Janjanbureh or Jangjangbureh is a town, founded in 1823, on Janjanbureh Island in the Gambia River
07/07/2025
A heartwarming welcome from the vibrant Jamali community! ✨ with our outstanding female guide Mariama Sambou
Our guests had the incredible opportunity to experience authentic Gambian hospitality through Community-Based Tourism (CBT) — from rich cultural exchanges to unforgettable local traditions.
📍 Moments like these remind us why Jamali is a hidden gem worth exploring.
Come as visitors, leave as family. ❤️
26/06/2025
Breaking: UNESCO Inscribes Historic Georgetown On Janjanbureh
In February Janjanbureh supported the National Center for Arts and Culture to send a nomination file to UNESCO for our Janjanbureh to be inscribed into the UNESCO ‘s Network of Places of History and Memory Linked to Enslavement.
We are HAPPY to announce that the application IS SUCCESSFUL.
Now our historic Island Town joins 28 of such places in the whole world. This means that the Island will enjoy twinning with other similar sites like New Orleans in USA and it provide more UNESCO Support for conservation and related Community Development. And the famous Kankurang Festival can also get a publicity boost with this accolade.
UNESCO Director General will write to The Gambian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture formally to convey the news. And there are high possibilities that she may travel or send her envoy to The Gambia to hand over the plaque to the community of Janjanbureh.
On behalf of Janjanbureh we send our heartfelt gratitude to the Director General of NCAC for his support, Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival, the National Assembly Member and the Chief of Janjanbureh for the guidance.
This is a huge VICTORY for Janjanbureh 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲
24/06/2025
Dnt miss out!!!
19/06/2025
Key Facts About Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival
The Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival is an annual celebration held in Janjanbureh, Gambia, showcasing the country's rich cultural heritage. This vibrant festival honors the Kankurang, a mythical figure from the Mandinka people, symbolizing protection, strength, and unity. Here's what you need to know about the festival
*Festival Dates*: The 8th edition took place from January 24th to 26th, 2025, while the next edition is scheduled for January 23rd to 25th, 2026.
*Purpose*: The festival aims to preserve and promote Gambian culture, history, and traditions, while also boosting tourism and creating economic opportunities for local communities.
*Activities*: Expect dazzling parades, masquerade performances, music, dance, and rituals that showcase the unique identities of the community.
*Organizers*: The festival is organized by the Janjanbureh Event Management Committee in collaboration with the National Centre for Arts and Culture and partners like the International Trade Centre and Gambia Tourism Board.
*Importance*: The festival highlights the significance of cultural heritage in shaping identity, building unity, and promoting community development.
*History*: The Kankurang Festival was revived in 2018 after decades of dormancy, with support from local and international organizations, including the European Union-funded Youth Empowerment Project.
*Partners*: Key partners include the National Centre for Arts and Culture, Gambia Tourism Board, International Trade Centre, and the European Union.
The festival has grown in popularity, attracting thousands of visitors, tourists, and locals, and is now a significant part of Gambia's cultural calendar
25/03/2025
14/03/2025
Last night, I was honored with the role to officially open the 8th Edition of the Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival, .......
14/03/2025
Simply unique in every sense of the word.
This is the Kankurang, performing a unique Kankurang dance in Janjanbureh - the home of the Kankurang.
In 2018, through our European Union in The Gambia-funded YEP and in partnership with the Janjanbureh community, the National Centre for Arts and Culture and the Gambia Tourism Board, we revived the Kankurang Festival to promote tourism and enhance economic opportunities for young people. Since then, we have supported the festival.
This year, our European Union in The Gambia-funded EU YEP Tourism and Creative Industries funded its 8th edition - an important step in our efforts to preserve heritage, empower creatives and promote sustainable tourism in The Gambia.
Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival wishes to inform all that the international visitors tickets would be available on sale from January 1st 2025 at GMD1000
All tour operators, Independent travellers, and travel agencies are urge to book prior to avoid rush and inconveniences.
My Gambia Gambia Tourism Board Welcome To Gambia Bushwhacker Tours Destination Janjanbureh
27/09/2024
World Tourism Day Theme : "Tourism and Peace ". As we celebrate world Tourism Day , we continue to pray for continued peace in the world . Our industry can only prevail if we have peace in our respective destinations . May Allah bring unity and peace to our nation and the entire world . Happy world tourism day 27th September ..
15/08/2024
Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival organizing Committee meets GTBoard Management to discussed further partnership and resource mobilisation for the upcoming Festival scheduled for the 24-26th of January 2025:
Director General of the Gambia Tourism Abubacarr Camara. In his speech, he appreciated the recognition given by the Kankurang Festival for the valuable contribution they made during the last year’s festival.
Furthermore, DG Camara also highlighted the need and importance of tourism in the promotion of destination Gambia, he also emphasised things such as product development. He suggested things such as branding and close collaboration to ensure the effective functioning of the Festival. He reassured of their continued support of the Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival.
Recommendations were made including fencing the place and creating other activities to generate income during the festival.
Responding to some of the issues raised during the discussion, Muhammed Saidykhan the Chairman of the organizing committee, first thanked GTBoard for being one of our loyal partners, he praised them again for the timely intervention in the 7th edition. Mr Saidykhan also points out how we intend to fence the Tiyansita, add other activities, and registering the Kankurang image as an intellectual property rights.
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Great history from great people that made Janjanbureh so unique!!!
Janjanbureh Island, and Janjanbureh Town, are in the Central River Region of The Gambia, 300km upstream from the Banjul capital. The former British colonial settlement was founded in 1823, when king of Lower Niani, Kolli Camara, ceded the island to Britain. It is the headquarters of the Central River Region, and one of the eight Local Government Areas, with an estimated population of 3,600. It was formerly known as Lemaine, and then re-named MacCarthy Island (after Sir Charles MacCarthy), with a mud brick Fort George (Georgetown).
It got its new name in 1995, and is sometimes referred to by its colonial name of McCarthy, it is 20 square kilometres in area, 10 km long, and 1.5 km wide. The north of the island is linked to the mainland at Lamin Koto village terminal by a vehicle and passenger ferry service, while the south is linked by a 100m span vehicle and passenger bridge, opened in July 2010, which connects the settlement to the South Bank Road via Sankulay K***a village.
This is a planned port town, formerly known as Georgetown, and lies on the north side of the isle. It has a ferry terminal crossing, a post office, a Methodist Church opened in 1835 (claimed to be the oldest Methodist Church in sub-Saharan Africa), a primary school, police station, a town produce market, a bush taxi rank, a prison, a Gamtel office, the Commissioner's Officers' Residence, the co-ed Armitage High School, and a number of colonial buildings dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. The town is mainly used as a collection point for groundnuts and rice which has been harvested by the local farmers and in outlying areas. It is sometimes referred to as the Gambia's 'second city' and is still an important trading and administrative centre of the Central River Region.
The British used the settlement as a base for commercial trading, missionary work, and agriculture and for protecting its traders, and the upper navigable reaches of the river, against illegal slave traders. The first British settlers were a few merchants from Bathurst, a detachment of soldiers from the West Indian Regiment who were stationed on the north of Janjanbureh, who built a mud-earth works garrison and Christened it Fort George, and a number of Wesleyan missionaries who established the Wesleyan Mission (Methodist Church), begun as a station in 1824 under John Morgan, and finally built in 1835. These first settlers proceeded to build Georgetown's warehouses, stores, quays, and dealt in iron products, fabrics, rifles, and palm oil. Later Fort Campbell was built on the eastern end of the territory. Discharged solders from the coast and the Kombos helped swell the small population. In 1832 two hundred Aku (Creole) freed slaves from Freetown arrived. A good number of them were skilled craftsmen and unskilled workers, and they assisted in developing the island's farming potential. They took full advantage of the first class mission schools in the area. Out of the mission schools sprung up the Chiefs' School, reserved for the seyfolus' sons. This was rebuilt, and opened in 1927, and renamed Armitage High School, which became a prestigious boarding school for the sons of the Gambian elite.
The 1860s witnessed an influx of more refugees fleeing from the Soninke-Marabout wars being waged on the mainland. In the 1920s Cherno Kaddy Baldeh, the king of Fulladu West recognised the need for a bridge to link his district to MacCarthy Island, and benefit from the booming trade in groundnuts. He used forced labour, local wood and other materials to build a floating log-bridge, which allowed the movement of groundnuts from his district, across the Sankulay K***a River, to groundnut buying depots in Georgetown from 1925 to 1931.
In the 1930s the freighting and trading of groundnuts between the upriver regions and Kombo increased, Georgetown was the centre of this activity, its local economy growing strongly. After Banjul, it had now become The Gambia's second town, and an administrative base for the British Protectorate. Since 1965 Georgetown's economic glory has been on the decline, exacerbated by the construction of the South Bank Road in the 1970s, and the termination of the riverboat service.
The Akus were early settlers on this island and they were very prominent here. When the slave trade was abolished in 1807 the British chose the island for the freed slaves to resettled, when they saw this island they felt in love with it. And after that the island became a trading post with the overseeing king based in Jamali. Janjan and Bureh used to cross over here for farming, after that Akus start coming gradually and were settled at the far end of the island, but later they cannot resist the local diseases like cholera and they started dying. After that the few remaining came to found the new settlement of Janjangbureh.
