West African Village Life 2

In the first part of this series I paid tribute to the women of these African villages. Below is one more photograph showing a woman with her mortar and pestle. The subject of the photograph was originally the young boy between his mother and his sister. He looks pleased as punch because he’s back home with them after begging in the city for many months.

Note the casual grace with which this woman holds that pestle in the air. This pestle is carved of African hardwood. If you look at its size and then imagine its weight, you can get some idea of the strength of this woman’s arm. Pounding foodstuffs like this is one of the most common means of processing food in villages. It takes a great deal of time and energy every day and women and girls are often up long before dawn to pound grains into edibility.

The Bantaba
The photograph below is a structure called a bantaba. Most villages have something like a bantaba. This particular bantaba was photographed in the village of Sinchu Jatali in The Gambia. It is a shaded seat where the men of the village meet to rest and talk and do small work. It is a place to relax in company with the other men of the village but also a place where issues of concern to the village will be discussed.

The men of the village were away working when this photograph was taken so it is mostly young boys who are taking advantage of the shade and companionship. In the photograph below they are shown playing a traditional game to one side of the bantaba.

These boys were some of the first Gambians I met in the city and when I visited them later in their village, they were very hospitable. From the left are Salif, Musa, Jibi, Idi-Mata, and Ibraima. Thank you boys.

The Darra
Here’s another village institution: the Darra. This is the village school.

The man in white with the hat on is the teacher. He’s called a marabout and fills some of the roles of schoolmaster and clergyman. This is Cherno Jagannah Gassama, who was kind enough to be my host in this village. He is teaching the children how to read and write verses from the Koran in Arabic. The children are first taught the Arabic alphabet and when they can write and pronounce the letters, they begin to learn verses from the Koran by writing them on wooden tablets with homemade washable black ink. Some of these tablets, called aluyeh, are shown in the photograph below.

For most of these children, to get even this much education is a wonderful thing.

All of the above photographs were taken in villages on the north bank of the River Gambia during 1995.
Click here to read West African Village Life 3