Ouakam

Ouakam is the district of the two hills. On one stands the Mamelles lighthouse, lit since 1864, its beam turning over the rooftops every night; on the other, the African Renaissance Monument, fifty metres of bronze unveiled in 2010, whose taste is arguable but whose visibility is not — you see it from the plane, from the sea and from half of Dakar.

Below, against the cliff, is the other Ouakam: the Lébou village, its tight houses, its Mosque of the Divinity set at the water's edge exactly where the cliff opens, and the pebble beach where the pirogues come in. The wave breaking in front of that mosque is one of the best on the peninsula and one of the most dangerous; local surfers know it, everyone else watches from above.

In between, a district in mid-transformation: the old military camp takes up a large footprint, the 1970s villas are being replaced one by one with apartment blocks, and espresso cafés have appeared along the Ngor road. The Ouakam market has not moved — fish at eleven, vegetables, corner shops, and the butchers over by the mosque.

You can live here without a car if you accept walking, and you are five minutes from the corniche, ten from the Almadies, fifteen from Mermoz. In the evening the wind turns, you hear the sea at the foot of the cliff, and the lighthouse beam passes across the walls at regular intervals.

Ouakam is also a district of Lébou ceremonies. Weddings and naming ceremonies happen in the street: tarpaulins are strung from wall to wall, the lane is closed, the drummers set up their sabars in the late afternoon and it runs until night. Nobody complains, because everyone's turn comes round. Otherwise, count on the market in the morning, two or three bakeries, and taxis easy to find on the Ngor road — much less so in the village lanes, where you walk back up.