Introduction:
 The
former village of Serrekunda market town (also spelt
Serekunda) is the Gambia's largest town, and its name
means the 'home of the Sayer family' (Sayer Kunda),
named after its 19th century founder, Sayerr Jobe, a
Wolof royal from Koki, Senegal.
Serrekunda has a population of about 390,000, and is
13km to the southwest of the capital, Banjul.
It is actually made up of nine villages which have merged
into an urban sprawl, that incorporates the villages
of Latrikunda, Dippa Kunda, Bundung and London Corner,
and effectively forms the Kanifing LGA, in the Kombo
St. Mary District. The urban settlement is about 3 kilometres
inland from the coastal resorts of Kololi
and Kotu.
Accommodation:
 Serrekunda
Town is not an obvious holiday resort destination for
tourists visiting The Gambia. Most visitors head out
from Banjul Airport and straight to the beach resorts,
and check-in to hotels in Kololi / Senegambia, Kotu,
Bijilo, Brufut, Fajara, Kerr Sering, Cape Point and
other Atlantic Ocean coastal lodges. However, there
are a few simple, basic types of hotels
in Serrekunda providing minimal amenities and some
with air-conditioning.
Tourist Attractions & Things To Do:
•
Serrekunda
Market
 The
Gambia's commercial centre and heart of the town is
said to have been originally started by several women
regularly setting up their stalls by a dirt path selling
a few fresh vegetables and dried fish. As time went
by other local food sellers joined them and it subsequently
grew into the bustling market it is today. It has now
effectively spread out to encompass nearly all the nearby
roads leading into the market area and many of their
side streets. Pavements merge into the road with pedestrians
dominating half the road on either side, letting vehicles
through occasionally.
 If
you want to get a good feel of day-to-day, urban
West African cultural existence; a trip to the core
of town offers you a strong experience. At times the
centre's major roads are filled with bumper-to-bumper
vehicles, spewing out diesel fumes, taxis
repeatedly blaring their horns, loud music played from
any number of ghetto blasters and radios, and streets
thronging with over-full colourful stands, wheelbarrow
boys pushing heavy goods for their clients, street hawkers
and traders' stores selling a jumble of cheap imports.
Goods literally spill out of their shop fronts
in an organised or de-organised way.
Inside the market building is a labyrinth of workshops,
trading stalls and eateries which fills up the Serrekunda
Market building. Inside the main structure the stands
are demarcated by small alleys. This is the sort of
jammed-to-the-hilt location where you can find an endless
stream of products, from bicycle repair kits and flip-flops
to flowery vases, ceramic trade beads, bed sheets and
pillows.
There's also a large outdoor food selling area
at the back,
where mostly women offer vegetables like hot chillies,
tomatoes, green peppers, salad as well ad dried and
smoked bonga (shad), fresh fish, smoked catfish from
wooden stalls, mounds on the floor or on decorated metal
bowls. Adjacent stores sell all manner of dried and
packaged foods such as groundnut paste, rice, cooking
oil, herbs, spices, dried chillies, Maggie cubes and
much more.
Note: It is illegal to export any article made from
wild animal skins, feathers or any other part of any
protected creature from The Gambia. Offenders will have
the products confiscated and fines may be imposed .
• Serrekunda
Town
 The
main artery leading southwest towards the market is
the Sayerr Jobe Avenue, which is jammed with local shops,
ageing taxis, handicraft sellers, street peddlers and
wholesale merchants' stores, from all over West Africa
and several Arab countries.
Walking and shopping along
Sayer Jobe Avenue
is usually enough for anybody. Close to the enclosed
market at the corner of Sayerr Jobe Avenue and Mosque
Road, every metre of road-side is often taken by traders
and shoppers, and every section of road is blocked with
autos, barrows, cyclists, motorbikes and even more
pedestrians!
Beyond
the immediate market vicinity, the busy commercial
roads offer up interesting perusing and shopping
possibilities, with a large variety of commodities on
display. You'll pass photo studios, barbers, fabrics
shops selling tailoring ribbons, bobbins, headscarves,
textiles and lace, people selling any number of unrecognisable
dried leaves, twigs, bark and powders, plastic utensils
are everywhere, iron mongers' workshops, with rows of
strung aluminium ladles, incense burners, and neat stacks
of large, shiny, aluminium cooking
pots on protruding legs and iron cooking stoves. You
can also find carpenters working from cramped workshops,
chiselling and carving ornate wooden beds, wardrobes
and other local furniture.
• Batik Factory
 For
tie-dyed and batik fabrics, Serrekunda has a well
known "Batik
Factory", Ms. Musu Kebba Drammeh's workshop
in Dippa Kunda, off the Mosque Road. On the 10th March,
2003, Musu Kebba passed away and the management of the
workshop passed onto her daughter. You are not usually
allowed to observe craftspeople at work here, but if
you are lucky, you might see the tie dye and batik
making process from the design, waxing and boiling,
to the finished material. Use the opportunity to get
hold of some souvenirs. There are lots of finished fabrics
for sale, including clothing and wall coverings, plus
a stand selling wood carvings such as masks and djembe
drums.
• Wrestling
This is the national sport of the Senegambia
region. Wrestling
contests usually take place on Saturdays and Sundays
in the local wrestling arenas such as in the Serrekunda
West Mini Stadium,  or
at the National Stadium in Bakau.
Each wrestler has a group of djembe drummers who rhythmically,
and vigorously beat their drums and blow pea-whistles
before each bout. The winner of each bout is the one
who gets his opponent on the ground first. Kicking,
punching, biting, and throwing sand into an opponent's
face are not against the rules, but is frowned upon,
and the referee or the offender's manager could step
in and stop the bout. Spectators would normally make
their disapproval clear by booing.
• Paper Recycling Skills
Project
 One
place worth visiting is the Paper Recycling Skills Project
(PRSP) in Fajikunda. You can buy various paper
products; and any profits generated goes back into the
community. PRSP is located a little further south of
Serrekunda's centre, in the 'Craft Village',
in Fajikunda, near Latrikunda.
It was founded in 2001 by May Rooney, an English
artist, to create job opportunities and training, support
education projects and encourage a recycling culture
in The Gambia, the project produces attractive, handmade
paper, school exercise books and covers, cards, albums
and lampshades and more from discarded materials. Profit
is used to buy school equipment and other community
items. In early 2012 the charity launched a biomass
recycling research and training centre at Fajikunda–Abuko.
It involves creating doughnut briquettes made from waste
paper and waste agricultural materials to be used as
an alternative fuel in cooking stoves. This was set
up to support the local community in enhancing their
capacity to better preserve and protect the country's
forest areas.
(Email: ndmendy@gmail.com)
• Kairaba Avenue
 Formerly
known as the Pipeline Road, it links the genteel Fajara
residential section and Serrekunda. In the 1970s it
was essentially a rough dirt road coursing through fields
and past a few built homes. Today, the 1.86 mile length
of Kairaba
Avenue is straddled by food stores, supermarkets,
banks, office blocks, restaurants, electronic shops,
furniture stores etc., and attracts the steepest rents
in The Gambia. It joins the Banjul to Brikama highway
at the busy Westfield
Junction roundabout.
Towards the southern end of the avenue is a tall, modern
building of a mobile phone operator's head office, Latrikunda
Upper Basic School, many retail stores and next to the
football playing field is the area's main cultural centre,
the Alliance
Franco-Gambienne (or Alliance Française). The French
Cultural Centre is focused on teaching French classes,
cultural activities such as theatre and live musical
performances and French and English film viewings. There
is a library, a cafeteria and a music recording
studio which local talent can hire and record their
own music.
(Tel: +220 4374172)
• Mosque Road & Latrikunda
 If
you go down Mosque Road from Latrikunda German from
Kairaba Avenue, you should be able to spot the 'Big
Tree'; a revered and genuinely huge silk cotton
tree, just clipping the main road. Most of this end
of Mosque Road is often nicely shaded with trees and
an interesting place to wonder down. The commercial
buzz becomes increasingly hectic as you stroll south
towards Dippa Kunda and the main commercial district.
• Night Clubs
 Serrekunda
is an ideal place to get a sampling of local nightlife,
and it's home to The Gambia's well established Jokor
Nightclub. It is a fairly safe place for tourists
to visit as it is on the well lit Westfield Junction
/ Kombo Sillah Drive, and has a moderate crowd with
fairly decent guest facilities such as toilets. There
is also plenty of car parking space available around
the back, which is guarded. The revelling doesn't really
get going much before 12am; then goes on until 4am or
later, when club goers move on in search of a fast food
meal, very often afra.
• Restaurants
 While
Serrekunda's restaurants
are not geared towards tourists, it has some good local
eating establishments, particularly near the market.
A good place to visit for some quick food and a break
is Sen Fast Food on Sayerr Jobe Avenue and near Westfield
Junction or Four Seasons which is further west on Kairaba
Avenue. There are some local bars in town which get
busy at night; many of these occasionally see travellers,
and you'll almost certainly be welcome. Try to keep
to the ones on the main street or not too far.
Health & Safety:
Pickpockets are quite active in the crowded sections,
so keep your cash, jewellery and credit cards well tucked
away in a money belt or bum bag. In the evening this
urban area might seem like a menacing town to the inexperienced;
and it makes no special provisions for tourists' safety.
In reality, however, there's not much to be afraid of
in terms of crime, especially
if you're with Gambian friends.
Avoid walking in unlit areas alone at night and
always carry a small torchlight. Do not use the light
on your mobile phone as it could get snatched and never
walk alone after 12pm. The police
station is only a stones throw from the busy market
junction and normally well lit at night. There is also
a fire
station.
Travel Information:
 To
get into the centre of Serrekunda from the Gambia's
coastal resorts like Kololi
and Kotu you take one of the yellow or green tourist
taxis and ask to be taken
to the market. If you just say Serrekunda you could
end up being dropped quite a distance from the centre
as it is now an urban agglomeration, taking in several
villages in the process.
If you want to shop and enjoy a stroll while making
your way up to the main market, then ask to be taken
to Westfield Junction and walk up Sayerr Jobe Avenue.
You can also ask to be dropped off near the former 'Tipper
Garage' in Bakoteh, and make your way from there.
To get back to your accommodation
just pick up a cheaper yellow cab and  ask
them to take you to your lodgings. Most drivers know
all the main hotels and lodges, and your taxi fare shouldn't
cost you more than the equivalent of a cheap main course.
[Geographical coordinates 13°26′N 16°40′W
/ Kombo North Saint Mary District (Ksmd)] |
