"BARON ROGER'S MADNESS"

You'll be amazed by the stature and nobility of this building, now decrepit but reminiscent of the splendor of a fallen empire. Baron Jacques-François Roger, first civil governor of Senegal (1822-1827), is said to have built this château for the beautiful eyes of a beautiful Senegalese woman, Yacine Yérim Diaw, whom he later married. The Baron would spend weekends with his wife in this residence reminiscent of the "folies", small ^18th-century châteaux. You can imagine his weekends in this residence, lost in the greenery, built on an island in La Taouey. Baron Roger is associated with the colony's agricultural development policy and its gardener, Richard, who gave his name to the town (Richard Toll means "Richard's fields"). The idea at the time was to compensate for the difficulties caused by the abolition of slavery with pickaxes. Governor Schmalz had launched the movement, negotiating agrarian concessions with the brack (king) of Walo in 1819. Feeling unsupported, the baron returned to France for a time. On his return to Senegal in 1822, he took up the post of governor. The king asked him for help, as the local population feared raids by Mauritanians intent on capturing Senegalese and selling them as slaves. The St. Louisans, who had made their living from hunting and fishing, became farmers, and the technicians who had come for the occasion, all concentrated first on growing potatoes, vines and olives, then, after a dismal failure, on cotton, silkworms and cochineal. In 1824, the Société agricole du Walo was born, acquiring new land and bringing the total to nearly 1,200 ha. Ill, at the end of 1826, the Baron left the colony with a sense of duty accomplished. Richard-Toll was established as the center of the agrarian effort. His successors, Gerbidon, Jebelin and then Brou, reduced production figures and liquidated Baron Roger's enterprise. Faidherbe decided to cede the building to the nuns, who turned it into a church. In 1960, the "folie" became a school, then offices. Today, the old colonial building, listed as a National Historic Monument, seems to long for visitors. Almost nothing of the splendor of the past can be seen, the castle being reduced to its own pale yellow walls. Rehabilitation projects have long been mooted, but in the meantime, the decrepit edifice...