Serekunda

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Serekunda
سيريكوندا
City
Kairaba Avenue in Latri Kunda, a key suburb of Sere Kunda.
in Latri Kunda, a key suburb of Sere Kunda.
Serekunda is located in The Gambia
Serekunda
Serekunda
Location in the Gambia
Coordinates: 13°26′N 16°40′W / 13.433°N 16.667°W / 13.433; -16.667
CountryGambia
DivisionKanifing
Founded bySayerr Jobe
Named forFounder
Population
[1]
 • Total~ 337,000
Time zone0 GMT

Serekunda (proper: Sayerr Kunda or Sere Kunda, Arabic: سيريكوندا‎, sometimes spelled Serrekunda) is the largest urban centre in The Gambia.[2] It is situated close to the Atlantic coast, 13 km (8 mi) south-west of the capital, Banjul,[3] and is formed of nine villages which have grown together into a larger urban area.

History and toponymy[]

Sayerr Jobe, the founder of Serekunda, was a 19th-century lamane originally from the Sine-Saloum region of Senegal. He migrated to the Gambia in the mid 19th Century and is believed to have initially settled around Jinack Island in Banjul, before relocating to the southern bank of the country (near Sukuta) where he established Serrekunda.[4]

Serekunda means "home of the Sayer [or Sayerr] family" and is named after its founder, Sayerr Jobe.[3] The name Serrekunda (or "Sere Kunda") is a Mandinka corruption of the name Serrereh — denoting the Serer people in Mandinka, as the Mandinka people of Sabiji believed that Sayerr Jobe (the founder of Sererkunda[4]) and his brother Massamba Koki Jobe/Diop (relative of Lat Dior - King of Cayor and Baol) and the Jobe family in general were members of the Wolof ethnic group.[5] Thus, in the oral tradition of the Mandinkas of Sabaji (to which Serekunda was part of), they initially referred to the area with the Mandinka saying: "mbitala serrereh kunda" (I am going to Serer area/country), later shortened to Serreh Kunda (or Serekunda). The word kunda or kundaa is a Mandinka word for place, area, country or compound. In essence, Sere Kunda means Serer country/area made in reference to Sayerr Jobe who was from the Serer Sine-Saloum area, and whom the Mandinkas believed to be of Serer origin.[5] Although born in Serer country, and possessed the Serer title lamane, he was not of Serer origin, but of Lebou origin, as Jobe or Diop is a Lebou surname.[citation needed]

Population history[]

1973 1983 1993 2007
25,505 70,435 194,987 348,118 [1]

Districts or suburbs[]

The following districts form part of Sererkunda:

  8. Kololi
  10. Latri Kunda

Gallery[]

  • Gambia 001 from KG.jpg
  • Gambia Serekunda world66-2.jpg
  • Gambia-mosque.JPG

  • Mosque on Bundung Highway

  • Gambia Serekunda 0008.jpg
  • Gambia Serekunda 0001.jpg

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Gambia town information".
  2. ^ "Introducing Serekunda & the Atlantic Coast". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Serrekunda Town, Gambia". Access Gambia. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Briggs, Philip; Fenton, Simon; The Gambia, Bradt Travel Guides (2017), p. 103, ISBN 9781784770648 [1]
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Sarr, Assan, Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin: The Politics of Land Control, 1790-1940, Boydell & Brewer (2016), pp. 64–95, 176, ISBN 9781580465694 [2]

External links[]

Coordinates: 13°26′N 16°40′W / 13.433°N 16.667°W / 13.433; -16.667


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