Travel with Kat | Category Archive

Daughter of the Jola Tribe

18/05/2012 | 9 Comments

Back in 2007 I spent a wonderful day at a Jola’s initiation festival in The Gambia, West Africa. While taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the festivities, sitting on a rug under the shade of a tree with friends, one of the girls asked if she could plait my hair. Much to her frustration my hair would not do as it was told and refused to stay plaited! We had a great time chatting and laughing while she persisted but to no avail. She was a bright, cheerful little girl but this week’s travel snap shows a different side to her – a proud young daughter of the Jola tribe.

More about the day and a few more photos can be found in a previous post ‘Singing, dancing and some very loud bangs’.

Smiles, from the smiling coast

13/01/2012 | 4 Comments

The Gambia is known as the smiling coast of Africa for good reason and I love the smiles of this brother and sister playing around together at a Jola Festival where the brother was initiated.

You can read about the fabulous day I had and see more photos on my post Singing, dancing and some very loud bangs!

Previous Kat’s Travel Snaps

The head girl, Dairuharu, The Gambia

08/12/2011 | 1 Comment

It’s my last full day in The Gambia and I have lots to write about and many photographs to share with you. On Tuesday we went to the school in Dairuharu that we have helped build and even though it was the Muslim New Year (which is spent praying and then visiting friends, family and neighbours) many of the villagers came to meet us and to thank us for our support including the Alkalo (head of the village) and his assistant. It was a wonderful day and I will tell you more about our visit and the rest of the week in forthcoming posts – including a fantastic cooking lesson (Fish Benechin), interviewing Bajaly (a superb kora player) and Jonathan Groves (the brilliant chef at Ngala Lodge), as well as visiting other schools.

The visit to Dairuharu was without doubt the highlight of the week so this week’s photo is from that day, the head girl of the new school peeping out at us through the window.

Happy New Year to all my Muslim friends in The Gambia and all Muslims around the world.

Happy Tobaski!

07/11/2011 | 4 Comments

Once a year, about 70 days after the end of Ramadan, virtually the whole of The Gambia holds a barbecue!

This is the festival of Tobaski (also known as Tabaski or Eid Al Adha) when Muslim families ritually kill a ram in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son to God, who at the last minute exchanges Abraham’s son for a ram. It coincides with the end of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, one of the pillars of Islam and very much encompasses another one of the pillars, the giving of alms. It is a great time to visit The Gambia as the excitement is contagious. On the morning of Tobaski when I was there a few years ago I remember there being a noticeable buzz in the air around my hotel (and I had three marriage proposals from the waiters before I’d even finished breakfast – which is a record even for The Gambia!)

The lead up to Tobaski can be a stressful time for some, as the cost of a sheep can typically be twice a manual worker’s monthly salary. The cost raises steeply as Tobaski approaches. Everyone is expected to wear their finest clothes, preferably new. All compounds (family homes) are thoroughly “spring” cleaned.

Even during breakfast at our hotel, there is an air of excitement. Many hotel staff wear their finest clothes - the ladies in beautifully embroidered dresses.

Every married man or head of the household is expected to buy a sheep (ideally a ram) or other suitable animal such as a cow, goat or even chicken if that’s all they can afford.

Tobaski is a public holiday and one of the major holidays celebrated by Muslims around the world. After open air prayers at the local mosque, families return home, kill their sheep and divide it into three portions, one to be kept aside for the family, one to be given to relatives and friends and one to be given to the needy. Indeed, the idea of sharing is the essence of the feast, bringing unity and harmony among family and neighbours and it is a day to forgive past wrongs.

It is also the custom to offer food to anyone passing by and it would be disrespectful not to eat something, even if only a few mouthfuls. However, it would also be disrespectful to finish all the food as this implies that the host has not prepared enough food.

As the festival approaches everyone starts collecting coins as after the feast excited children visit all their neighbours asking for Salibo (gifts). If you pass down the Kairaba Avenue at this time you’ll find it jam-packed with crowds of children around the ice-cream and cake sellers spending the “gifts” they have collected.

Waitresses join in the dancing to a local band.

In the evening children are allowed to stay up late, while the adults sing, dance and chat while drinking numerous brews of ataya (green tea) and the celebrations can go on for a few days.

..and so may I wish a ‘Happy Tobaski’ to all my Muslim friends and to all Muslims around the world.

To see more photos of The Gambia visit Travel with Kat on Flickr

For information on holidays from the UK visit The Gambia Experience

Singing, dancing and some very loud bangs!

03/08/2009 | 6 Comments

In 2007 Nyodema’s first fundraising event included a photographic exhibition showing different aspects of Gambian life. With this in mind, we were invited by the Camarra family to a very important event – the initiation of their sons.

This is part of a large Jola festival with Jolas – an ethnic group present in The Gambia, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau – from across The Gambia (and beyond) gathering together.

It was the day after we arrived in The Gambia, so with no time to acclimatise we were up early in the morning to meet Lamin and to start the drive up-country.

Most of the way the roads were good but eventually we reached the bumpy dirt tracks we’d been warned about. After about an hour of jostling along we arrived at the temporary village built for the festival near Kanilai. Thousands of people had formed an arena and various groups were marching around, singing and displaying banners. Outside the arena the crowds strained their necks to look on and many had climbed trees to get a better view.

We were lucky to be given permission to go inside the arena to get some better photos. Knife-dancers, dressed in baggy trousers that would give MC Hammer a run for his money, were dipping large knifes in holy water prepared by their marabouts. They were only too willing to demonstrate for my camera how the sharp blades did not cut them. Unnerving but fascinating to watch, they used everything from cutlasses and razors blades to energetically strike their bodies without ever leaving a scratch.

Back outside the arena the atmosphere was just as exciting. With long strands of beads crossing their torsos the sisters of those being initiated danced to frantic rhythms tapped out on triangular chimes. Punctuating the drumming, whistle blowing, chanting and dancing, thunderously loud bags exploded in my ears as ‘canons’ were ignited (metal tubes stuffed with gunpowder that are pushed into the ground and lit by a fuse). The young men who light these canons are aware of the dangers involved and while we there we were told one of the young men firing the canons was injured and taken to hospital. I dread to think how long it would have taken to get there but apparently he was not badly hurt.

The mid-day sun was now high in the sky and we moved away from the crowds to find some shade. Sitting on a rug under a tree, we chatted with passers-by while a couple of little girls plaited our hair, only to be frustrated by our hair ‘not doing as it was told’ and refusing to stay plaited.

We were served a traditional meal of goat (hopefully not the cute little one I saw tied up earlier). Everyone gathered around a large bowl and using either hands or spoons tucked in. The families of those being initiated have to save for many years as they are expected to feed not only their relatives and guests but also the local villagers.

When we’d finished our meal I photographed group after group of family members and friends.

Then came the initiation of the sons. Friends and relatives pinned money onto their clothes before they were hoisted on to someone’s shoulders and led out into the bush. Traditionally they would spend weeks in the bush with their older male relatives learning about their responsibilities as a man, so we were surprised when they came straight back again! Presumably the training is now a more ongoing thing.

Our driver wanted to get back onto the tarmac road before dark so all too quickly we had to leave. It really was a fascinating experience and we felt very privileged to have been invited.

Sadly, a few days later, we were told by a friend that the man who had been injured had died. Our friend thought that someone had given the young man bad luck probably because of jealousy.

When we next returned to The Gambia a few months later we presented the family with a photo album which, despite the sad news, we hoped would be a happy reminder of the day.

See more photographs from the day on Flickr.

For information on other festivals in The Gambia, see The Gambia Experience website.