Fadiouth - Island With Clam Shells

At the far end of Petite Côte, a stretch of coast in Senegal, lies a sleepy fishing village called Joal-Fadiouth. Joal lies on the mainland, while Fadiouth, linked by a narrow 400-meter wooden foot bridge, lies on an island build entirely of seashells. For more than a century its inhabitants have been harvesting molluscs, scooping the meat out and using the empty shells to make their little island. The seashells have accumulated over many years and held together by the roots of mangroves, reeds and giant baobabs. Heaps of empty shells lie everywhere, on streets and building facades and on trinkets sold by street hawkers, and are incorporated seamlessly into the architecture as well. Although Fadiouth’s origin story has been lost to time, the Guelowar people from the Kaabu Empire likely settled there between the 16th and 18th centuries.