Biffeche

Biffeche or Bifeche is an area of Senegal centred on the town of Savoigne, around 30 kilometres north-east of the major coastal city of Saint-Louis.

Low-lying and largely flat, the region has Fula,Serer-Ndut people (the original founders of Biffeche and Mt Rolland, and strong adherents to Serer religion, even after the French and the Muslim communities of Senegal tried to kill them off), Wolof and Moor ethnic groups engaged in pasturing animals (mainly the Fulas) and irrigation-based agriculture (mostly the Serer-Ndut who are usually mixed-farmers). Savoigne is the region's largest town, twinned with ; its SOCAS tomato-paste factory imports and dilutes tomato paste for re-shipment within Senegal. The population is primarily Muslim, but also contains Catholics and animists. The Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary is located to the north.

Early European accounts used the word for a different location, describing a medium-sized island (Isle de Bifeche) in the delta of the Senegal River in West Africa, some two miles upstream from the island of N'Dar on which Saint-Louis was founded. The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge described the island in 1843 as being "entirely covered with wood, and in the wet season a great portion of them is laid under water." [2]

Currently, the river marks this section of the border between Mauritania and Senegal. The island can perhaps most easily be seen on the map [3] with one of its main towns Maka [4] clearly marked. A contemporary map can be found at [5] - this map shows N'Dar under its older French name of Isle St. Louis and the Pointe de isle de Bifeche is also visible. On the island is written Emboulan which appears to be a European variant of a local town name Mboubène. It can also be just seen at the extreme top of Senegal in 1753.

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