Hello, Greetings from the children of Brufut Lower Basic

School. How is everyone Badger Hill Primary School?

Do you remember last time we said we would tell you about the census

that has just happened in The

Gambia. Well that is what we are doing

today.

We want to start by saying thank you for

being our friends.

And we love receiving your letters and learning about life in England.

The Muslim Holy month of Ramadan is just

beginning here. Do you celebrate Ramadan in

England?

Because it is nearly the end of the school year we are

sorting out all the furniture that needs fixing.

So let’s tell you want we have learned

about the census.

The census happened a few weeks ago. Our

government does it to find out how

many people live in The Gambia, how old are and things

like that.

Every compound or house is

numbered and marked. This is

compound 145 in the Brufut area for the 2013 census.

The census is done every 10 years

The census officer came here and completed the form. So now they know all about

everyone who lives here. And when all the figures for all the compounds in The Gambia

are added up we will know all about everyone who is living in the country. They

use computers to calculate and analyses the figures.

Here is what the figures show. There are now 1.8 million living in The Gambia. This figure has grown from 1 million just 20

years ago. But we are still the smallest African country.

As a developing country our

population is still young. 44 %

of the population in under 15 and 54 % are aged 15 to 64 years. Only 2 per cent are aged over

65

And because we are still developing our economy over half the population still live

on the land growing food.But more

people are coming to the towns

to find jobs. As yet

there are not enough

jobs for everyone.

Before the Europeans

came to Africa and made countries

there was just tribes living in

different areas.

And the area that the English made The Gambia from had several tribes living here. We

are going to tell you about the main four tribes.

There are four main tribes in The Gambia. They are: Mandinka,

Wolloff, Jola, and Fula.

The Mandinkas are some times refer to as Mandingo, Manlike or Mande

and make up of 42% of the population of The Gambia – so they

are the largest group.

The Mandinkas are widespread through out the whole of west

Africa particularly in Mali, Senegal, and Guinea plus

all of The Gambia.

The Mandinkas are mostly farmers. They were once nomadic but now many live in the kiangs and jarras settlements in the upper region.

They migrated from mandin empire in ancient mali. They moved in

search of good farm lands. They now grow much of Gambia’s rice taking

water from The River Gambia.

The Mandinka tribe speak their own tribal mandinka language. They have surnames

Fattys’ Sonkos’ Drammehs’ and

Jawaras..

Many Fula’s like me are lighter in

skin – may be because we

come from the North of Africa

originally. There are several

dialects of Fula.

People from the Fula tribe are to be found in many West African countries.

They make up 18% of The Gambian population. They are by tradition nomadic herdsman but now they

settle and also grow crops.

Common Fula surnames include Jallow Bah Baldeh

Bendeh Barry Sowe

The photo shows a Fula lady in traditional dress. She also has a

traditional mask. They were once common and permanent but now Fula’s use temporary

ink and only for special ceremonies like weddings.

The Wollof ethnic group (or jollof, as they some times known) in Gambia make up 16% of the population and are the third largest ethnic group. They speak their

own tribal language of Wollof. Wollof surnames include Jobe, Njie ,Joof ,Sarr, Jeng.

The Wollofs are to be found in fairly large

numbers in the areas of land up river, but also by the sea as many of them

are fishermen. But most of the Wollof people are to

be found in Senegal.

Do you recognise this man? He is Akon, the American singer. He is from the Wollof tribe originally from Senegal. Majority of the Wollofs live in Senegal – the country that surrounds The

Gambia.

This is our traditional way of dressing. In the future I will dress like this – but only on

special occasions like religious festivals or family celebrations.

Do you like the dress?

The Jolas are located mainly in the Kombo and Foni in the Western Region and mid-

Gambia. Our president is from the Jola tribe. He is from the

Foni Region.

No one is sure were we tradionally came from.

And we have no griots to hand down our history.

But is known that we were the first group in The

Gambia area

Do you what a griot is? It is a story teller who remembers all

the important things about a tribe and

tells his children. So important

information passes from one generation to another through

the griot

We are traditionally farmers. We have the common surnames

Jarju, Nyassi, Colley and Sambou. My own surname is

Sambou. We have sub branches too called the karonincas, foni

and casas.

Well we hope you enjoyed finding out

about the census and the people of The Gambia. It is

nearly time for the summer break for

both us and you. We will write again in

September. For now we say good bye and thank you to you all

at Badger Hill Primary School for being our friends.

Hey we almost forgot . . . We hope you have a

GREAT summer break and let’s write in September.