This is a festival held roughly 2 months after Ramadan ends, and is the big thing in The Gambia, people head for their home villages across the country, travel chaos ensues and many places of work get very quiet or shut down completely.
For me it was a confusing jumble of events, not made any easier by partial and misleading guidance by various people around me.
I was under the impression that I should get up and get dressed in my best new African clothes, go to the mosque, slaughter some rams, eat lots of meat freshly roasted, sing, dance and give out sweets.
It was sorta like this, just not on the timetable i was expecting and not necessarily in that order.
I got up bright and early and made my breakfast (porridge oats, and a cup of earl grey), did the regular morning ablutions and got dressed in my best clothes, only to find when opening the door everyone else was dressed as normal...
So I changed back, went to get water, and twiddled my thumbs for a while, some time later someone came to say aren't I going to the mosque? So I changed quickly and headed to the gate to find lots of people waiting for me...
I had fallen victim to the misconception that everyone would be going to the mosque together... alas all the women / girls on the compound have work to do so would meet up at the mosque later, hence not getting dressed up yet.
So I walked to the mosque and was assigned to the care of Alieu from Bata kunda (a ~11 year old who speaks reasonable English), while the men went to the inside of the mosque, Alieu, the other boys and myself sat down outside on a plethora of prayer mats set-up just for this purpose.
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| Looking back at the vast crowd who arrived at the mosque after we did. |
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| This is Alieu my guide for the visit. |
After some time, the older men came outside, and sat in the front, and some time later ladies started to come into the back of the mosque compound, where they sat away from the men. One or two little girls sat with their fathers, but otherwise segregation was as normal for here.
The service itself was very quick (10-15 mins maybe) though I'd been at the mosque at least an hour and a half by this point, and so we walked home. I I hung around outside my house for a while expecting things to happen, and seeing not a lot happening, went back inside to sit down.
After a short while I got called to say people were waiting on me and they wanted to kill the rams.
Luckily I was still in best clothes so managed to get out of helping on this task (most of the men had changed clothes as the rams were inconsiderate in where they sprayed their blood while getting their throats cut and in their death throes).
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| One Ram trying to resist his fate |
Rams dead, I sat down with the family, only slightly queasy from the spectacle I had just witnessed. I thought I'd hang around for a while in case I was caught out again, but for now it was just time for chatting. Soon the rams were cut up and people drifted away, I headed back to my house again. Fairly soon I was offered a big plate of freshly roasted liver and kidney, I quite like kidney and love liver, but there is only so much I can have as a pre dinner snack, 3/4 kg is a bit much... :)
So after my 'little' snack I waited around and was soon rewarded with a big pile (~2kg) of meat, for me to cook myself.
Nothing seemed to be happening for some time, so I settled down in my chair and waited to be called again. time went past, and I decided to go to the loo, so obviously this was when I was called as everyone was waiting for me... going to the loo is not the fastest thing when using a pit latrine so a short while later I emerged to find people unhappy with me as they were waiting on me to start eating...
After some confusion and disagreement, I moved to join a nearby food bowl and ate lots of food, as per usual once finished I then had to eat from another food bowl, and eventually from a third! The eating over I returned to my house to contemplate eating way too much.
No sooner did I sit down and relax, just after I changed into my 2nd nice African outfit as pre warned to do, than I was summoned to the door, it was the start of 'salibo' a tradition similar to trick or treat where hordes of children go door to door asking for money/ sweets etc. I soon exhausted my small trove of sweets (I had bought extra for this occasion), so after I gave out about 60 sweets I starting telling children 'minti a banta, fo saama' or sweets finished till tomorrow. Then I started giving out pens, though again I didn't have enough so it was 'peno a banta' this time. (Salibo I had been advised was for two days, so I had to keep some things back for the 2nd day.)
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| Some of the Ceesay family |
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| Vicky and Lucy |
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| Safiatou Dampha and little Mama Ceesay |
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| Mariama Ceesay, Mbassi Dampha, Jelica Ceesay, Awa Ceesay, Sainabou Ceesay |
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| Fatamatou Ceesay and Fatima Ceesay |
This salibo business continued well into the night, and I still had little children at my door after 10pm plaintively calling 'Salaam Alekum' ('peace be upon you', the traditional greeting when meeting people or calling at their door) to which I ignored, and kept the lights off. :)
There was alas no signing or dancing (that I saw at least) and other than eating and chatting it seemed to be a bit anti-climatic.
Next year I will be better prepared!
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