A Major Tourism Boom Awaits Gambia

The tiny nation of The Gambia—a popular holiday resort for Western tourists, would soon witnessed a dramatic transformation on its tourism industry policies, with the view of restoring tourists and investors confidence, President Yahya Jammeh has declared.
 
Mr. Jammeh believes that tourism is an important sector in the nation’s economy, which accounts for the greater percentage of Gambia’s Gross Domestic Product—known as (GDP). Mr. Jammeh opined that such an important sector needs to be given the attention it deserved in the interest fulfilling the nation’s economic agenda—which is to transform the mini West African state into an economic power in the region.

Anansi The Stories

Once in a before time, Anansi was walking far into the bush. Soon he came to a house with a 
very, very, VERY old man sitting inside the mouth of the front door. The old man looked like skin 
and dry bones. Anansi gathered up his courage and said.


"Good day sir! I have been walking all morning 
and would love to have a cool drink of ice water."


However, the old man said nothing. Anansi, who thought that the old man might have been deaf, walked closer to the seated figure and repeated in a loud voice.


" I said... GOOD MORNING SIR! MAY I HAVE A DRINK OF WATER?”


Nevertheless, the old man said nothing. Anansi scratched his head and said, "Oh, you said to go inside the house and help myself?" The old man still said nothing to Anansi.


Anansi walked past the old man and went into his house and not only helped himself to ice cold water but to as much food as he could eat. When he had finished eating, Anansi went outside to see the old man who was sitting in the same spot by the door. Anansi thanked him for his hospitality and returned home.


The next day Anansi went to the house of the old man and again ate his fill. Still, the old man said nothing to Anansi. On the third day, Anansi the spider brought his eldest daughter to the old man’s house. "Good morning sir,” Anansi greeted. “Since you have been so kind to me I have brought my beautiful daughter who wants to be a cook. I will give her to you as your wife," said Anansi. Then he turned to his daughter. "Here is a wedding ring. Now go into the house and fix your father a nice plate of food." The old man still said nothing.


The next day Anansi got up early. He headed for the old man's house. The old man had not moved and was still sitting by his door. Anansi said his good morning and entered the house. He called for his daughter but she did not answer. He knew that she liked Hide-and-Seek so he looked in every closet. He then checked under the bed. 


Although he knew that it was a dangerous hiding place, he looked into the icebox, but he could not find her. Anansi searched all over the house but he was not able to find his daughter. He thought of one place that he had not looked."I know where she is. She is hiding in the oven! " He said as he opened the door to the stove's oven. Anansi jumped back. For in the oven lay his daughter's wedding ring. Anansi rushed outside the house and grabbed the old man by the collar.“Where is my daughter?" he shouted.


Finally, the old man spoke in a deep raspy voice. “Do… you …know… who… I… am?” He said slowly, chewing on every word that escaped his throat. “Yes.” Anansi said. “You are my son-in-law.” "Hah! Your son-in-law!” The old man rasped. “My name is Death and you came looking for me. I did not invite you into my house. To add insult to injury, you brought me your ugly daughter... so I ate her. Now I am going to have you for lunch," Brother Death said as he grabbed Anansi by the shirt.


Anansi tore the buttons from his shirt, slipped out of it and ran for his life. He ran as fast as he could in the belief that he could easily outdistance an old man like Brother Death. However, wherever Anansi turned, Death was right behind him. Finally, out of desperation, Anansi lunged for a tree limb and climbed as high as he could. To his surprise, Brother Death did not follow Anansi up the tree. Death could not climb!


Brother Death picked up a rock, an old shoe, anything that he could find, and threw them at Anansi. They all missed. Death could not throw either. He soon ran out of things to throw.  Therefore, he ran around under the tree in search of any missile. Once when he took his eyes off Anansi, the frightened spider jumped off the tree and bolted for his home. As he neared his house Anansi shouted out to his wife. "Aso! Grab the children and climb up into the ceiling! Death is after me!" "What did you say, Anansi?" His wife asked.


" I SAID... GRAB THE CHILDREN AND CLIMB UP TO THE CEILING!" Anansi cried. “You said do what with the potato peelings?” His wife asked. “I said… Oh, Never mind!” Anansi cried in frustration. He quickly rushed into his house, grabbed his wife and children, and climbed up into the ceiling with them. “Grab hold of a wooden beam and hold on tight!” He shouted.
As Brother Death rushed in the door, Anansi and his family were safely clinging to a beam in the ceiling. Brother Death calmly picked up a burlap bag, pulled up a chair, sat down under the dangling spider family and crossed his legs.


Half an hour passed and Anansi's youngest son said to his father. "Oh, Puppa, my hands are hurting me. I can't hold on any longer." "Hold on son, for if you fall Death is going to get you," Anansi said to his child. However, the boy could not hold on any longer. Therefore, he fell.
Death caught the boy and opened the burlap bag. "It is your father I want… not you.” Then he placed the child into the burlap bag.


Soon, another of Anansi's daughters cried out to her father. "Puppa, please…my hands are tired. I am going to fall". "Fall and Death is going to get you!" Anansi answered. His daughter fell and Death placed her in the burlap bag with her brother. "I don't want you. I want your father,” said Death. Soon Anansi's other daughter and son fell. So did his wife, Aso. Finally, Anansi's own hands became tired. First, the left hand froze and lost its grip. However, Anansi held on tight with only his right hand. He exercised the frozen left hand in the hope of using it to relieve the right hand. Anansi’s mind began to race.


"Brother Death.” He called. “I am so fat from eating all your food that if I fall I will just splatter into pieces. There will not be enough of me left to put in that bag. You will only have enough meat to make spider-burgers. However, if you go into the kitchen you will find a barrel of flour. Get the barrel and set it under me so that the flour will cushion the fall. I won’t splatter. I will just be battered.” “Mmmhh…” Death exhaled, rubbed his chin and smiled, showing all his 37-and-a-half teeth. “Kentucky Fried Spider for dinner, heh? Or, maybe I can make delicious, spicy Jerk Spider from Anansi and his family!”


Anansi figured that the flour barrel was so heavy that it would take four men to lift it. This would give him time to escape. As Brother Death went into the kitchen Anansi was about to let go and drop from the ceiling. However, in a flash Death was back under Anansi with the flour barrel. Anansi had underestimated Brother Death’s strength. As Brother Death wobbled the barrel from side to side, he bent over the barrel to make sure that it was exactly under Anansi. The cunning spider dropped on top of the old man’s head, dunking his face into the flour. The flour bath 
temporarily blinded Death.


Anansi jumped off Death’s head, released his family and they ran for their lives. Death has never caught Anansi the Spider. That is why there are AnansiStories to this day. When you see spider webs on the ceiling it belongs to Anansi. He is still trying to get away from Death..


* Author's note: This story  illustrates how Anansi, like his father Nyame the Great Sky God, also overcame death. In  Nyame's case he had created both life and death and was overcome by the latter's venom. Where Nyame survived death by using an antidote, his son, Anansi, used his web to accomplish the same feat.

Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.  

A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.

Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!

Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market 

220 4464022

220 6664022

gaya@qanet.gm

gayagambia@gmail.com

Proverbs Africa

What is bad luck for one man is good luck for another. 


When you are rich, you are hated; when you are poor, you are despised. 


Wood already touched by fire is not hard to set alight.


A child who is to be successful is not reared exclusively on a bed of down.


A knife does not know who is its master.


A woman is like a blanket: If you cover yourself with it, it bothers you; if you throw it aside you will feel the cold.

He who is guilty has much to say.


If there were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal.


If things are getting easier, maybe you're headed downhill




It is the wife who knows her husband


Marriage is like a groundnut: you have to crack them to see what is inside.


Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.
A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.
Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!
Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market
220 4464022
220 6664022
gaya@qanet.gm
gayagambia@gmail.com
http://www.gayaartcafe.com/

Anansi Folktales

Anansi and the Yam Hills 
Once in a before time, there lived an old woman who had magical powers. Her name was 5. She was also so evil that some people called her a witch. 5 hated her name. No one knows why her parents named her the number 5.  When she was a child, other children would make fun of her name. Sometimes when she was within earshot, they would look out the corner of their eyes and giggle as they said. Give me 5!"  


They would slap their hands with a quick handshake and burst out laughing. This taunting always made 5 angry.When she grew up, 5 decided to put an end to the name-calling. So, she created a weird spell. "Anyone who says '5' will drop dead,” she said. Then she changed her mind. “From this day on, anyone who says ‘5’ will disappear,"


This spell immediately caused a problem in the country. No one could say that number again 
without disappearing. Children could no longer recite their five times tables. People had to drop 
the word 'five' from their vocabulary. In 5’s village, the unlucky number was no longer 13.




Once a customer asked a merchant, “How much is that blue T-shirt?” “That shirt is 5 doh... ” Suddenly there was a loud “SWOOSH!” before the merchant could finish 
his sentence. He disappeared right in front of the dumbfounded customer's eyes!


A crafty spider named Anansi lived in 5's village. He had heard about the witch’s spell. Times 
were very hard.  Anansi was not a farmer and he had no food at all to eat. His wife and children 
were starving. Since Anansi was small, and not a very good worker, he could only rely on his 
brain to get whatever he needed to survive. He said to himself. "Things are tough, boy! I must make this witch's spell work for me".


Anansi went to the road that led to the village's marketplace. He chose a spot on the side of the 
road where everyone on the way to market would have to pass. There, near a large Guangu 
tree, he decided to pile up five mounds of the rich brown soil. These mounds he called "yam 
hills". In the top of each yam hill, he planted an African yellow yam. Then he drove a stake next 
to the yam on which its vine could grow. Anansi carefully watered the yams until each one began 
to sprout.

Anansi made a web-like a hammock in the Guangu tree and patiently waited for someone to 
come by.  Early one morning, after each yam shoot had poked its head out of a mound, Anansi 
sat down next to his yam hills.  Soon, Brother Dog came by on his way to the market. Dog 
balanced a bankra basket of sweet-smelling fruits on his head as he walked down the road.


"Good morning Brother Dog," said Anansi in a sugary voice. "I know that you are busy, and I feel 
so stupid. I am not an educated man like you. Would you help me to count how many yam hills 
that I have planted here?" Anansi asked. "You should have gone to school to learn how to count!" Brother Dog said grumpily as he walked away from Anansi towards the market.


Anansi climbed up into the Guangu tree and waited.the next person  to come by was Brother Bull. He carried a large basket of fruits on his head. "Good day Bro' Bull." Anansi said in a sad voice. "Could you just spare me one minute?"

Anansi begged. "What can I do for you, Anansi?"  Bro' Bull asked. " I was a *yikki and sickly child. So, my parents did not send me to school. I never learned my ABC's. I planted all these yamhills... Can you help me to count them?" Anansi said. "But, of course Anansi"
Bro' Bull replied. "You have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...." As he said that number, Brother Bull disappeared into thin air. The basket of sweet ripe fruits that he had been carrying on his head, fell to the ground. Anansi snatched up basket of fruits and rushed home to eat them all.

For a long time, Anansi did very well tricking some passersby into counting his yam hills. He 
grew fat from all the baskets of food he had gathered. He had tricked Brothers Turtle, Owl, 
Mongoose, Hare, Peenie-Wallie the firefly, and even the tough Bro' Scorpion.


Mrs. Guinea fowl was a nice young mother of newly hatched children. She could not say 'no' to 
anyone. She and her husband shared the chore of selling their produce in the village. That day 
it was her turn to go to the marketplace. She loaded up her hand basket and headed for the 
market. As she got closer to the yam hills Anansi was nowhere in sight. Just as she was about to 
pass yam hill number 4, Anansi the spider lowered himself down from his perch in the Guangu 
tree. He called out in his sugary voice.


"Good morning Mrs. Guinea Fowl. Could you help me with a problem?"


"Of course Anansi". The polite Mrs. Guinea Fowl said.


"I have these yam hills here, and I don't know how to count ... would you help me... ? Pleeezz." 
Anansi begged. Mrs. Guinea Fowl, who had seen Anansi trick Bro' Scorpian, walked over
to the last yam hill and climbed up on top of it. She said. “You have 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... and the one I am standing on". "What! What are you doing? That is not the way you count!" Anansi shouted angrily. "What do you mean, Anansi?" Mrs. Guinea Fowl said. "I don't know of any number
called 'the one I'm standing on'.

Start again!” Anansi ordered. Mrs. Guinea Fowl began again. "You have 1, 2, 3, 4 ... and the
one I am standing on". "That is not what you are supposed to say!" Anansi
shouted even more angrily. "Well ... If you are so smart... What am I supposed to say?" Mrs. Guinea Fowl asked. Anansi shouted, "You are supposed to say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... Oops…” Suddenly, Anansi disappeared, leaving Mrs. Guinea Fowl with all the loot that he had gotten from tricking his victims.
The moral of this story is: "Greedy choke puppy" (or, "A greedy puppy will soon choke").


Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.  
A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.
Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!
Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market
220 4464022
220 6664022
gaya@qanet.gm
gayagambia@gmail.com
http://www.gayaartcafe.com/

African Proverbs Samples

                                   If the dog is not at home, he barks not.

A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.

                                                       Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.

If you don't stand for something, you will fall for something

It takes a whole village to raise a child 

By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed

                   Hunger is felt by a slave and hunger is felt by a king

                             One cannot both feast and become rich

One falsehood spoils a thousand truths

                            

The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people. 

Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.  
A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.
Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!
Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market 
220 4464022
220 6664022
gaya@qanet.gm
gayagambia@gmail.com
http://www.gayaartcafe.com/

Anansi The Spider

The most famous past time of the Ancient Ghanaian’s was storytelling or listing to stories and Anansi the Spider is a very popular folk story told all throughout Western Africa. It originated during Ancient Ghanaian times and it was told all throughout Ancient Ghana. It is about a spider who buys the right to all folk stories that were originally told by the Sky God. The Sky God gave him three things to bring to that nobody else would even attempt because of the high risks.


Anansi was a very clever spider though. His first task was to get Mmoboro the hornets. His second task was to get Onini, the great python. His final task was to get Osebo, the leopard. Using his cunning Anansi completed these task and gained the reserved to all folk stories. Back then the people who told Anansi stories and all other stories were known as Riots.


The Spider-Man

He once enjoyed his life as a man. Nyame  (N'-ya-mae), his father,  changed his  mischievous son into a spider. As a spider-man, Anansi continued his pranks. Through his actions we learn how to 
behave.

PROFILE
Given Name: Kweku Anansi
Father: Nyame, the Great Sky God
Mother: Asase Ya, Earth goddess / Goddess of Fertility
Alias(es): Ananse, from the Twi language for spider.  AKA: Anansi / Annancy / Annansay / 
Annancey / Anancyi / Anawnsy / Hanansi / Hanaansi / Compe Anansi / John Anansi / Nansi / 
Nance / Nancy / Mr. Nancy / Brother Anansi / Bro' Anancy / Bra' Nancy / Bre-Nancy / Aunt Nancy 
/ Miss Nancy / Anansi-Tori / Ti Malice / Uncle Bouki / The Spider / Spider-man
Gender: Male
Race: Mixed (50% negroid, 50% supernatural)
Ethnicity: Akan
Specie: Deity-homo-arachnid
Date of Birth: Unknown (around the time when animals and humans spoke to each other).
Day of Birth: Wednesday
Height: Little. Weight: Light.
Address(es): Kumasi, Ghana / Kingston and the counties of Jamaica and other Caribbean 
territories / The Sea Islands and South Carolina (Gullah), USA / The island of Haiti / Paramaribo 
and other districts within Suriname, South America / Garifuna Communities, Belize, Central 
America.
Country of Origin: Asanti, Ghana
Profession: Trickster
M.O. (Modus Operandi): Trickery; Quick-change-artist; Uses his brains; Hustler; Outsmarts
persons larger than himself; Known to travel with immigrants; Often gets in trouble for
a misdemeanor.
Main Enemy: Osebo the Leopard, A.K.A: "Bre'r Tiger", "Bra Tiger", "Bro Tiger", Tiger

Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.  
A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.
Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!
Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market 
220 4464022
220 6664022
gaya@qanet.gm
gayagambia@gmail.com
http://www.gayaartcafe.com/

African Proverbs

             

A talkative bird will not build a nest.

                                                                     By crawling, a child learns to stand.

            Earth is but a marketplace; heaven is home.

                                          Everybody loves a fool, but nobody wants him for a son.

                                                                                 The teeth that laugh are also those that bite.

When the music changes, so does the dance.

Silence is also speech.

                                                        A lobster loves water, but not when he's being cooked in it.

A rotten fish pollutes the whole kitchen.



Fine dining whenever you want to eat out in Senegambia.  
A unique Gambia restaurant for both Gambian and global cuisine.
Come and enjoy our restaurant in The Gambia!
Directions Bertil Harding Highway, next to Senegambia Craft Market 
220 4464022
220 6664022
gaya@qanet.gm
gayagambia@gmail.com
http://www.gayaartcafe.com/