When I was living in The Gambia (the smiling coast), I went on a boat ride for 2 hours to Albredah, Jufureh and then James Island (Kunta Kinte Island) on the River Gambia and I was hiding from the sun as it starts to get too hot !!!!
We reach Albredah and visit the old Spanish church in ruins, the gun, the French market, and the slavery museum that traces this period of slavery and the slave trade. Slaves were sent on Kuntah Kinte and then were transported to Goree Island before heading toward the US, South America, and Europe for those who arrived previously and obviously in unimaginable conditions … The island, therefore, served as a defensive fort, and slaves found there was no means of escape, the land is too far, and the currents are too strong. We went then to Jufureh village, which is just beside Albredah and met the village head (this is a woman of about 80 years who continues to do agricultural work), then went into the compound of the family of Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte is a character in the book “Roots” by Alex Haley. The latter would have lived in the village of Mandinka Juffureh. He was captured in 1767 when he was looking for wood to make a drum to his younger brother by four men. He would have been sent in Maryland and have been sold in a plantation in Virginia. His masters would have wanted to change his first name to Toby, something he refused and would have refused to talk. After being caught four times as he tried to escape, they offered him to be castrated or cut her right foot. He will choose that they cut his foot. He will eventually talk and be a little more cooperative after that. He even married and had a daughter Keisa, which is a Mandinka name, which is not trivial because it was supposed to protect her from being sold, but she will also be sold in North Carolina. When her daughter tries to find her parents, particularly her father, instead of writing on her grave Toby, she will write Kunta Kinte. Alex Haley claims to be the 7th descendant of Kunta family.
The island is now part of UNESCO heritage. The latter is currently 1/6 of its original size due to erosion and rising sea levels; what is still left is the central part of the fort (well the ruins) and magical, majestic baobabs which gives this place a mystical side.
