Fred Oluoch
29 June 2009
column
Nairobi — DESPITE ITS INFAMY courtesy of its slave trading past, Goree Island is also home to churches and buildings that have put it on the world map and has been visited by thousands of tourists and leaders from around the world, from former US president Bill Clinton and former South African president Nelson Mandela.
The most famous of the churches on Goree Island is the St Borromee Catholic Church built in 1829 using slave labour, and named after an Italian archbishop from Barromee Island in Italy.
The church is still used for prayers to date and in 1992, while on a visit to the island, Pope John Paul II visited the church and apologised to the African people for the role the Catholic Church played in the slave trade.
The church was built for rich white slave dealers and not even their rich African collaborators or African chiefs could worship there. They had to follow the mass from the yard.
The second most important building on the island is the first university in West Africa, Ecole Normal, build by William Ponty, a French governor in West Africa from 1913-1937.
It was the training ground for the early elite of West Africa who later became political leaders and even presidents in their respective countries at the time of independence. Many of the school's graduates would one day lead the struggle for independence from France.
THESE WERE FÉLIX HOUphouët-Boigny and Bernard Binlin Dadié of Côte d'Ivoire, Modibo Keïta of Mali, Hamani Diori and Boubou Hama of Niger, Hubert Maga of Benin (former Dahomey), Mamadou Dia of Senegal and Maurice Yaméogo and Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly of Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta).
Other students were internationally renown jurists Kéba Mbaye and Ousmane Goundiam and Guinean politician Diallo Telli, who was a founder of the now defunct Organisation of African Unity.
The school had a two-year common core curriculum for students intending to become teachers or administrative clerks.
Those who intended to study medicine, pharmacy or midwifery had one more year of introductory science at William Ponty School before transferring to the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy.
Goree Island is also home to the first medical school in West Africa, built in 1806 adjacent to the church, and now a hospital run by Catholic nuns. Most of the early doctors in West Africa were trained here.
The church where famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama prayed is still standing, currently serving as the island's only police station.
In an attempt to give Goree Island a modern face, the government of Senegal built the Mariama Ba High School, where 25 most intelligent girls in the country receive pre-university training every year.
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