Monday 9 December 2013

6.12.13 Friday Small boats and Roots



Those of you who remember the series Roots and the book by Alex Haley, will know that the Roots trip takes you to the island of Kunta Kinteh, formerly James Island and the home of the slave trade.  There are two ways to reach Juffreh, the river option by boat or the road option.  We had opted for the journey over land, but to do this you first have to cross the river from Banjul to Barra.  When all 3 ferries are running this may be problematic depending on the level of traffic, but currently with only one ferry it is a nightmare.  We decided we would cross on the small boats, foot passengers only, so we had to park up in Banjul.  The small boats are actually quite large, they hold over 100 passengers and wait just off the beach until they are full.  As they cannot quite get onto the beach and there are no jetties, to board means that you have to be carried out to the boat on the shoulders of a very strong young man.  This system, which has been quite chaotic in the past, has been formalised this year with the bearers wearing a tabard of green on the Banjul side and blue across in Barra, with a number and a drawing of someone being carried on the shoulders out to a waiting boat.  There is still a scramble of boys waiting to carry you, and negotiation is necessary for the appropriate fee, 5 dalasis for a Gambian, and whatever they think they can get away with for a ‘toubab’ or white person.  We were met on the street in Banjul by a young man, first of all wanting to be our guide for the day (not allowed as Juffreh have their own)  then to get us a private boat, and finally introducing us to a bearer, number 65, who agreed to carry us for 10 dalasis each.  Bargain!  We made our way to the beach and although many other bearers approached us we just said that we were waiting for number 65 to carry us in turn.  Sue, however, was rather wary of the whole process and let the three of us go first onto the boat, and then didn’t fancy being held up high, so got two young men to carry her between them.  The problem with then is that you are nearer the water and more difficult to climb onto the boat, instead of putting your foot onto the end, you are at knee level.  Sue’s white trousers were green around the knees when she got on.  We then were ushered to our bench, and sat and waited for the boat to fill up.  I was sat next to a Gambian man on holiday from Sweden, we chatted about the system, about the length of our stay, and then he said that he couldn’t afford to come back to Gambia often as it was so expensive for him.  The extended family system here expects the richest person in the family to provide for everyone else in the family for all their needs.  Musa lives in Sweden and works there, therefore he is the richest person in his family, and a week back in the Gambia costs him more than a month in Sweden, not the cheapest place in Europe.  Finally the boat was full, and the Navy Police got on to ensure that every passenger was given a life jacket, before we set sail.  The crossing by small boat is about 20 minutes once it sets off, and we passed the ferry which had left half an hour before us not long after leaving the shore.  The only working ferry at the moment, it is running on two engines instead of 4, and taking up to 2 hours to cross each way with half an hour loading and unloading at each side.  The round trip taking 5 hours, so if you miss one ferry you have to wait at least 5 hours until it returns.  We arrived in Barra, more bearers to carry us to shore, again Sue between two of them, and made our way to the petrol station in the town where we know a young man who can organise transport for us.  Bachary also has the cleanest toilet in town, none of the others is worth a visit and this one is not pristine, but at least he keeps it reasonable.  A taxi was sourced and we had a nice Mercedes with a very good driver for 800 dalasis instead of the usual 2000.  A 45 minute drive and we were in Juffreh where we met our guide for the visit, Jarra, the only girl guide challenging the men of Juffreh! (her words not mine) Our first stop was the slave museum with many artefacts and exhibits from the slave trade..  Then onto the cafĂ© for a cold drink; before getting onto another boat; to visit the island and the remains of the fort.  This time we had a jetty to use to climb into the large canoe. We arrived at the island, looked at the scale model of how the island used to look, and then followed our guide around the fort while she explained the history of the island. Ay slave being able to swim from the island back to the shore was given their freedom.  None made it.  Some 30 million people were shipped from West Africa to the New World to become slaves on the plantations in North America or mines in South America.  In the south, the average life span of a slave was just 3 years. We arrived back at the jetty and climbed into the boat to sail across to Juffreh, before getting into the taxi back to Barra.  A tiring day, but still the crossing to Banjul to negotiate.  A different bearer this time, number 57, carried 3 of us out to the boat, but Sue panicked and had to be carried by our friend Bachary and another guy, after sitting on the edge of the wet boat and scrambling up the white trousers were now green all over.!  We finally set off and arrived back in Banjul in time to get home, a quick change and out to the Lebanese buffet in Kololi.  Ousman joined us for dinner, but we were all really tired and made our leave around 9.15pm

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