The Gambia's International Homecoming Roots Festival attracts visitors to the Motherland to enjoy the rich cultural experience of a lifetime. Remember Alex Haley's 'Roots'? This is the place Kunta Kinteh originated from.Tanje Village Museum. The Tanje village museum is a unique place where the natural history and traditional culture of The Gambia is presented in an interesting and accessible way to tourists, Gambians, local inhabitants and school groups. Nowhere can you find out so much about The Gambia, its birds, insects, fish, plants and trees, its different ethnic groups and their cultures.

Tumani Tenda

This site is believed by many that one could experience traditional African village life in this exiting new venture. All the profits stay in the village and are used to pay for development projects, rather than all your money going to a European tour operator. Did you know that less than half of your money usually stays in the host country and most of that does not reach local people! This up to 28 year old village of 300 people is set in beautiful surroundings. Stay in one of five traditional African style houses, each individually designed by a family in the village. They are Jola people with a strong sense of community spirit. The village is almost totally self sufficient and sells excess produce. The huts are in a camp just outside the village next to the Kafuta Bolong.

Wrestling

'Borreh'The Gambia's National Sport, wrestling (or 'Borreh' as it is commonly known), is similar to Greco-Roman wrestling but with a few twists. A major crowd puller with both the locals and the tourists, Borreh is certainly a Â'must seeÂ' whilst in The Gambia

Basse

The Gambia's eastern most town, Basse is a lively settlement with trading houses from the turn of the century, shops, and a riverside market. For hikers and explorers, the town is a good starting point for trips to the interior. For the next century, visitors to The Gambia can look forward to not just a blaze of greens and tropical flowering trees in the summer, an ornithologist's paradise, a country rich in history and ethnic diversity, but to the development of eco-tourism, water-sports and deep-sea fishing.

The Gambia's history is marked by almost as much cultural diversity as its current population. The first "tourists" to The Gambia, according to history were Portuguese traders in the 1500s who introduced peanuts and cotton before leaving The Gambia a hundred years later, selling their trading rights to the British. Fort James, established by the British, soon had a rival fort at Albreda, built by the French. During the 17th and 18th centuries, these forts were the scenes of periodic battles between the countries striving for control of regional trade.

Britain gained all rights to trade in 1783, and administered the territory from Sierra Leone until 1888, when The Gambia became a crown colony, completely surrounded by French Senegal except for a small section of coastline. In the 1960s, federation with Senegal was considered, but finally in 1965 The Gambia became an independent country with Dawda Kairaba Jawara as first president. He retained power until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1994 under current President Sheikh Professor Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh.

Geography and climate

The Gambia is 180 miles long, but only 21 miles wide, and follows the course of the River Gambia as it meanders west through the mangrove swamps, bamboo forests, and salt flats, to the capital city Banjul, which is located along the 30-mile stretch of Atlantic coast. The Gambia lies at the southern edge of the Sahel and is made up of mostly savannah and open woodland vegetation. The raining season is short, from July to September, with most of the precipitation falling at night. The climate is dry and warm from December through February, the peak of the tourist season.

The Gambia has a strong musical tradition, often associated with weddings, feast-days such as the end of Ramadan, or Christmas. Traditional instruments include the kora, lute, Balafoon (xylophone ), and the tama (hand-held drum). Though the majority of the population is Muslim, Christmas brings a celebration with large lanterns called fanals, often in the shape of boats or houses and intricately decorated. The fanals are paraded through the streets to singing and chanting.