Ancient Stone Circles of Senegambia

The ancient stone circles consists of four large groups of stone circles that represent an extraordinary concentration of over 1,000 monuments in a band 100 km wide along some 350 km of the River Gambia. The four groups, Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch, cover 93 stone circles and numerous tumuli, burial mounds, some of which have been excavated to reveal material that suggest dates between 3rd century BC and 16th century AD. 

Together the stone circles of laterite pillars and their associated burial mounds present a vast sacred landscape created over more than 1,500 years. It reflects a prosperous, highly organized and lasting society.

The history of the Senegambian Stone Circles is not entirely certain. Dating of the burial mounds pushes them back to about the 3rd century BCE, and the most recent appear to be from the 16th century. The bulk of the stones, however, do seem to have been erected sometime between 640 and 860.

The densest concentration within the Senegambian Stone Circles, and thus the area most people visit, is the area around Djalloumbéré and Wassau. There are more than 50circles in this region, with more than 1000 stones among them. The village of Wassau also has a museum dedicated to the Senegambian Stone Circles, giving visitors a great deal of information on them, and providing basic maps to find them.

There are four main groups within the Senegambian Stone Circles as defined by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, mostly along the River Gambia. Aside from Wassau, these groups are Kerbatch, Sine Ngayéne, and Wanar.
Although the Senegambian Stone Circles appear to many people to be laid out fairly sporadically and randomly, closer examination reveals this not to be the case. The circlesactually rely on fairly complex geometric relationships between stones.


One of the largest mysteries around the Senegambian Stone Circles is who exactly erected them. The sheer quantity and consistency suggests a fairly cohesive society, and it is said that the people buried in the mounds are generally kings or chiefs, and later, after the advent of Islam, important and devout Muslims.

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Gambia Tribal History

Ebrima Fode Kombo Silla
Manly Touray was King Silla's father Mbisin Njie, daughter of Burr Sine was his mother. Manly Touray, in the same way as his father, Amatora Touray, was a famous marabout. He traveled from Gunjur to other parts of the country and used to travel to Senegal too. One day during his visits to Senegal, he went to Sine and married the daughter of the king of Sine called Mbisin Njie. It happened that one Ebrima Sillah a famous marabout from Pakau Sillah kunda was on visit in Gunjur when Fode was born. He asked Fode´s parents to name the baby after him and the parents agreed and named the baby Ebrima Sillah.

When Ebrima grew up to the age of learning the Koran, he was sent to Darsilami Sillah kunda at Pakau in Cassamance to learn the Koran. He found many scholars and some of them were called Ebrima Sillah as well. To enable easy identification of those who had the name Ebrima, prefixes were added to their names.Ebrima learned the Koran quickly and within a short period, he made a fantastic progress in his lessons and had flying colours among his fellow scholars. In those days and even today, brilliant Koranic scholars who mastered the Koran well are given the title of "Fode".

Enlightenment Under The Baobab
After winning the title of "Fode" from DarsilamiSillah kunda, Ebrima Fode Kombo Sillah returned to Gunjur and joined his family. He remained with his family for several years and left for the Island of Sangama to worship God. The Sangamar Island is in the Atlantic Ocean. Fode traveled to the Island through the help of the people of Nyombato.For sometime after crossing, Fode stayed and worshipped God in the Island, and one day, the people of Nyombato heard the beating of drums just in the same way as drums are beaten on Friday for prayers. It raised a lot of surprise among the inhabitants, as they have never heard the beating of drums from the Island.

However, after sometime, the people who crossed Fode to the Island explained that a visiting marabout from Gunjur was there worshipping God. Few days later, Fode was seen sailing down to the shore from the Island on a praying skin. The following Friday morning, the people found him sitting down under a baobab tree. He prayed for them and they left. He remained under that baobab tree for a few days and left for Gunjur.

Many ideas were associated to his trip to Sangamar Island but the most reasonable one was that he went to the Island of Sangamarand and while sat under the Baobab tree in meditation and pray he was enlightened with the mission to take up the responsibility of ruling and spreading Islam in the Kombos.

Meeting At Gunjur

A delegation of Muslim elders was chosen to meet Fode to ask him to lead them in war against the Soninke villages in Brikama, Manduar, Kitte, Siffoe, Busumbala, Yundum, Lamin, Mandinaring, Latrikunda Mampatokoto, Talinding Kunjang, Serekunda, Bakau, Mandinaba, Tuba Kuta , Selety, Pirang, Farabanta, Farabasutu and Kafuta. He listened to them carefully and after they had finished, he replied that it was sad to hear of their troubles which took place in his absence, but at the same time, he was please to accept their offer to make him a leader.

In preparation for Jihad, Emir Fode made jujus monthly and put them into all Muslim village wells for the safety of the villagers against any possible disaster. One afternoon, while sitting down and discussing with the people, the Emir suddenly turned sad and the people asked him why he was so sad. He replied that nothing had happened to him. However after a little while, two horsemen arrived from Pirang and announced the murder of Arfang Tumani Jabang by the Soninke king.

Conquest of the Kombos
In further preparation for the inevitable Muslim and Soninke war, the Emir entered in a private praying period know as "Haluwa" and begged God to punish the Soninkes and make his people victorious in the war. He ordered the blacksmiths Amara Sulu Sawo of Gunjur, Saba Cham of Gunjur and Famara Keita of Tujereng to start making local guns and bullets in secret.When it was fairly dark enough, Fode made his soldiers to leave Sansanding to attack the principal Soninke villages of Brikama, Yundum and Busumbala. These three villages were not only known for their population but had also all the bravest Soninke warriors.

The company that attacked Brikama arrived at midnight, before the afternoon of the following day, the remaining soninkes either left Brikama or surrender to the Muslims. Having defeated Brikama, Fode`s troops advanced towards Yundum and Busumbala. They arrived at night and attacked Yundum at night. The battle here lasted more than a week because it was a very strong Soninke settlement full of brave warriors. According to some soldiers, the Soninkes of Yundum had opted to die rather to surrender to the Sillla's troops,

The Situation at Busumbala was the most critical one as compared to that of Yundum. Here, the battle took the longest time when compared to battles fought in any soninke village. Busumbala had more brave warriors than Yundum and the bees at Yarambamba forest created more problems for the Silla's soldiers.

The bees were said to have been sent by the soninke idols and when they bit the Silla's men, they either died or were rendered completely useless and ineffective in the battle. In this way many warriors lost their lives in Busumbala and the whole army wereclose to defeat. As the situation turned more and more drastic on the side of the Muslims, the troop leaders sent for the Emir himself to come and see the situation himself.

On arrival, Fode was astonished and shed tears when he learned about the fall of his bravest soldiers. He immediately gave orders to withdraw the soldiers and report at Sansanding. He himself returned to Darsilami where he entered his hiding and begged God for the Jihad to end in favour of his troops.

Silla and the Ninki Nanka Dragon
His prayers were answered, and one morning when the Soninkes at Yundum and Busumbala got up from bed, they discovered that the whole villages of Yundum and Busumbala were ambushed by a mighty dragon. Nobody went in or out of the two villages for eight days, at the end of the eight day, the Soninke in both villagers sent word across to Emir Fode in Darsilami that they had surrendered and would become Muslims. The following night, the dragon disappeared.

The victory for King Silla in Busumbala and Yundum which were the strongest Soninke settlements caused the rest of the Soninkes in Kombo to surrender to the Emir and joined his religion.


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Ancient Founders of Senegambia

According to Senegambia oral history, the Jola ethnic group is among the ethnic groups who have been longest resident in the Senegambia region. The Jolas for centuries continued to hold their ancestral African beliefs about the sacredness of the earth and the divine energy found in certain rocks and trees. They express their religion and beliefs in song and dance as well as in shrines, which is called "Bakin". The Jolas developed a high concept of one god, which they called Ata Amit A Luuke (Meaning God the Supreme Being).

It is sad to note that many people do not still know how long the Jola culture existed in the Senegambia region. Though the origin of the Jolas is still unknown, it is now confirmed by both oral and written history that they are the people who have been longest resident in the Gambia and among the indigenous people of the Senegambia region. The Jolas have developed a culture of acceptance of other cultures but not acceptance to change their own culture; they are one of few ethnic groups that have managed to keep its culture intact.

The Jolas are called Bachuki by the Manjago ethnic group, another ethnic group that also was among the first settlers. Bachuki in Manjago means first. To the Manjago it means the Jolas were the first settlers they know in the region. Of all the sub groups of the Jola people today, it is the Jola Cassas that still maintain 99 percent of all the old Jola traditional ways of doing things, still reject Islam and Christianity, and only a few of them go to church.

Most of the Jola Cassa who go to church to day do so because if they don’t, their children would find it hard to secure a place in the Christian schools. African governments have no funds to build schools all over their countries. Most of the schools in remote places of Africa are built by the catholic mission. There is no place in the Casamance where you will find Jola holy places of worship (Bakin) more than where the Jola Cassa lives. In fact, the most famous Jola holy shrines are in Samatit (called Kalemaku), and in Hasuka and in Mlomp (called Husana) and the people who run them are all Jola Cassas.

The Jolas are found in great numbers on the Atlantic coast between the southern banks of the Gambia River, the Casamance region of Senegal (Southern Senegal), and the northern part of Guinea-Bissau. Unlike most of the ethnic groups of the Senegambia region, the Jola ethnic group is not hierarchal. That is it has no class system in its social institutions, like griots, slaves, nobles, leather workers, etc.

Their communities way of settlement is based on the extended family settlement that is normally large enough to be given independence and their own names. Names like Jola Karon, Jola Mlomp, Jola Elinnkin, Jola Caginol, Jola Huluf, Jola Jamat, Jola Bayot, Jola Kabrouse, and Jola Foni etc

Although Jolas have a lot of traditional economic activities like fishing, farming groundnuts, taping palm wine, processing palm oil, just to name a few, their most intensive economic activity is rice cultivation. They had this knowledge long before the first European (the Portuguese) came to their region. This work activity (rice cultivation) is tied up closely to their religion and their social organisations. They have a good knowledge of animal husbandry and do raise a lot of different animals like cows, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep and ducks.

In the area of craftsmanship, the Jolas have a great variety of craft knowledge like weaving baskets, pottery, and house building. Jolas are also palm oil manufacturers and great palm wine tapers in the Senegambia region. The Jolas are able herbal medicine practitioners. Their high adaptation to the nature and environment made them to be able to create musical centred civilisation, natural medicine centred civilisation, and most important of all rice cultivation centred civilisation which they do effectively by using a locally made farming tool called the Kajandu.

Unlike most of the rest of the ethnic groups of the Senegambia, the Jolas were highly resistant to change or to influence of other cultures or religions. The Jolas are among the sizable population in Senegambia virtually untouched by Islam and Christianity. Many of them still hold to the tradition of worship. Even though some Jolas accepted Islam in the end (Soninke-Marabout war), they still honour their traditional way of using palm wine when performing their important rituals.

The Jolas have a concept of one God that they associated with the natural phenomena like sky and rain. They call this one god Amit (God) or Ata Amit (the Almighty God). (See article J. David Sapir) However, like any other religion, the Jolas have charms or sacred forests and sacred lands which they honour and worship as supernatural spirits that can protect their families, their villages, their rice fields, and even protect them from conversion to Islam and Christianity. These supernatural spirits are called Bakin (Mandinka Jalang).

Unfortunately people who don't understand how Jolas pray and relate to their God think that the Jolas have no God but spirits, because they offer sacrifices to the Bakin. But the Jola knows the difference between his/her God (Ata Amit) and the Bakin.

Jolas believed strongly in living a good humanistic life in this world. They believe that if one lives a bad life in this world when the person dies the soul of the dead person is punished to become an exile spirit and with no bed to lie on (In Jola Cassa this exile spirit is called A Holowa). This exile spirit becomes a roaming spirit with no respect from the other spirits.

All Jolas, before the influence of Islam and Christianity in their ways of beliefs, placed great respect in the proper observation of funeral ceremony, and still today some do, for they are of the belief that it enables the dead person’s soul to go to its final destination, (his or her ancestors). It was and still is strongly accepted by those Jolas who still practise their ancestral religion that without performing these funeral sacred rites, the soul is prevented from entering the presence of the creator (Ata Amit), and the ancestors.

Like most of the indigenous ethnic groups of the Senegambia region, the Pepel, the Manjago, the Balanta, the Konyagi etc, the Jola ethnic group did not develop a political scale that expanded beyond village level compared to ethnic groups that migrated to the region like the Sonikes and the Mandingos. But this does not mean they did not develop a sophisticated political system.

The egalitarian nature of their societies, structured around the limited village environment gave them the possibilities to develop a political system based on collective consciousness, which they worked through their initiation rites. In a sense the Jolas political achievement in the village was representative socialism based on leadership among equals. It was totally tied to their religious belief (Bakin). This political achievement to any one who knows politics is not easy to reach if the society that runs it does not have well defined rules of administration and penalties.

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Gambia Sweden Fashion

Fashion styles differ from country to country and you can usually tell by a person’s clothes as to which part of the world they come from. However, a lot of people cross these cultural borders and choose to wear the style they like the best. Ritva Lundberg, from Sweden, is a non-conformist when it comes to Swedish fashion, since she usually dresses in West African clothes.

She loves tie-dye fabrics and knows a lot about the way they are produced. During the hippie-era in the 1970’s, when batik clothes were trendy in Sweden and other parts of the western world, Ritva made her own batik fabrics, however, today she usually buys her fabrics from Gambia.

The first time I met Ritva Lundberg was in Bakau in Gambia in 2002. I was there as a tourist and Ritva, who had been living there periodically for three years, became my guide to the country and introduced me to her friends. It was the interest in West African music that drew Ritva and her husband to Gambia in 1999 and they immediately fell in love with the culture.

They spend a few months in Gambia every year, bringing its culture and way of life back to Sweden when they return, for example, Ritva often dresses in African fabrics in Sweden but in clothes made with western designs. It is still quite unusual in Sweden to wear this kind of fabric and it is easy to spot Ritva in a crowd. It is always exciting to see her choice of clothing, as she is literally wearing a piece of beautiful art.

“I always receive compliments on my style of clothing and my colleagues say that it is fun, as I add a splash of colour to the workplace, since the Swedish people usually dress so colourless”. The clothes in Gambia, on the other hand, are known for being very colourful and they are often made through tie-dye.

“Cuub” is the word for tie-dyed clothes in Wolof, one of the main tribe languages in Gambia. Ritva tells me that cuub is the traditional way to decorate clothes and when you walk the streets of Gambia you see a lot of people wearing those patterns. Originally the Gambian people used plant colours to create the batik and the patterns were usually quite small. Nowadays, the colours are synthetic and patterns, colours and techniques are numerous, but the old patterns are still used and popular, beside the new ones.

Ritva Lundberg loves the colourfulness and the diversity in the Gambian fabrics and explains that there are thousands of colour combinations and patterns. When I visited a market in Banjul with her, it was the colours of clothing that made the greatest impression on me. Ritva usually buys her printed cotton fabrics at the big markets in Banjul or in the markets of Serrekunda since they have the largest assortment.

However, the batik clothes she prefers to buy are from a batik maker named Fatou Sanneh.”I happened to get a good price from her once at the market in Serrekunda, where I gradually became her regular customer and started to visit her home to do my shopping”. Fatou also makes batik on order so you can get exactly the colours and patterns you want. “However, her prices for the special ordered batik patterns are not as low, but on the other hand, her fabrics are of extremely high quality”.

I have learnt that the pattern of the fabric is very important and Ritva says that there are new imaginative patterns invented all the time. There is also a trend in patterns and every year there is a pattern that is the “it” thing. “Every fabric manufacturer produces the pattern and all fashion conscious women wear it. If they don’t they are not ‘in’. You can not go to a party wearing last year’s batik pattern.

That is unthinkable.” Ritva Lundberg says that trends are very important in Gambia and that the Gambian women love vanity and new clothes. “It should always be the latest trends, sewed by the favourite tailor”. At the moment however, the batik patterned clothes are starting to be pushed out by a new “in” thing. “Today the latest fashion is sparkling synthetic fabrics, often with lace and inventive embroiders.”

Another interesting thing about the clothing in Gambia is that the women usually dress in the same patterns for big family feasts. “The women wear something called ‘asobi’, a kind of uniform, where the clothes are made out of the same patterned fabric, however, the design can vary. Sometimes even the men get an asobi in the same pattern, but this is not that common”. It is custom that the family who hosts the party buys all the fabric for the guests’ clothes. The choice of the fabric indicate the level of wealth of the family.

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