Pikine

關於Pikine

Pikine is a city and the capital of the Pikine department, in the Dakar region in Senegal. The largest suburb of Senegalese capital Dakar, as of the 2013 Census, it had a population of 1,170,791. It is the second-largest city in Senegal, behind Dakar.

Situated on a former French military base, illegal immigrants were sent to the site of Pikine in the early 1950s to ease a growing housing crisis in the Cap-Vert. Incorporated by colonial officials in 1952, the community's fast growth caused it to surpass its legal boundaries and urbanize, and had a population on 50,000 by the end of the 1950s.

More people moved to the city from eastern rural towns during the 1970s for job opportunities, growing from 30,000 people in 1960, to 650,000 by 1988.

Since the 1980s, the city has been unzoned. In 1998, Pikine was described by essayist Gérard Salem as a city "without a real history".

Pikine is separated into two: 'regular' Pikine, and 'irregular' Pikine. 'Regular' Pikine encompasses development before the 1970s, while 'irregular' Pikine are the post-1970s shanty town.

The Mbeubeusse Landfill, the Dakar region's sole waste facility, is situated in Pikine.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.