we want to start by saying thank you for being our friends
DESCRIPTION
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. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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.