Senegal
POPULATION 10,589,571
MUSLIM 94 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 4.9 percent
AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS 1 percent
PROTESTANT 0.1 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Situated on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, with its northern border in the Sahel (the region at the edge of the Sahara), the Republic of Senegal has historically bridged the Arab culture of North Africa and the cultural traditions of the South. The country has witnessed continuous migrations from prehistory to the present and has been a "melting pot" for many different ethnic groups: Wolof, Sereer, Pulaar, Manden, Joola, Basari, Baynuk, Manjak, and (since the beginning of the twentieth century) Lebanese.
Surrounded by Mauritania (to the north), Mali (to the east), and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau (to the south), Senegal is characterized by tropical rainforest in the south, grass and shrub savanna across a central band, and short-grass steppe in the north. Although its economy is largely agricultural, Senegal is a becoming increasingly urban: 47 percent of the population lives in cities, half of that in the capital city of Dakar.
The large majority of Senegalese are Sunni Muslims. North African Berbers converted to Islam in the eighth century, and by the ninth century Berbers on the north shore of the Senegal River had also become Muslim, bringing Islam into Senegal.
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