Hundreds swim to former Senegal slave island in annual race

Dakar to Goree: Why hundreds of people are swimming to a former slave island in Senegal.

Hundreds of swimmers have been taking part in a race between the Senegalese capital, Dakar and Goree Island.

But it’s no ordinary competition. It involves swimming five kilometres to a former slave port, where Africans were once sold and shipped off to slavery in the Americas. The race is a tribute to slavery’s victims who remained defiant and tried to swim, often in chains, for freedom.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reports from Dakar.