Peanut seller
As is typical of most African countries, domestic chores are carried out by the women and girls of the community.
Although piped water is available, individual taps are mostly confined to restaurants, hotels, and homes of the wealthy. The majority of Gambians still collect their water from a well or a communal tap. The Gambia is a country that has developed in the river basin around the river Gambia and there is a long rainy season. Therefore water shortage is not a problem. To see small girls carrying very large buckets of water on their heads is a sight to behold. The communal tap is a place where the women and girls gather throughout the day and exchange gossip.
Communal tap Wash day in Bakau
Clothes washing is done by hand outside.
Throughout the streets of Bakau, open sewers can be seen. Although this does not seems to be too much of a problem when we visit The Gambia in the winter, during the rainy season, the streets can be awash with sewage.
Gambian women take great pride in their appearance and generally wear beautiful clothes even when carrying out domestic chores. Food is often prepared and cooked outdoors over a wood or charcoal burning stove.
The women of the Cilla family in
the family compound, Cillakunda
The pastry that we saw being prepared was made from a mixture of flour and oil and rolled out with an empty bottle in place of a rolling pin. The pastry was shaped into small pasties (a bit like Cornish pasties), filled with meat or vegetables and then fried in oil. The picture below shows Mari (our master drummer, Libon's ex-wife) and her aunt (known to everyone as Auntie) preparing pasties for our evening meal.
Most of the younger women now adopt western clothes but traditional dress is still worn by older women. In this mostly Muslim country, Friday is the 'sabbath' day. Allah, Islam's 'god', did not rest after 6 days of creation and Muslims see no need to rest on their 'sabbath'. The only special feature of the Muslim Friday “Sabbath” is the noon prayer which male Muslims are encouraged—mandated—to do communally. It is a midday call on Friday to congregate at a Mosque after which Muslims are free to go back to work. This noon prayer time is a daily feature but on Friday assembly is emphasized so prayer can be done congregationally, usually preceded by a sermon. For the women of the Gambia, Friday means 'Friday dress' - very much like the 'Sunday best' of 20th century UK. Friday is the day when the women of the Gambia can be seen either at work, going to the market, or carrying out their domestic duties dressed in their very best clothes. Please see below, photograph of Fatu, the receptionist in the Guest House where we stayed in 2007, turning up for a day's work in her 'Friday dress'.
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