immergence [ih-murj]

Thiès

Thiès (pronounced “chess," Wolof: Cès) 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. Thiès is twinned with Solingen, Germany.

History

Before colonization, 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 which had been subject to Wolof rule within the kingdom of Cayor. The 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.

Transport

At first a simple rail stop, or "escale", on the Dakar-Saint Louis line (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 Cape Vert Peninsula (Dakar and Rufisque).

The railways brought commercial development and migrant laborers, including "Bambaras" 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.

Economy

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, peanuts, 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 Cape 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 fortifications.