"Roots" Village

Abuko Nature Park Albert Market Banjul Countryside Crocodile Pool Ethnography James Island People "Roots" Village

"Roots" Village

Juffureh

 

entrance to Juffureh

According to Alex Haley's novel Roots, the Gambia River provided one of the clues that helped him trace his American family history back to Africa. The words "Kamby Bolongo" were among the few words that his family had passed down from generation to generation; he discovered that a bolongo was a "moving water" or "river" in the Mandinka language, so he concluded that the phrase probably referred to the Gambia River. His theory was confirmed when he traveled to Juffure, The Gambia, on the north bank of the river, and found that their oral family histories complemented his own. The Mandinka language does not have a /g/ phoneme, so the river is therefore pronounced "Kambiya" rather than "Gambia".

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boats at anchor high and dry at low tide

 

for navigation on the Gambia river

 

 

 

 

African stringed instrument

 

the entertainer

 

 

Nursery School

 

 

National Museumum

 

 

 

 

World Heritage site

 

 

 

selling sponges

 

pounding grain

 

the surviving family member of the American author


Abuko Nature Park Albert Market Banjul Countryside Crocodile Pool Ethnography James Island People "Roots" Village

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