Senegal

Actually true

• Teranga (hospitality) really is a way of life

  Sharing food with strangers and welcoming guests into the home without notice is an everyday expectation, not a tourist performance.

• Traditional wrestling is genuinely a national sport bigger than football

  Senegalese wrestling, or laamb, fills stadiums and makes its champions national celebrities, often earning more than footballers.

• Île de Gorée is a real and haunting historical site

  The small island off Dakar was a major point of departure in the Atlantic slave trade and is now a UNESCO World Heritage memorial.

• Senegal has one of Africa's most stable democracies

  Since independence in 1960, Senegal has never had a successful military coup, unusual in the region's history.

Commonly believed, wrong

• "Senegal is mostly desert"

  The south, the Casamance, is lush and tropical with mangroves and forest, very different from the drier Sahel north.

• "It's a small, unimportant country"

  Dakar is a major West African cultural and diplomatic hub with a large diaspora influence on music and fashion worldwide.

• "Everyone speaks French as a first language"

  Wolof is the most widely spoken everyday language; French is official but often a second language.

• "The pink lake is a myth or edited photo"

  Lake Retba genuinely turns bubblegum pink due to salt-loving algae, especially visible in the dry season.