Bookstores in Dakar
If you judge a town by its bookshops, Dakar, Dakar gives you 21 to judge by. That's 21 bookshops mapped around Dakar, each with its own shelves and specialties. The used sections are where the real bargains hide. Staff picks shelves are the fastest way to read a shop's personality.
This guide covers every bookstore we could verify in and around Dakar (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include Librairie Les 4 Vents and Allina Pride, plus Aux 4 Vents. If a bookshop's missing from Dakar's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.
The Dakar bookstore lineup
21 mapped within about 40 km:
Librairie Les 4 Vents
Bookstore
Librairie Les 4 Vents — Bookstore on 55 Rue Felix Faure.
55 Rue Felix Faure
Allina Pride
Bookstore
Allina Pride — Bookstore.
Aux 4 Vents
Bookstore
Aux 4 Vents is Bookstore. Aux 4 Vents also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 08:00-19:00; Sa 09:00-19:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
Hours: Mo-Fr 08:00-19:00; Sa 09:00-19:00
Phone: +221338691037
Librairie Papeterie Darou Minam
Bookstore
Librairie Papeterie Darou Minam is Bookstore.
Keur Ababacar Sy
Bookstore
Keur Ababacar Sy is Bookstore.
Diecko Business and Trade
Bookstore
Diecko Business and Trade — Bookstore on 534 Parcelles Unite 26. Also worth knowing about Diecko Business and Trade: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 08:00-20:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
534 Parcelles Unite 26
Hours: Mo-Su 08:00-20:00
Phone: 775039035
Librairie Papeterie
Bookstore
Librairie Papeterie — Bookstore.
La Différence
Bookstore
La Différence is Bookstore.
Aux 4 Vents
Bookstore
Aux 4 Vents is Bookstore. Aux 4 Vents also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Tu-Fr 10:00-20:00; Sa, Su 10:00-21:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
Hours: Tu-Fr 10:00-20:00; Sa, Su 10:00-21:00
Phone: +22133 869 10 37
Ets mouride sadikh
Bookstore
Ets mouride sadikh is Bookstore on 22*39. Ets mouride sadikh also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
22*39
Phone: 338222516
Touba Distribution et Service
Bookstore
Touba Distribution et Service — Bookstore on Avenue Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké. Also worth knowing about Touba Distribution et Service: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
Avenue Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké
Phone: 779668239
Baraka service
Bookstore
Baraka service — Bookstore on rue 23*06. Also worth knowing about Baraka service: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
rue 23*06
Phone: 776190910
SenPrest
Bookstore
SenPrest is Bookstore.
Librairie Papeterie Daradji
Bookstore
Librairie Papeterie Daradji — Bookstore.
papiterie fouta
Bookstore
papiterie fouta — Bookstore.
Aux 4 Vents
Bookstore
Aux 4 Vents is Bookstore on Ave Cheikh Anta Diop. Aux 4 Vents also notes on the map: it has a website with more detail.
Ave Cheikh Anta Diop
La maison de Marie et Madi
Bookstore
La maison de Marie et Madi is Bookstore.
Chez mon ami
Bookstore
Chez mon ami — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about Chez mon ami: it has a website with more detail.
Relay
Bookstore
Relay — Bookstore.
L'harmattan Senegal
Bookstore
L'harmattan Senegal — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about L'harmattan Senegal: the map lists its hours as Mo-Fr 08:30-20:00.
Hours: Mo-Fr 08:30-20:00
Librairie Clairafrique
Bookstore
Librairie Clairafrique — Bookstore.
What the map tells us about bookstores in Dakar
4 of the 21 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — bookshops keep civilised hours, so the listed ones are usually reliable.
4 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.
The Dakar bookstore crawl
The efficient Dakar bookstore crawl strings these together: Librairie Les 4 Vents on 55 Rue Felix Faure, Allina Pride, Aux 4 Vents, Librairie Papeterie Darou Minam, Keur Ababacar Sy, Diecko Business and Trade on 534 Parcelles Unite 26, Librairie Papeterie, and La Différence — 21 stops, one logical order. 13 more are listed below.
Bookstore tips for Dakar
The regulars' playbook for Dakar's bookshops:
- Poetry lives in bookshops at Librairie Les 4 Vents. Poetry barely exists online as a browsing experience. The poetry shelf in a real shop is a different world.
- Don't judge by the window display at Allina Pride. The front table is marketing. The back shelves are the shop's real taste. Walk the whole floor.
- Note the shop's specialties. Sci-fi, travel, art books, philosophy — every good shop leans somewhere. Find the lean that matches yours.
- Ask the booksellers. A good bookseller lives for the question 'what should I read next?' Give them three books you loved and watch them work.
Good to know
We searched about 40 km around Dakar — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new bookstore in Dakar can take a while to appear. The 21 above are only as current as the community map. A bookstore that's shut, or a new one nobody's added yet, gets fixed with a single OpenStreetMap edit.
We don't list prices — they change constantly and vary by edition. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers, in alphabetical order with no favourites.
If you run one of the 21 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.
Bookstore listings for Dakar: 21 mapped from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons contributors; individual photo credits appear in captions. Listing data was last refreshed automatically — verify hours before visiting.