Tanji beach is packed at any time of day, though it is afternoon when in boiling state. It is the moment when the fishing boats returned to shore after a long day fishing in Atlantic waters when the show begins. A makeshift fish market in Tanji resorting to thousands of people who fit piece by piece inside that human puzzle is formed. When I got that beach I realized that what was living there was exactly what I was looking for on my trip to Gambia . The sound, the movement, color and light of the place make it worth choosing this destination to live an absolutely sensory adventure.
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Tanji is the soul of Gambia. In fact there is a bit of all of Africa within the tumult of print dresses, buckets full of fish and, above all, an intense aroma of truth.
TANJI ... AN EVENING MARKET
I will never forget that evening. It would be impossible. When I review the photos and dyed my mind clear memories and, fortunately, still fresh, I feel something inside. Some call it "the evil of Africa". I prefer to give a more positive title like "Love Africa" or "passion for Africa." Anyway it consists of a puncture in the stomach every time the black continent calls you and asks you to return to your lap. Something very difficult to explain in words but that all travelers to African lands are able to feel inside. This is Africa, but extremely grateful disconcerting, a very powerful magnet.
The trip to Tanji from Banjul only lasts an hour, that's what it takes to travel more than 30 kilometers away. Since the hotel area of Serrekunda, which is the most populous city in Gambia, times with 17 kilometers covered in no more than half an hour are reduced. Are the benefits of being in the smallest country in mainland Africa, especially if we move in the Atlantic width (river going in is another thing).
Nothing else get out of the minivan that brought me to the fishing village of Tanji I got a very strong fishy odor. And not too nice, I have to say. The first street stands about 100 meters from the beach attracting flies, but never more so than the vast amounts of herring ahumándose carrying several weeks on a long metal tables.
A man with a hat denoting their Muslim status tended to stoke the heat and fill the spaces with new genre. Gradually I got used to that horrible plague. A pall of smoke would not let me see even the beach, so I do not lingered on the plate of smoked longer and marched toward it, that was where everyone was.
It was put your feet in the sand on that beach very wide and not knowing what to say. It was hard to assimilate so many people. It was as if the whole of Africa had been met in Tanji. So during the first few minutes I could not even use the camera because I wanted to just see what was happening, to understand everything that was in sight. At that exact moment I realized that everything that had come for Gambia was there.
Succession of scenes that justified the gateway to Africa for its friendly and gates. The dim light allowed clearly see everything that was happening in seconds. As if the world had focused on Tanji, I discovered the function of the racket. They were a group but individually had a well-defined role. On the one hand the fishermen returning from the slaughter and placed along about ten meters from shore with its narrow boats and painted with different motifs. Suddenly they appeared very athletic guys who went into the water to get the kind of boats and were made with thirty kilos of fish every time. They shot out with buckets because the more kilos obtain more win that day. Within the maelstrom were persecuted by children as young as twelve years seeking the slightest error "corridors" to hook the fish that were falling. In fact I noticed that they had many GINOS between them and "accidentally" lost the odd fish along the way.
On the other hand, and in the sand, a spontaneous market run by women who sold in tubs that had just arrived the sea was formed. They either bought a smaller scale fish once landed, or they got up in order to subtract some Dalasis (the dalasi is the currency of Gambia) to your initial investment. After dealing with doing business on the beach. It was as if, suddenly, they had formed two hundred micro retail with soil and sand as seat as a shelf.
But that universe did not stop there. Were those selling bowls on the beach, those who rented their freezers near the homes of the people who dragged the boats to leave them parked in the sand. And so a loop without end that kept in sync the essence of that market that works the same way since ancient times.
Once I was assimilating what my eyes saw, and escaped me, I began to use the camera. Wow ... that was a paradise for lovers of photography. Every second images that were worth one hundred snapshots are happening. The photogenic Tanji is such that it is never enough what is done. Inside I was cursing up the fastest of the blinks, which became an unpleasant inconvenience, a time he was leaving forever.
I was just over two hours to half a racket in which I did not run into a single tourist. Perhaps because offseason in Gambia (which coincides with the end of our spring and early summer) or knowing why. That moment was saving me like gold and did not know if you ever going to experience something similar. Fortunately me wrong ...
BACK TO THE NEXT MORNING TANJI
All night, in my bed Serrekunda, Tanji had been traveling to. While bats fluttering out by the window did not stop making noise, he projected on the ceiling a chain of images from the most authentic market of Gambia. Already in the morning we had an appointment with a local cook who was going to teach us to prepare the odd dish and asked us to accompany him to make the purchase. When he uttered the magic words Tanji Fish Market eyes lit me ... I had never done so excited to go grocery shopping. Clearly this was special as few.
Tanji Tanji thought was only in the afternoon with the arrival of large vessels. But I was wrong ... the show is every day. Although with different nuances. And in the early hours of taking positions a fruit and vegetable market that invades what then filled with fish. The movements are more deliberate and, photographically speaking, the light is even better.
Something that surprised me was to see much movement in seawater. There were many ships as the previous evening but enough to see a good return transfer. Slower without burly running from side to side. Le substituted women who selected the best genre to take home. It was all a floating market.
Light, sounds and smiles of people filled color that beach scene. It was a fabulous morning and the atmosphere was super positive towards "the stranger". They are not always as friends do their pictures, but did not find Tanji only problem with it. Should always make enough distance and respect, you can always wondering when it is going to make the foreground, and not let our hand be perceived harassment whatsoever. We must put in place and imagine how we would be perceived in the market in our neighborhood if we start to take pictures shamelessly Mr. or Mrs. that goes with the cart.
The presence of women won by a landslide to men. Many of them also went with their babies hanging on his back on classical African print cloth. Like an extension of your body it were (somehow so) go with children everywhere. Actually they begin to discover the world around well keep close to their mothers, who are not affected their daily lives one iota. The Gambia is one of the highest birth rates in Africa. Unfortunately there are far worse than other data has to do with some of the lowest rates of income per capita in the world and therefore human development.
Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, I can give many reasons why I choose it for a trip . Talk about its nature, gentler side to start the probe by a continent that calls good adventure, the LF and beaches, easy to see many animals or the need to collaborate with one of the many NGOs They work there. But if I have to give a single reason why this venture to Gambia is Tanji. And always I say the same thing ... you never understand its size until you look in the middle of the maelstrom.
I can assure you unequivocally that the soul of Gambia is in Tanji. And at any time of day ...
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