A Gambian Compound Salaam Malikoom! Kori tanante (Hope you are well). Greetings from ‘The Smiling Coast’ (what West Africa is known as, which is fairly accurate yet kind of unfortunate since it sort of ignores the state of affairs here). Scoundrels or saints, the people of West Africa are typically a warm and inviting group. We were recently discussing strategies that could be used to maintain and improve our usage of the local languages and one suggestion was that if you live in a primarily English speaking household (which would only happen in the city -I’m using the term ‘city’ loosely here) you could venture out and adopt a family to hang out with. A person could easily walk down any road in The Gambia, step into a compound (more on that in a second), greet them, introduce themselves and explain that they would like to spend time with the family to improve their language. Every Gambian in the room nodded in agreement that the family would be delighted to have the person and would feel proud that they were chosen to help. From what I’ve seen so far I totally believe it. To clarify, this scenario is the exact of equivalent of walking down any street in American and knocking on a door. I’m not too sure that idea would fly in even the quaintest of small towns.
So what is this ‘compound’ business? It’s neither penitentiary-like nor is it cultish (the two words I instantly associate with the word ‘compound’ – shocking I know.), it’s simply the way the housing situation is set up here. The Gambia is made up of many villages and a few larger towns. In all of these places people primarily live in ‘family compounds’. A compound is an area of land (usually the size of an average sized residential lot in America, sometimes bigger) that is enclosed by a fence or cement wall. Inside are a collection of houses, usually row houses, sometimes individual mud huts, that belong to a specific family. In the middle there is usually a general seating area called a ‘bantabaa’ where people spend the majority of their free time because it’s usually way too hot to spend any time inside during the day and it would be very un-Gambian to do that anyway. (If you go inside for any extended amount of time Gambians either think you are really sick or really angry). There’s a cooking area that’s usually housed in a small brick structure (No one cooks inside their houses, it’s too hot, too dangerous and too messy since most cooking is done over a wood burning fire. Some people use portable propane stoves –like camping stoves - but that’s not nearly as common.) and sometimes there is an open well (although not always, most people get their water from the community pump out on the road).
The compound is usually occupied by an extended family including the father, his wife (or wives – Muslim law says you can have up to four and many men have at least two), their children and an assortment of grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and pretty much anyone else who has some sort of familial tie to the family. It is a fascinating situation because while The Gambia is completely tied into lineage and it is totally family based, a lot of people do not actually live with their immediate family due to poverty, infant mortality rates and a lot of other factors that I’m not aware of yet. People move around in order to help family members with farm work, parents often give children to family members who have few if any of their own and wives leave their own family compounds to join their husband’s (father’s) compound when they marry (although they keep their own family name!). Most villages are made up of people who share one out of three or four last names. For example my Gambian name is ‘Kaddy Dampha’ (more on that in a little while) and at least a quarter of the people in my village share the last name ‘Dampha’. They all get really excited when you tell them your last name and start saying things like ‘You are my sister!’ or ‘You are my family!’. It’s really nice and explains why the concept of homelessness is pretty much lost on Gambians. If you are in a bad situation there are a whole lot of people who share your last name and will feel
So what is this ‘compound’ business? It’s neither penitentiary-like nor is it cultish (the two words I instantly associate with the word ‘compound’ – shocking I know.), it’s simply the way the housing situation is set up here. The Gambia is made up of many villages and a few larger towns. In all of these places people primarily live in ‘family compounds’. A compound is an area of land (usually the size of an average sized residential lot in America, sometimes bigger) that is enclosed by a fence or cement wall. Inside are a collection of houses, usually row houses, sometimes individual mud huts, that belong to a specific family. In the middle there is usually a general seating area called a ‘bantabaa’ where people spend the majority of their free time because it’s usually way too hot to spend any time inside during the day and it would be very un-Gambian to do that anyway. (If you go inside for any extended amount of time Gambians either think you are really sick or really angry). There’s a cooking area that’s usually housed in a small brick structure (No one cooks inside their houses, it’s too hot, too dangerous and too messy since most cooking is done over a wood burning fire. Some people use portable propane stoves –like camping stoves - but that’s not nearly as common.) and sometimes there is an open well (although not always, most people get their water from the community pump out on the road).
The compound is usually occupied by an extended family including the father, his wife (or wives – Muslim law says you can have up to four and many men have at least two), their children and an assortment of grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and pretty much anyone else who has some sort of familial tie to the family. It is a fascinating situation because while The Gambia is completely tied into lineage and it is totally family based, a lot of people do not actually live with their immediate family due to poverty, infant mortality rates and a lot of other factors that I’m not aware of yet. People move around in order to help family members with farm work, parents often give children to family members who have few if any of their own and wives leave their own family compounds to join their husband’s (father’s) compound when they marry (although they keep their own family name!). Most villages are made up of people who share one out of three or four last names. For example my Gambian name is ‘Kaddy Dampha’ (more on that in a little while) and at least a quarter of the people in my village share the last name ‘Dampha’. They all get really excited when you tell them your last name and start saying things like ‘You are my sister!’ or ‘You are my family!’. It’s really nice and explains why the concept of homelessness is pretty much lost on Gambians. If you are in a bad situation there are a whole lot of people who share your last name and will feel
compelled to help you out.
It’s sort of a catch-22 though. People will share EVERYTHING that they have with you and as a general rule are not terribly interested in (or familiar with) having personal possessions but the flip-side of that is that when someone does prosper they have a responsibility to distribute the wealth, thereby never really being able to get ahead. It’s a complicated system that is pretty hard to relate to as an American and it can be frustrating to watch but when all is said and done the Gambian culture is one of generosity. A person will never go hungry if their neighbor has food but they will almost certainly go broke if they get a good job. My perspective is based on what I’ve seen so far which is really not much but more than I would ever see as a tourist (thank you Peace Corps!). I’m curious as to how I’ll see it two years from now. Quite differently I would imagine.
Fon Naatoo! (Until later!)
Fon Naatoo! (Until later!)
A Bantabaa
What an interesting system. Americans would have a great deal of trouble abiding by those rules. I do think it is amazing how they help each other out in almost all areas. I am enjoying reading all about your new experiences. Keep up the good work.
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