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Family Compounds in Gambia |
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A-Z of Gambia
Real Estate |
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 A
compound in Gambia means a collection of accommodations round a centrally situated
main residence, occupied by members of the same family, or related by
blood or marriage within a joint
fence. A compound usually comes into being because someone settles to
live on his own, for example as a result of the existence of farmland.
He buys, gets or inherits a piece of land and builds a fence around
it.
In the course of time a small house comes into being that is
rebuild into a larger house later. Children who get married settle
within the same fence, build a house fixed to it, or build their own
house somewhere else on the terrain.
The responsibility for the maintaining family co-operation and
communal co-operation is with the head of the household who is usually
the oldest male. The smaller parts of a compound are referred to as
sinkiro and dabada.
Like the one you will be inhabiting, compounds are the main style of
housing in The Gambia. Compounds generally consist of a wall or fence
enclosing several buildings that face an outdoor communal area used
for sitting, eating, doing laundry, playing, saying prayers, and every
other activity taking place outside.
Immediate families, such as a
wife and her children, often occupy individual buildings or parts of a
building with separate entrances, with the larger extended family
sharing the compound as a whole. Sometimes rooms or entire compounds
are rented out to a small or newly formed family.
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