ABSTRACT
The Port of Saint Louis was founded in 1659 by French merchants on an island in the mouth of the River Senegal. An analysis of the interrelationships between ports and their shifting hinterlands offers many advantages in challenging the conventional mapping and timing of the development of colonial Africa. Multiple forces interacted in organising space in the regions which lay behind the ports of Senegal, including the colonial administrations, metropolitan commercial companies, indigenous political authorities, religious leaders, African trading networks, local communities, as well as families and households. In a wider context, the nature of the changing relationship between Senegal's ports and their hinterlands was itself a result of colonial policies that reflected economic, political and social objectives. Indeed, the port-cities of Senegal, in particular Saint Louis, performed a critical function by bringing together diverse peoples and cultures and can therefore be considered as bridges between civilisations.
