A grandmother sharing a story with her granddaughter

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The people, places, traditions and memories that shape a continent — recorded in the voices of those who carry them.

The Story My Grandmother Never Wanted Us to Forget

Featured · The Gambia

The Story My Grandmother Never Wanted Us to Forget

An elder recounts the family history that survived three generations without ever being written down.

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Every country holds thousands of stories. We begin in The Gambia, and keep going.

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The Gambia

1248 stories · Fully explorable

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Voices from the archive

An elder recounts the family history that survived three generations without ever being written down.
Fatou Ceesay · North Bank Region, The Gambia
Sabar rhythms are a language. Three drummers explain what their hands are actually saying.
Ibrahima Ndiaye · Dakar, Senegal
Domoda, cooked the way one family has cooked it since 1962 — and why the groundnuts must be roasted twice.
Mariama Sanneh · Kanifing, The Gambia
Place names are compressed history. This one holds a description of the shoreline as it was two centuries ago.
Ousman Touray · West Coast Region, The Gambia
A girl recording her grandfather telling a story

Preservation

What story lives in your family?

The most important cultural knowledge rarely reaches a museum. It lives in compounds, kitchens and conversations. Sit down. Listen. Record.

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Young women documenting culture in a storytelling lab

Programmes

The next generation of cultural custodians

Young African women documenting, recording and reimagining how heritage is kept — through storytelling labs, fieldwork and mentorship.

Awa, 18

The Gambia

I realised that technology can help us preserve the things we thought were disappearing.

Isatou, 17

The Gambia

My grandmother speaks and the app writes. She could not believe it the first time.

Fatoumata, 19

The Gambia

Visitors ask questions. I wanted the answers to come from us, not from a guidebook.

Binta, 18

The Gambia

Forty recordings so far. Each one is a person who will still be heard in fifty years.

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Transcription and translation are machine-assisted; every result is checked by a person.