The Tambacounda region is also called Sénégal Oriental. It is the easternmost region of Senegal, which lies between 12°20 and 15°10 northern latitude and the 14°50 western longitude. The region itself is 59,602 km², making up 30% of Senegal’s urban area. Tambacounda is also the largest of the eleven regions of Senegal. In 2007 the estimated population was between 630-716 inhabitants.

Political Border Formation

Like all the regions in Senegal, several former kingdoms also colonized Tambacounda, which contributed to the formation of its present identity. The current region has been shaped by three periods: the pre-colonial period, the colonial period, and the post-colonial period, all resulting in many changes to the region’s borders.

Settlement and Population Expansion

Tambacounda’s settlement history is closely tied to the waves upon waves of migrants that followed the fall of the Ghana and Mande kingdoms. The first known large migrations are those of the Mandinka, who emigrated to west and southwest Africa after the fall of the Ghanaian kingdom. After the collapse of the Mali Empire, several more ethnic groups migrated away.

Fuel used for cooking is mostly done with wood and wood charcoal. Local deforestation is less problematic here than in the metropolitan area of Dakar where the demand is great, however, all the steppe vegetation in the southeast of the country surrounding Tambacounda suffers. In the Sahel zone, deforestation contributes to the spread of the Sahara in the south.

Mostly peanuts and cotton are grown on a large scale for export. The monocultures, which were introduced by the colonizers, bring about ecological problems due to their high pesticide use. Traditional small-scale agriculture is only practiced for personal supply and only possible in the rainy season. Recently, formerly unemployed persons formed a group together and initiated a banana plantation in the region that they water through the use of an irrigation system.

There is little industry in Tambacounda, but there is a large market and diverse handcrafts including metal work, carpentry, tailoring and weaving. Although there is a lack of tools and machinery, especially for metal work, it is offset by a great talent for improvisation. The long-standing African traditions of woodcarving and cotton weaving continue to be practiced today.

Tambacounda has a hospital with the following six departments: emergency room, surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, and an ophthalmic unit. The clinic is reachable for those living in the surrounding area of Tambacounda up to Mali and Guinea. Equipment is rather lacking, but the Freundeskreis Tambacounda has shipped donated wheelchairs, crutches, bandages, and other supplies from Hannover several times to help the hospital, other institutions, and those in need.

The Senegalese education system was inherited from the former French colonial power. Children today are still taught in French, a foreign language. Not all children attend a state school. The primary school Sada Maka Sy is in Dépôt, the poorest district of Tambacounda. Fourteen teachers are responsible for the education of over a thousand children.

Since the school’s renovation in 1994 with the help of the Freundeskreis Tambacounda, it has become an acceptable place for learning and a symbol of the Association’s projects in the city. In addition to Sada Maka Sy, both the highschool Mame Cheikh Mbaye and the college Thierno Souleymane Agne are integrated in the Écoleglobale network.