Crazy Weekend In Africa

The Gambia, in West Africa, has just emerged from a political drama in which the previous leader, Yahya Jammeh, who came to power after a passive coup in 1994, refused to step down after losing the recent elections to Adama Barrow, a successful businessman turned politician.

I arrived shortly after the inauguration of the new president and Jammeh had finally been exiled but he took with him much of the countries wealth and left Gambia penniless. Many tourists had been evacuated during the crisis and I was one of the few that were there making me a prime target for the many 'bumsters' that target tourists to get cash.

I had come with a friend who is part Gambian and knew his way around, however we had booked a hotel that was on the main tourist strip which was bumster central making it impossible to walk a few meters without being hussled and hassled for money or your shoes!

One bumster called 'Joe' had attached himself to us and even though he took us to a cool bar and sorted out some nice weed he was turning into a nightmare. Joe was drinking and doing coke like crazy and was becoming extremely loud and obnoxious. He demanded change from me constantly for cigarettes and beer, asking for twice what they cost and never giving back the change!

The previous day we had met a nice local guy called Ishmael on the beach, he took us to a cool reggae bar and we chatted about music and stuff, rolling spliff after spliff and drinking beers, he had told me he would be at a reggae jam on a the beach the following night and that I should come. I wanted to escape from Joe so I mentioned the reggae beach party and told him to take me there knowing that Ishmael would be there.

When we arrived the party was in full swing, the moon was shining and loud reggae blasted into a the night. I found Ishmael who was with another guy called 'Too Much', we got some beers, smoked some spliffs and danced.

I have loved reggae since I was a teen and I definitely wanted to stay here rather than continue with Joe who was hassling me to move on to the next place and the next hustle. I told him firmly that I wanted to stay and he went off In a huff and sat down nearby giving me evil looks.

I ignored him and danced with my new crew, the tunes were smashing it and Ishmael kept the spliffs coming. I went off to get a drink and walked past Joe who shot me more evil eyes. When I walked past him again he got up and started shouting and pushing me demanding that we move on. I told him I was gonna stay, pushed past him and headed over to to the others who saw the whole episode, they could see that I was getting accosted by him and told me to stay with them and ignore him. We joked that nobody could mess with someone who wants to dance to reggae.

Joe began drinking more and more and was becoming aggressive and brushing past me, Ishmael and Too Much beckoned me over to a far corner and we sat down to get away from him. Joe eventually came over and started shouting at me asking why I was dissing him, Ishmael and Too Much told him to back off and leave me alone, I knew I had hooked with the right people and was glad when he eventually left.

I guess the point is that you can't mess with a man and his reggae! The rest of the jam was great and we had a wicked time but I was pretty shaken up from the whole thing and decided cut my trip short. The Gambia is a beautiful place and has great potential for tourism, music and everything else, after 22 years of dictatorship the country has lots of healing to do and needs time to shake off the effects of abuse but I am certain that it will and the Gambians will shine as bright as the moon that night.