Samson Mulugeta

For decades, the Senegalese capital of Dakar has stood out as a vibrant, cosmopolitan centre in West Africa, an intoxicating mix of Africa, Islamic influences and French sophistication.

It’s the birthplace of Negritude, the philosophy of black pride and ideas whose strongest champion was Leopold Sedar Senghor, Senegal’s first president. Senghor, the nation’s philosopher-king for nearly 20 years, gave up power willingly, ensuring a democratic tradition that has made Senegal a model of orderly transition in the continent.

The port city is a place that manages to balance a deep Islamic piety with an African joy de vivre that splashes a dash of magnanimity into the sterner version of the faith practiced further north and east.

Dakar was the place chosen by Thabo Mbeki and the African National Congress in the late 1980s for secret meetings with South African business leaders, a step on the road towards the peaceful negotiated transition from apartheid rule in the early 1990s.