Bakel

Bakel stands on the left bank of the Senegal River in eastern Senegal, about sixty-five kilometres from Mali. A canoe ferry links the town with Gouraye on the Mauritanian bank, keeping the river a working part of daily movement rather than a simple boundary. The surrounding Sahel is semi-arid, with little vegetation outside the rainy season, and low hills rise around the settlement. Most inhabitants farm and herd, while town dwellers work in carpentry, masonry, transport and the sale of fruit and produce.

A permanent market and a weekly lumo serve people across the department. Soninke speakers form the majority, alongside Pulaar, Bambara and Wolof communities. Bakel was an important trading depot within Gajaaga, or the Kingdom of Galam. In the early seventeenth century, Ndiaye family members fleeing succession disputes in the Jolof Empire settled in the area and gradually joined the local Soninke population.

Gajaaga and Bundu competed for control of the town over the following century. French traders entered the region in the eighteenth century, and in 1818 a flotilla stopped at Bakel when falling water blocked further travel, leading to the construction of Fort Bakel. The fort supported trade in gum arabic, gold, leather and ivory and became a base for French influence.

The later city of Sélibaby also lies nearby.