Goree Island's Underground Man.
If you ever go to Senegal's Goree Island and you make it to the peak of the Island you will find a mysterious man who lives underground.
Like other people who live on Goree Island, they benefit in many ways from the several tourists who come to the Island to learn about the terrible slave castle. Many Goree Island inhabitants make things, and sell them. People buy them.
The mystery man in these photos makes things out of used and old materials and he lives underground - rent, bills free.
At first his living quarters which appeared to be scattered with all kinds of junk looked spooky, but the more we spoke to him the more we understood why.
"People come here and the leave things, all kinds of the stuff", the man said in his native language Wolof.
And his art was quite creative. Old white baby dolls heads glues to slender black bodies representing African women, metals from all sort of knick knacks were pasted on stones which amazingly ended up making something is what his art looked like.
His art is indeed interesting but what took us for a spin was his entire lifestyle.
Goree Island has an extremely sparse population, made up of about 2,000 people. The most attraction Goree island gets is from tourists. Boats departing from Dakar drops off loads of people daily. During the summer large groups of younger Senegalese head to Goree to play in the water.
Outside of this the island can be rather lonely. You'd think one would head on over to Dakar and get in the hustle and bustle of that city.
"This is my island" he said.
He explained that on Goree he has no stress and that he is protected by the spirits of the island. Living underground has become his normal and he has the spirit of a nomad.
We wonder if he is still there.
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