a period of commercial expansion as peanut production in Cayor
boomed. In 1859 a fort was built by the French and Rufisque was annexed to the Colony
of Senegal. The "Escale" commercial and administrative neighborhood
along the waterfront was laid out in 1862---the African inhabitants being
pushed out in the process. Rufisque became a "commune" in 1880 and
its port was connected to the Dakar-Saint Louis railroad in 1885. In 1909 Galandou
Diouf (died 1941) was elected to represent Rufisque in the General Council of
the colony in Saint Louis, being the first African elected to that position
