Podor

Podor lies on the Île à Morfil, a long strip of land between the Senegal River and its southern branch, the Doué. In the heart of Futa Toro, the river and its floods shaped a landscape of settlements and cultivated land, while boats carried merchants along the valley.

In the 1740s Pierre Barthélemy David established a French fort at Podor for the Compagnie des Indes, extending its commercial presence upriver from Saint-Louis. French traders sought access to the exchange networks of Futa Toro and the interior, but their post depended on relations with the people and rulers of the river country. Trade at Podor proved limited, and the fort was abandoned in the 1780s. The site remained a point of contact between the river valley and the Atlantic-facing settlements downstream.