Women in The Gambia are responsible for many duties. Most importantly, women are responsible for fetching water. Gambians use water to drink, to cook, to bathe, to wash, and to water their gardens. Women and young girls will go to fetch water many times a day and carry it back on top of their heads.

There are a few ways to obtain water in The Gambia. One way is by pulling it out from an open well, like the picture on the left. Another way is to use a pump well, like the picture on the right. More commonly now, the village has spigots, which is the easiest way to obtain it. The cleanest water for cooking and drinking comes from a pump well or spigot, where the well is covered with concrete. An open well is not covered and things can enter it and make the water dirty.

MaJula was a fifth grade girl when I took this picture. MaJula was required to help her mother in any way. In this photograph she is washing the family laundry. In order for her to wash, she first fetched about three buckets of water. Then she started washing each piece by hand with lye soap. After she would wash it she would place it in the rinse bucket. Then she would ring it out and hang it on a fence to dry. She did this at least once a week, in addition to other chores.

Update:  MaJula is about 22  now and has been fortunate.  She finished high school and received a certificate in computers at a college in The Gambia.  I sponsored her through her education.  Higher education is very costly for the people.  I did here she has found a job doing data entry at a hospital.  She did marry an educated man last year.  Most girls get married before the age of 20.

Women are also expected to cook several meals a day for their families. They will often get up before the sun does to start the preparations for the day's meals. Mostly, they will cook rice or coos coos, and top it with either a peanut or an oil sauce. If their husbands have given them extra money they can add other things like vegetables, fish, and meat. The most common meal in The Gambia is Domoda. Domoda is rice topped with a spicy peanut sauce. This is a favorite of many Gambians. Gambians also eat many other things such as fish, vegetables, and fruits. Mangoes and bananas were grown locally.

Most women in The Gambia grow rice. There are rice fields in all parts of The Gambia. Before the women can go out to the rice fields, they must acquire the proper tools. In this picture Awa, the woman, and Amadou, the man, are preparing hoes for use in the rice fields. Village blacksmiths make the metal angles and the handles are tree limbs.

The season of growing rice is very difficult for many women. In addition to working in their rice fields, they are expected to continue their daily chores of cooking, fetching water, washing clothes, and food preparation for their families.

The women in Jarumeh Koto village had to travel by foot to get to the rice fields. This was about a 45 minute journey one way to the river flood plain where many rice fields were located. This bridge made of small logs crossed the river to an island where there were other rice fields. Before the women would return home for the evening, they would bathe in the river here.

Before the women can start planting, their fields need to be prepared and the soil turned. Almost all women in my village did this using their hoes. Women who could afford it could get their field plowed by a tractor. Unfortunately, the price for the use of the tractor is so high not many can afford to take advantage of it.

When is rice is ready for harvesting, many people go out to help the women harvest. This is a very happy time for the women because they will no longer need to spend long hours and hot days taking care of their fields. During the harvest, the djembe drum players come out in the evening and play while the women dance to celebrate the fruits of their labors.

The young girl in this picture is named Jainaba. She was in sixth grade. You might see her in other pictures on these pages. She went out to the fields a few days a week to help her mother. In this photograph they are harvesting together.

After the rice is harvested and brought back to the village there is still much work to do. Readying the rice for consumption is a lengthy process. In this picture, my landlord's wife, Banna, is using a mortar and pestle (wooden bowl and stick) to take the protective shell off the rice. Her finished rice is in the bowl on the ground.

This is a photograph of my friend Awa, her mother, and another of Awa's father's wives. Polygamy is practiced in The Gambia; men can have up to 5 wives according to Muslim traditions in the area.  They are working together preparing the rice, just as Banna was in the picture above.

In order to make money, some women would go to the school during lunch time and sell food to the students and teachers. Mostly, they would sell beans with an oil sauce on bread. A bean sandwich. Bean sandwiches were sold all over The Gambia and were very popular with the students, teachers, and Peace Corps Volunteers.