The Islands of Madeleine are made up of two rock massifs, that is a big levy called "Snakes island" and a small one called "island Lougne". They are situated on the West from the peninsula of the Green Cap to Senegal, the most western part of Africa. In 3,8 kilometres of the point the closest to the continent, they face the fish market of Soumbédioune. They are part of four small islands which surround the peninsula of the Green Cap with in the South the Island of Gorée and in the North the Islands of Yoff and Ngor.
The Islands of Madeleine present a magic architecture. They are an inheritance of what was named the volcanic system of Dakar resulting from an important old volcanic phase dating to 5 to 7 million years and which extended in the South and east of the peninsula of Cape Verde. Types of basic dark cliffs ensue from flows of lava such as basanite, dolerite. By cooling, they formed "colonnades of prism", impressive sheaves of rocks which give to the cliffs a bewitching charm.
Further to this volcanic period, cracks in rocks let escape from volcanic gases provoking the intervention of tuffs limestones in the whole of the creek Hubert. It is the whitish and rather crisp rock which, further to a fast erosion, formed the depression of the creek.
This 4 metre- deep natural pond is the refuge of an incredible variety of sorts of fishes and the other inhabitants of the maritime capital. The bathings are without danger there. It is the only place which favors the access to the island for small boats.
The Snakes Island possesses several identities. The elder of the country called it "Gorée gu ndjekk", meaning former Gorée, the origine of which would go back up to the installation of the first Lébou of the Green Cap. Several namings result from navigators and travelers, but we will retain two: the Snakes Island and the Island of Madeleine.
The naming "Snakes island", which reminded for a long time that it would be infested with snakes, is recent. It appears on no card previous to the 20 th century. According to even a legend the expression "Snakes Island" is a deformation of "Island Sarpant", the name of a rebel sergeant of the French colonial army. By way of punishment, this soldier had been deported there and afterward would have asked and obtained the license to settle down there definitively. He would have disappeared there.
We find on the spot the ruins of his hut, which is in fact the compartment built by Lacombe, an inhabitant of Gorée who frequented the island of Madeleine from where he took blocks of basalt for his constructions. He also took a baobab there which he transplanted on the square of the slaves Island (island of Gorée ). We can again admire it.
The naming "island of Madeleine" is more ancient. It results either from Portuguese Ilha de Madalena, or of the name of one of the hydrographic vessels which, at the beginning of the 18th century, drew up the card of the coast.
It is also an archeological site with numerous protohistoric vestiges such as potteries, tools, etc.They are presently kept to the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa (IFAN). The presence of the man on the Island of Madeleine would go back up to 1000-2000 years. The existence of this one is indicated since well before the discovery of America by Denis Diaz in 1444.
The Lébou called the Islands Lougnes "Lar", which means "thiar", that is a ramification of something. And in this context, these islands are part of the Islands of Madeleine. But the naming Islands "Lougnes" meaning appearence on the surface of the water was retained.
Valentin Fernandez mentioned "two islands with many birds, shells and with green trees". Other explorers and travelers spoke about it in their notes always with this mention of the presence of birds droppings of which give this white colour to the basalt rocks constituting them. So the Dutch called them "Iles Conchiées" while in the 17th Arbancourt spoke about "Isles de Merde".
In 1749, Adanson visited the island and discovered the baobab which will be scientifically named henceforth Adansonia digitata.
In 1765, these islands are given up in perpetuity to the crown of France by the Damel of Cayor, the former realm of Senegal.
In 1770, Mr. Lacombe built there his compartment. He tried to cultivate vegetables and failed quite like several attempts previously and afterward.
In 1944, there was a project to transform the island into a French Western Africa seaside sanatorium.
The Islands of Madeleine have maintained a natural balance thanks to the limitation of any human attacks. This conservation is among others due to their distance of the continent, to their exposure towards the swell, contrary to Gorée, what makes its difficult and sometimes dangerous moistening, but especially of its very respected status of house of the genius protector of the Lébou of Dakar, Ndeuk Daour who opposes to any human installations. However with the urban development of Dakar, he has undergone anthropological actions (growth of the activity of the fishing with the creation of the fish market of Soumbédioune).
The State has decided then to take suited measures for the ecological defence of the site. The Islands of Madeleine were set up as reserve by order in 1949, then decreeded national park in 1976.
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| THE NATIONAL PARK OF THE ISLANDS OF MADELEINE |
With 50 hectares of surface, the National park of the Islands of Madeleine is the smallest maritime park of the world. It includes the Big Island, the Islands Lougnes and a part of the sea which extends over 50 metres from islands. It is situated off Dakar in approximately 3,8 kilometres.
The Island Lougnes, which are inaccessible, are made up of two cliffs similar to sentinels in front of a fortress making the access difficult. The big island, like a semi-immersed mammoth, includes two creeks : the creek Hubert making it accessible in dugout and the North creek.
The park is an island of volcanic origin in maritime environment, limited by abrupt cliffs. These cliffs protect the island from waves. It is a rocky island with steppe coverage. The abrupt cliffs, the cliffs in form of peaks, do not manage to retain the sand on the island, hence its scarcity in this sanctuary. The forms of rocks, their slope, their break testify of a very important tectonic movement. Futhermore, the ground is wrinkled. In the entry of the creek Hubert a synclinal part of the Islands of Madeleine comes to light. At the time of its forming, the Island has undergone a compression entailing its visible wrinkling in some parts.
The park allows the protection of a ichtyologic fauna particularly plentiful of the maritime capital rocky shallow.It is forbidden to fish there. The submarine dive offers full of curiosities (big variety of fauna and flora).
The Snakes island, made by basanites, presents a particular, very specific plant setting due essentially to its island character and its composition. Some baobabs of dwarfish shape and less than 5- metre bushes summarize briefly some typical aspects of the vegetation of the island adapted to the insularity of the environment, to the volcanic ground and to the sea breeze. Species of plants, which are very appreciated by the botanists, are listed on the park.
The islands welcome big cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo). We also observe there balbuzards fishermen (Pandion haliaetus) and the madmen of Bassan (Sula bassana) during their migration. But they accommodate especially a magnificent bird, the main inhabitant who lives there permanently : the Phaeton, emblem of the park. It constitutes all its pride.
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| THE JEWEL OF THE PARK : THE PHAETON |
The Phaeton, Phaeton aethereus mesonauta constitutes a big curiosity. It is the rare bird with an exceptional beauty nesting only in three sites of the world: the Islands of Madeleine in Senegal, Islands Asunción and the Islands of Cape Verde.
Its main characteristic confers it the name of "Phaeton with red beak". This bird is a pelagic species, meaning that it is exclusively present in high sea. Indeed, Phaetons live in high tide and have sometimes been observed in several hundreds of kilometres of any lands. They find their rest by settling on water and are very rarely observable on ground outside their period of reproduction on the islands quoted above.
The behavior in sea of this pelagic species is not well know because the populations are weak and the individuals remain isolated or in couple. What we know is that it feeds on fishes such as fishes-steering, wheels and sardinelles as well as squids which it arrests by diving upright like a Tern.
The Phaeton can be confused with a Tern, but it is different from it by the presence of palms between four toes. It measures 90 to 105 centimeters long for a wingspan from 99 to 106 centimeters and has the upper hand blocked and a black eye line. It is an excellent long-flight bird but is incapable to walk. It presents a white and black plumage in some parts, a red beak and a tail made by long feathers which confers it the name of "Straw in Tail". It shakes it elegantly during the courtship display.
There are no distinguishing features between the male and the female. The big bridal season begins in December. It nests in the cracks of cliffs.Its survival is always critical because that it lays only an egg, that the couple broods two months permanently. The bird has only two periods of laying in the year, that is once every six months.
Forty days after the hatching, the small begins to fly. The young differs from the adult by its orange- yellow coloured beak and the absence of central rectrices.
Phaetons live regularly on the Island of Madeleine. They do not change a nest and if the small grow, the parents have to find a new nest somewhere else.
The Phaeton or "straw in tail" is not afraid of the man. It allows to be approached and can come to the meeting of his observer.That is an incredible moment. There are one thousand on the island for five hundred nests there, hence the big interest to protect this environment.
The island of Madeleine, which shelters a rare and exceptional bird, contributes to the restoration of the biovariety of the Island Teunguène by supplying native botanical species. Indeed, this island, the stage for migratory birds, is the refuge of a vegetable and maririme variety more and more threatened by the man.
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Situated in approximately 300 metres of the shore with a surface of hardly 200 m2, the Island of Teunguène is in front of village of Yoff. Following the example of the islands of Madeleine, it has a volcanic origin. It contains in the North a 8,7- metre high cliff marking the peak of the island. Its relief bows southward in a hillside which comes down up to the sea. Excepted the side facing the village, where stays a small beach and where dugouts accost, coasts are mainly occupied by big sized rocks.
The island of Teunguène, exempt from any construction, was always reserved for the ritual ceremonies. It is the house of a genius of the Lébou, Mame Woré Moll. Besides, it was a stage for migratory birds and refuge of a vegetable and maritime variety. But for some time it was confronted with problems of anthropological origin. Submarine fishermen and children went there to take shells and shellfishes. This attendance entailed a very pushed degradation there. Furthermore, sheeps and goats put down on the island to protect fields localized on the continent had a negative impact on the vegetation.
To protect this sanctuary, symbol of the affection of the Lebou to land and marine nature as well as of its guardian genius Mame Ndiaré, the religious, usual and civil authorities, the economic actors and the inhabitants of Yoff agreed by consensus to set up the island Area of the Community Patrimony. An Area of the Community Patrimony is another conception of the protected areas the particularity of which is that its creation, its management and its supervision are under the only responsibility of the local population. Since no sheep and no goat has been anymore landed on the island. For the restoration of the vegetable coverage of Teunguène, it is foreseen by individuals takings among the native species which are still present in the national park of the islands of Madeleine. This rebuilding will allow the nesting of sea birds that would restore completely to Teunguène its character of lively patrimony.
This island is the first one of the world to be proclaimed in June 1998 Area of the Community Patrimony of Teunguène. The World Union for the Nature (UICN) as well as UNESCO are interested in it. At the suggestion of UNESCO, the concept of the Areas of the Community Patrimony has been diffused in western Africa. The reproduction of these Areas would enable to answer to the necessity of managing the global environment except for the classic protected areas. Their vocation would be to put the populations in a step of compatible economic development with the conservation of their cultural values, their resources and their natural environment.
The island of Teunguène, Area of the Community Patrimony of Yoff, has a history rather unpredictable and surrounded with mysteries, in the sense that it is the seat of domestic altars and the house of a genius of the Lé bou, Mame Woré Moll. This sacred aspect of the island makes the Lébou population of Yoff respect it.
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Native of the Nile valley, in High Egypt, the Lébou, people of the sea, emigrated by progress of small groups and, from the 11th century, their presence was noted in the realm of Djolof, in the center of Senegal. This realm exercised its domination on all the country from 1116 to 1549.
Remained for a long time rebellious in the authority of king, the Lébou was chased away Djolof. They settled down in the peninsula of Cape Verde after having forced the occupants, the socée ethnic group, to leave places. They based several villages along the coast, among which we can quote Yoff.
The Lébou live by the sea which, according to them, is a world populated with mysterious splendors or fatal beings and but disturbing that are the geniuses. They bound alliance with these latter who guarantees their security and their prosperity. They passed on to them knowledge on the sea. It is so, for example, that they know all necessary words to recite to fish a lot of fishes, to calm the fury of the sea, etc.
The ethnic group Lébou believes in idols. In all the villages and the families, sacrifices are periodically made for the protector geniuses who are dispensers of good and evil. Thus,in Yoff, the Lébou are engaged in ritual ceremonies called Tuuru or Ndeup. They are very respected practices during which an animal is sacrificed and the blood poured on the altar.
All the Lébou of Yoff are under the protection of a big genius, Mame Ndiaré. However every big family (xeet) has its own genius besides this common genius. If a family stays for such a long time without making of sacrifices for his/her genius (rab), this one feels offended and imposes a punishment to some of his/her members by making them sick. The victim can suffer from an incurable disease or be confined to bed a long time. In these cases, doctors cannot look after her/him. At the moment, the Lébou appeals to the ndeup or to the tuuru.
As for ndeup, it is sacrificed either an ox or one goat or a chicken. These sacrifices are offered during ceremonies of exorcism. The exorcizer is a person enjoying traditional legacies, supernatural powers enabling him/her to communicate with the geniuses of good or evil. In the daytime of the ndeup, he/she is dressed in traditional suits with visible amulets. These ceremonies are accompanied with songs and traditional dances.
As for the tuuru, it appears under several forms. We have the individual tuuru, the domestic tuuru and the commemorative or big tuuru tuuru of Mame Ndiaré.
The individual tuuru is a rite that the individual makes towards his/her rab, the protector genius of his/her family. The rite of this turu is carried out on the sacred altar, the place of sacrifice and the house of the rab. The individual comes towards the rab to ask for help in her/his personal or therapeutic domains. It is killed either an ox, a goat or a chicken. It is also offered to the genius dough of grain and milk poured on the sacred altars (khambs).
In the case of the domestic tuuru, we will take the example of that of one of the most former families implanted in the village of Yoff, the Mbengue. Once a year, this family organizes a tuuru dedicated to its protector genius Mame Woré Moll, living in the island of Teunguène. It lasts a day and is the most famous domestic tuuru. The offerings and every detail of the procedure for the ceremony meet the requirements of Mame Woré Moll.
The commemorative or big tuuru is a rite dedicated to the protector genius of the village, Mame Ndiaré. It marks the anniversary of the independence of the village of Yoff from the inhabitants of Cayor. It is not achieved in a fixed date because it is Mame Ndiaré who contacts some persons to incite them to prepare the rite. Every inhabitant gives a contribution in cash or in kind (nut, milk, etc.) which is collected to bring it to Dieuw, the house of Mame Ndiaré. At the request of Mame Ndiaré, only one black goat is intended for the sacrifice during the tuuru. The villagers are going to put down the blood, the paws, the bones, and the horns in the indicated places. These are sacred sites of the Lébou pantheon. The tuuru lasts a week and the other animals sacrificed for the occasion are intended for the festivities of the ceremony.
It is important to clarify that the big tuuru and the domestic tuuru of Mbengue have the same objectives. The consequences of the rite of Mbengue will concern all the village, althought it is only domestic and so considered as additional of that dedicated to Mame Ndiaré.
Very conservative, the Lebou always devote to these heathen practices, hence the importance and the respect which they grant to certain maritime natural places, because of their sacred character. Indeed, these last ones shelter or symbolize their defender geniuses. It is the case of the island of Teunguène for the Lébou of Yoff and the islands of Madeleine for the Lébou of Dakar.
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