Roots Tour

Yesterday we traveled on a Roots Tour, which took us 2.5 hrs. up-country via The River Gambia to the villages of Albreda & Juffureh & to Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly James Island). There were roughly 20 million slaves that passed through Senegambia during the trade & James Island was the holding place before being put onto a boat heading west. The slaves went to South America, the West Indies & North America mostly & their labor was used to produce raw goods that were then sold to Europe where additional commodities were made & used in Africa to buy people for enslavement – The Triangular Trade they called it.

 It was so interesting visiting the museum in the coastal village of Albreda & walking through Juffureh, which is home to 1,000 Mandinka tribe members & the birthplace of Kunta Kinteh, whose slavery journey was documented in the novel & subsequent movie Roots.

Kunta Kinteh Island is half the size that it use to be do to the river eroding the shoreline over time. What’s left are ruins of the building that was once the British fortress & foothold in the Gambia. You can still walk into the dungeon where they kept the biggest & most dangerous slaves (including Kunta Kinteh) & you can look down into the tiny room with its 20ft. high walls where they kept the rest of the slaves.

While it was a wonderful opportunity to be around was what such a huge part of our history, the realization of what all happened here was sobering & sad.