Thiès
Encyclopedia
Thiès is the third largest city in Senegal
with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies 60 km east of Dakar
on the N2 road
and at the junction of railway lines to Dakar
, Bamako
and St-Louis
. It is the capital of Thiès Region
and is a major industrial city.
, the Thiès Plateau was a wooded frontier between the kingdoms of Cayor
and Baol
inhabited by the None, an ethnic sub-group of the Sereer. The Sereer None still inhabit the Thiès-None neighborhood of the south-west city today.
The plateau acquired strategic importance when the French
embarked upon an expansionist colonial policy. A military post was created in 1864 and the military have marked the city’s development ever since; it is home to a major military base.
(completed in 1885) Thiès became a rail junction with the Dakar-Niger line
(built 1906-1923). The national network of paved roads created after WWII likewise converged on Thiès, which thus commands nearly all access to the Cap-Vert
Peninsula
(Dakar and Rufisque
).
The railways brought commercial development and migrant laborers, including Bambara from eastern regions of Senegal and from Mali
. The rail workers of Thiès played a key role in the immergence of Senegal’s labor movement. Their strikes in 1937 and again in 1947-48 also marked the development of the independence movement across French West Africa
.
Thiès is best known for its tapestry
-making industry, an exclusive factory having been set up in 1966, producing work designed by Senegal’s top artists. The famous Birds of Paradise tapestry was manufactured in Thiès. The city also contains a polytechnic
school.
As the transportation hub of a productive agricultural hinterland: rice
, peanut
s, manioc, millet
, and fruit
, the city is a leading livestock
-trading and meat
-packing center. It has rail yards and repair shops, and alumina phosphate deposits are worked at nearby Palo
and Taïba.
Today, Thiès is developing increasingly as an extension of the congested Cap-Vert Peninsula. It is attracting industrial investments (electrical and mechanical engineering) and there are plans to link it to Dakar by highway and commuter train.
Other attractions in Thiès include a museum
, an artisanal and crafts village and a few remains of old fortification
s.
, France
Sousse
, Tunisia
Solingen
, Germany
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies 60 km east of Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
on the N2 road
N2 road (Senegal)
The N2 road is one of the national roads of Senegal. It connects the west and the east of the country.Towns located along the highway include:* Kaolack* Thiès* St-Louis* Richard Toll* Ouro Sogui* Kidira...
and at the junction of railway lines to Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
and St-Louis
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...
. It is the capital of Thiès Region
Thiès Region
-Administrative divisions:Thiès is divided in 3 departments , 11 communes, 10 arrondissements, and 31 communautés rurales.-Departments:The departments of Thies region are:*M'bour*Thiès*Tivaoune-Communes:In Thiès:*Pout*Khombole...
and is a major industrial city.
History
Before colonizationFrench conquest of Senegal
The French conquest of Senegal started from 1659 with the establishment of Saint-Louis, Senegal, followed by the French capture of the island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677, but would only become a full-scale campaign in the 19th century....
, the Thiès Plateau was a wooded frontier between the kingdoms of Cayor
Cayor
The Kingdom of Cayor was the largest and most powerful kingdom that split off from the Empire of Jolof , in what is now Senegal. Cayor was located in north and central Senegal, southeast of Waalo, west of the kingdom of Jolof and north of Baol and the Kingdom of Sine.In 1549, the king, or...
and Baol
Baol
The Kingdom of Baol or Bawol in central Senegal was one of the ancient kingdoms of the Serer people pre-the Jolof Empire, an Empire it would later join voluntarily just like the other States. However it gained prominence after the split-up of the Empire in 1555...
inhabited by the None, an ethnic sub-group of the Sereer. The Sereer None still inhabit the Thiès-None neighborhood of the south-west city today.
The plateau acquired strategic importance when the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
embarked upon an expansionist colonial policy. A military post was created in 1864 and the military have marked the city’s development ever since; it is home to a major military base.
Transport
At first a simple rail stop, or "escale", on the Dakar-Saint Louis lineDakar-Saint-Louis railway
The railroad linking Dakar to Saint-Louis was the first railroad line of the French West Africa when it opened in 1885. It is nowadays out of service.-External links:*...
(completed in 1885) Thiès became a rail junction with the Dakar-Niger line
Dakar-Niger Railway
The Dakar–Niger Railway connects Dakar, to Koulikoro, . It serves many cities in Senegal and Mali...
(built 1906-1923). The national network of paved roads created after WWII likewise converged on Thiès, which thus commands nearly all access to the Cap-Vert
Cap-Vert
Cap-Vert is a peninsula in Senegal, and the westernmost point of the continent of Africa and of the Old World mainland. Originally called Cabo Verde or "Cape Green" by Portuguese explorers, it is not to be confused with the Cape Verde islands, which are some further west...
Peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
(Dakar and Rufisque
Rufisque
Rufisque is a city in the Dakar region of western Senegal, at the base of the Cap-Vert Peninsula. It has a population of 179,797 . In the past it was an important port city in its own right, but is now a suburb of Dakar....
).
The railways brought commercial development and migrant laborers, including Bambara from eastern regions of Senegal and from Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
. The rail workers of Thiès played a key role in the immergence of Senegal’s labor movement. Their strikes in 1937 and again in 1947-48 also marked the development of the independence movement across French West Africa
French West Africa
French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...
.
Economy
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...
-making industry, an exclusive factory having been set up in 1966, producing work designed by Senegal’s top artists. The famous Birds of Paradise tapestry was manufactured in Thiès. The city also contains a polytechnic
Institute of technology
Institute of technology is a designation employed in a wide range of learning institutions awarding different types of degrees and operating often at variable levels of the educational system...
school.
As the transportation hub of a productive agricultural hinterland: rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s, manioc, millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
, and fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, the city is a leading livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
-trading and meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
-packing center. It has rail yards and repair shops, and alumina phosphate deposits are worked at nearby Palo
Palo
Palo may refer to:*Palo , developed by slaves from Central Africa in Cuba*Palos, long drums used in the music of the Dominican Republic*Palo , the name for a musical form in flamenco*Palo , a Mallorcan liqueurPlaces...
and Taïba.
Today, Thiès is developing increasingly as an extension of the congested Cap-Vert Peninsula. It is attracting industrial investments (electrical and mechanical engineering) and there are plans to link it to Dakar by highway and commuter train.
Other attractions in Thiès include a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
, an artisanal and crafts village and a few remains of old fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
s.
Twin towns
Thiès is twinned with: CaenCaen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
External links
- Thiès public services Site of the Mayor of Thiès Thiesinfo, Local newspaper webportal Situation économique et sociale (For year 2004) (Local government, Service régional de Thiès, September 2005)