contemporary Gothic Revival churches in Europe – was chosen and what the driving force was behind this choice. A comparison with other European colonial powers and their involvement in building either mosques or other religious edifices in their foreign dominions reveals the complexity of the relationship between colonizer and colonized. It may be that the French administration was mostly responsible for the mosques of Saint-Louis and Dakar but it is equally probable that local masons trained by the French undertook their construction. In the absence of a named architect, the question of who designed the Senegalese colonial mosques remains an unresolved puzzle.1
