Report: National Atlas of Senegal

Summary

This bibliographic review introduces and evaluates the *Atlas National du Sénégal* (1977), a landmark cartographic publication produced by a collaborative team of forty French and Senegalese researchers under the auspices of ORSTOM, IFAN, and CNRS, with printing by the Institut Géographique National. The review highlights the atlas’s genesis, outlined in a preface by President Léopold Sédar Senghor and an avant-propos by the editorial committee, which underscore the ambition to depict Senegal’s temporal and spatial reality within a global context. The atlas comprises 65 plate sets accompanied by dense scholarly notices. The review systematically surveys the atlas’s thematic structure: it opens with maps by Assane Seck situating Senegal’s global position and African relations, followed by Marcel Leroux’s climatological synthesis with 32 sketch maps. Geomorphological, hydrogeological, and pedological contributions by Pierre Michel are noted for their clarity and precision, while oceanographic maps by Chabanne, Rebert, and Domain synthesize recent Dakar-Thiaroye research. A particularly innovative historical section, co-authored by Descamps, Martin, Becker, and others, spans prehistory, protohistory with megalithic photography, medieval kingdoms, ethnic migrations, and colonial resistance. Contemporary themes include ethnolinguistic and religious diversity, administrative organization, population growth, rural dynamics (notably groundnut cultivation and pastoral transhumance), fisheries, industry, commerce, tourism, regional migration, and urban geography—the latter largely the work of the late Marc Vernière. The review praises the atlas’s expressive color choices, cartographic finesse, and comprehensive coverage of health, medicinal plants, education, and Senegal’s major regions (Fleuve, Sénégal Oriental, Casamance, Cap Vert). Concluding, the review lauds the atlas as a fundamental, precious working instrument and a decisive contribution to the knowledge of Senegal, a successful outcome of a bold and challenging enterprise.