Even though Koutaye Niang has competed in the Saint-Louis regatta for 20 years, this year’s event, which took place on Saturday in Senegal’s ancient second city, was his “greatest day ever.”
In this year’s fishing boat race, a yearly custom that dates back generations, Niang, a fisherman from the coastal city’s Guet N’dar neighborhood, served as the skipper of one of three victorious pirogues that broke a rival team’s five-year winning streak.
The 43-year-old remarked, clad in the crimson and green of his team’s flag and beaming with joy, “All those who reside (in my neighborhood), Dak, feel like kings tonight.”
Every year, hundreds of men board long wooden pirogues for the regatta, which is hosted at the old capital of colonial French West Africa, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Dakar. The race lasts for 2.5 kilometers through the estuary where the Senegal River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
According to El Hadj Moctar Gueye, the president of the organizing committee, the city’s fishermen have been competing in races for leisure for over a century, but the competition took on more formal form in the 1950s.
N’Deye Seck, a tailor at the N’dar Market, who is 75, said, “There are a lot more people now, and it’s more official.”
When she was young, her own father and brothers took part, and she recalls former French president Charles de Gaulle visiting in 1959, a year before Senegal gained independence.
Guet N’dar, one of Africa’s most populous neighborhoods, was teeming with anxiety on the eve of this year’s event.
For Friday prayers, men dressed in traditional boubou tunics and ladies wearing chic “moussor” head wraps jostled on the streets with happy kids, horse-drawn carts, and wandering animals.
On the riverbank, young guys painted the wooden planks red and white as an elderly man hacked away at them to create oars.
Three teams of fisherman from Saint-Louis each represent a certain region of the old quarter. Each team competes in one of three race categories with groups of 50 to 70 participants.
Additionally, separate competitions are held for fisherman from other regions of the nation.
Younouss Dieye, a rower with the Pondou Khole squad who has been participating in the regatta for more than ten years, stated, “It’s a feeling of excitement everytime we win.
Prior to the race, he claimed to have trained for 10 days.
The little fishing boats, which measure between 15 and 20 meters in length, were launched into the lake at sunrise on Saturday while young men played wooden “tam tam” drums and spectators danced and blew plastic whistles.
The day before’s boubous were replaced with vibrant sports shirts, with the number 23 jersey of American basketball player Lebron James, whose team colors are yellow and blue, being worn everywhere in the Pondou Khole neighborhood.
A seller nearby offered bowties and bucket hats in the same colors.
Spiritual leaders crushed ice packets where boats were launched and lit incense further down the riverbed in the Dak village.
According to Assane Diaw, a former racer whose family has been involved in racing for over a century, this is the only truly local sport in the area.
Although we have football teams, the pirogue race is only found in Saint-Louis.
He claimed that while teams currently utilize specialized racing pirogues, his grandfather’s generation competed in fishing boats.
The prize, according to him, is “the love that people have and the blood that flows,” he stated.
By late afternoon, thousands of spectators had gathered next to the river.
For a better perspective, young people clambered onto the Faidherbe Bridge’s arches, which connects the island city to Senegal’s mainland.
When Dak won the first and second races, delighted fans jumped into the river, the winners waving oars and pounding their chests before turning their boats over and jumping in themselves.
Tensions reached an all-time high during the final event when Pondou Khole, the defending winners, started to argue with Dak rowers in the water.
However, nothing could dampen Captain Niang’s disposition or the glow in his eyes as he relaxed with his family that evening back in the old town.
The sun was sinking behind him as he spoke, and the call to prayer could be heard in the distance. “Guet N’dar is a village where everyone lives together — we share everything,” he added.
“We are one and indivisible — all three teams are actually family.”
