"I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land!" (Martin Luther King Jnr)

One of the most exciting and fulfilling parts of our trip to The Gambia in November 2010 was visiting the land that Afrikaya has bought. This land is in New Yundum, a new but growing community. No nursery school nearby, no electricity, no clean water closer than 700m. The nearest nursery school is nearly 1 hour's walk across a dangerous main road.

The picture above looks over the land from what will be the entrance to the school. The hut on the right is the right hand boundary of the land. The classrooms will be situated along the right hand boundary.

The next picture shows the land from the back of the plot (where the toilets will be). The house in the background belongs to Abdoulie and his family. Abdoulie is one of our Gambian trustees. He is a trainer in the Gambian army.

There are 3 Gambian trustees altogether: Abdoulie, Terema and Sally. They, 3 other parents and our friend Alimamo (without whom none of this would have been possible) form the nursery school Parent Teacher Association (PTA). In the next picture, shading from the sun are, from the left, Awa, Terema, Abdoulie's wife and Sally. Awa is a member of the PTA and is the local community midwife.



On the left is Malang, an artist and builder. On the right, Thomas, a superintendent in Banjul Prison. Both are PTA members with children who will attend the school.

While we were there, we held the first PTA meeting. We discovered that we are honored to have each of these people working with us for the good of the community. For example, they decided that they don't just want handouts but want to work directly with us, Afrikaya supplying the material and the community supplying labour for free.

Guided by our designers, student architects Jack Munro and Yashin Kemal (overseen by their professor), the school will be as eco-friendly as possible. We plan to use compact earth bricks for the build; solar and wind power for energy; and to drop a bore hole so that the school will have it's own water supply that can also supply the whole community.There were 3 trees on the land. Unfortunately, we had to cut 2 down. 1 because it was old and decayed but the other because it was exactly where we planned to build classrooms. When we visit in February 2011, we will replace the trees with 2 mango trees which will eventually provide shade for the playground area.

This is the remaining tree which is  known in English as a monkey nut tree. Whilst we were walking the land just before we left, Geoff asked Malang to remind him of the name of the tree. Malang replied that it is now named after the man 'who gave you fire' (inspired us): Kebba Jaina. As you can imagine, a few tears were shed.

As I mentioned, none of this would have been possible without our friend Alimamo Ceesay. Alimamo, a proud Mandinka Gambian, has worked tirelessly for Afrikaya for well over a year now, with little reward. He is our representative for most of the year when we are not there and does most of the leg work for us. This has included travelling to Banjul to the Ministry of Education at least 10 times in a matter of 3 weeks, in a heat wave, to get them to sign a Memorandum of Understanding.

Alimamo Ceesay



Tobaski November 2010

No, not goats - these are Gambian sheep - or rather, rams. Why am I posting a picture of rams? Much of our trip to The Gambia last November was taken over by Tobaski. This is an important Muslim religious festival celebrated by Muslims all over the world. In many countries it is known as Eid al-Adha.

Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى‎ ‘Īdu l-’Aḍḥā) or "Festival of Sacrifice". It commemorates the willingness of  Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to Allah. Allah intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.

About 90% of the people in The Gambia are Muslim, the other 10% being made up mostly of Christians and those with traditional beliefs. Tobaski is probably the most important religious festival in The Gambia and many of our friends there likened it to Christmas in the UK. The majority of people, certainly those under 40, wear Western clothes most of the time. On Tobaski, everyone (men, women and children) wear traditional dress for the day. All of the women and girls have new hair styles. It seems to be a display of wealth. Who can wear the most beautiful clothes and jewelery?

 Every family buys a ram to slaughter, the size and number dependent on the family's means. It is usually the responsibility of the eldest male in the family to buy the ram. Everywhere we went we saw rams on leads, in car boots, in wheelbarrows, on top of minibuses, and even inside cars and minibuses, as people struggled to get the ram from the market to home.

The day starts at dawn. The young boys take the rams down to the sea to wash them. Even though I am a vegetarian, something made me want to go and watch this tradition. So I got up a dawn, armed with my video camera (Geoff and Tracey thought I was crazy).
Unfortunately, my video software does not seem compatible with blogspot, so cant upload it!

The religious service, 'prayers', starts at about 10.30. The vast majority of the Muslim people attend this. In Bakau, where we stayed, the football field is used for prayers. The spectacle of the brightly clothed people arriving for prayers was a sight to behold. The men and boys are allowed to sit in the main area, the women and girls are relegated to the back.

As the prayers come to an end, the senior Imam slaughters the ram and sends praise to Allah. It is not until this has been done that the people are allowed to slaughter their family's ram. This is one part of the day that I refused to watch. All our friends were accepting of this, even though most cannot understand why Geoff and I choose not to eat meat. Even so we were delighted to be invited to share Tobaski with Alimamo's family in their compound.

The meat is divided into three parts to be distributed to others. Traditionally, the family retains one third of the share, another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor & needy.

I'll end this blog with my favourite picture from Tobaski.

From Pewsey to Banjul

Welcome to all of you who are joining us on our journey, in spirit at least.

Latest news - many of you will already know that Afrikaya is now the proud owner of land in The Gambia on which we will build a nursery school to serve the local community. Despite the floods last month, Afrikaya's little piece of Africa escaped the worst of them. The Afrikaya trustees are now putting a hugh effort into raising enough money by June 2011 to build the school.

The journey so far:

September 2006: Geoff and Di decided to set up a not for profit organisation (Afrikaya) in the UK to promote musical and education links with West Africa.

February 2007: we (Geoff and Di) went to The Gambia to train with djembe fula, Lebon Traore, and his UK business partner Mike Armstrong. Whilst there, we met an inspirational man, called Kebba Jaina, and his family of dancers and drummers from the cutural group Nimba. Kebba was concerned that the children of the Gambia are still under-educated, living in poverty and turning to drugs. His hero, Nelson Mandela, said that the only way out of poverty is through education. There is no state education in the Gambia for children under 8. So Kebba started a nursery school. He rented a building but was continually displaced as landlords found they could rent to others for more money.
  

We asked what we could do to help. Kebba asked for more benches for the children to sit on. Even if they had no building for the school, at least the could sit under a mango tree. Returning to the UK, we raised enough money.

February 2008: we arranged for benches to be made and presented to the Kebba and his students. Along with pencils and text books.

Kebba said that his main dream was to have a building which belonged to the school. Just 2 classrooms and a store room. Geoff and Di agreed that they would 'see what they could do to raise money' to fulfill Kebba's dream.

Summer 2008: Geoff and Di received the sad news that Kebba had died. The plan was that his dream would live on through his nephew who had taken over the school. A good and trusted friend in The Gambia, Alimamo Cessay, checked out the situation and reported that all seemed above board. We decided to go ahead with applying to the Charity Commission for Afrikaya to become registed as a charity. 2 friends, Pauline McCrann and Roz Bradley Sylvester, both drummers in the UK, agreed to join us as trustees.

February 2009: The trustees visited The Gambia again. Met the nephew, saw the 'school', and decided that they would continue to support Kebba's vision. The local community held a street party in our honour. Words are inadequate to express how each of us felt. 

February 2010: We returned to The Gambia with the intention of buying land. Things went drastically wrong. Rather than burden you with all the details, suffice to say, Kebba's nephew and Afrikaya parted company. Another 4 trustees came on board: Helen and Sanjeen Payne Kumar, Tracey Roberts and Kathryn Creed.

August 2010: Afrikaya bought a plot of land 30m by 60m in a different community in The Gambia; engaged the pro bono services of 2 amazing trainee architects (Jack Munro and Yashin Kemel); appointed 3 Gambia trustees; began phase 2 of fund raising - to raise enough to build the school. Fund raising will include - Climb Kilimanjaro - see afrikaya.co.uk for details.

November 2010: 3 of us return to The Gambia to meet with the community, the elders, the Gambian trustees, the lawyer, the Ministry of Education - and to work and have fun with our friends, the musicians of Kotu.