The Gambia

Jiidaano is associated with periods of drought and rain shortage. It involves community prayers and offerings at sacred sites, with women, children and a community servant known in Mandinka as Falfa Keebaa taking part.

Korondoo is traditionally practised in response to excessive rainfall and flooding, and is associated with asking for the rain to stop. Its forms differ between communities.

Both practices are documented around Kiang West National Park in the Lower River Region, and are carried across generations by elders, women, children and blacksmith families.

Locally called “Bamburangho,” this traditional four-sided cloth has ropes attached to the upper and lower parts to secure a baby safely on the mother's back. It provides protection and support for the child, and its use usually begins around the third month after birth.

Traditionally, rituals may be performed before the wrapper is first used, including placing a stick on the mother's back three times. If the wrapper is accidentally burned, known as “Bamburang Jano,” some communities believe this may cause an outbreak of diarrhoea among children in the neighbourhood.

To prevent the spread of the illness, rice may be collected from lactating mothers in the community. Nursing mothers then gather at the village square or junction to prepare traditional food, pray, eat, celebrate, and return home.

“Benachin” translates from Wolof as “one pot.” Rice, fish or meat, tomato and vegetables are cooked together so the grain absorbs everything around it.

The dish travels along the river and the coast, changing with the market: more fish where the boats land, more groundnut inland. Cooks judge it not by recipe but by the colour of the rice.

The kora is built from a large calabash cut in half, covered with cow hide and strung with twenty-one strings that the player plucks with thumbs and index fingers.

In griot families of Brikama, learning the instrument and learning family history are the same lesson: the melodies carry names, lineages and events that are never written down.

The naming ceremony, “Ngente,” takes place on the eighth day after birth. The name is whispered first, then announced to the gathered family and neighbours.

Hair is cut, prayers are said, and food is shared across the compound. The guest list is itself a record of who belongs to the child's world.