Gambia, an African Odyssey

 

Interesting documentary on The Gambia, a small country in West Africa, surrounded entirely by Senegal save for a small coast on the Atlantic. 

Its basically a cruise ship with tourists visiting the country. But the narration does focus on the history of the country, its people, customs, traditions, villages, economy, wildlife, birdlife in small parts each. 

The Gambia is famous for the autobiography "The Roots" by Alex Haley in which he traces 7 generations of his family back to the Gambia. It was the centre point of the slave trade back in those days and there are some traces of that slave trade in the form of warehouses and holding posts for slaves until they were transported to America. 

Gambia is also famous for Kora, the musical instrument that originated from here and the music of this area is quite good, very rich and mellifluous. Agriculture and tourism are the mainstays of Gambia, there are no manufacturing activities. Fishing is a major activity what with the River Gambia flanking almost the entire country. 

Border trade and movement of people into Senegal takes place on a daily basis with no controls whatever, people marry there, come here for a festival, do trade there, come to work here. The documentary does take us through some villages flanking the river viz. Tendaba, Kuntaur, Georgetown, Banjul, its capital. 

Nice documentary to watch, narrative format plus lots of interviews with locals with sub titles in place. You can watch this documentary here 

West Africa

 

The last part of the BBC four part series on Lost Kingdoms of Africa. Art historian travels to West Africa to discover the ancient history of Benin, Mali, Nigeria etc. 

He starts off at Benin where he discovers bronze sculptures dating back to more than 2000 years ago. The craftsmanship and technology to produce such exquisite pieces of art were very much present in those times. 

Next stop for him at Timbuktu in Mali, which was at one point of time a busy trading hub with traders from Arab coming to sell their wares and take home local items. Timbuktu has entered into a state of decline for many centuries now. 

Djenne and Jenne Jena which are nearby and Timbuktu did have some olden bronze & pottery sculpture history some evidence still being retained because Jenne Jena is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are evidence of archeological remains at these places. The sculpture is unique in the sense that lot of animist influences have been found in the form of shapes of snake, leopard, etc. in the sculpures. The locals revere the animism because they feel that the animals protect them. 

Djenne has got some Islamic influences because of the Arab traders who built a Grand Mosque in the city. All the houses in the city are made of mud and each house has a separate and distinct style of architecture depending upon the number of females in the household and the number of children. 

Dogon country in Mali is another place which has a rich cultural history. Interesting series this and not boring at all. Dr. Gus has kept it nice short and crisp and being an expert himself he dwells into more detail at each level of his visit.