Banjul, Gambia 7

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 has a range of approximately 3,550 nautical miles (6,570 km). This allows it to operate on medium-haul and some long-haul international routes, thanks to its improved fuel efficiency compared to previous models.

Definitions:

Medium-haul 1,500 to 4,000 km

Long-haul more than 6 - 7 hours and more than 4,000 km.

My flight from Banjul to Istanbul covers a distance of 5,367 km. It is a long-haul flight. This particular aircraft with reg. TC LCN is the very one I'm flying on. It was delivered to Turkish Airlines in June 2021. This is the first time I'm flying on such a long flight on a relatively small airliner.

Banjul, Gambia 6

Anne-Marie Javouhey, SJC (November 10, 1779 – July 15, 1851) was a French nun who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She is known as the Liberator of the Slaves in the New World.

In September 1823, at the request of the British government, she left for St. Mary's in Gambia, a holding place for about 400 slaves taken from Moorish vessels. (Gambia's capital, Banjul, was then known as St. Mary's. This name was later changed to Bathurst, and, during my lifetime, changed again to Banjul). Here she worked tirelessly to help the victims of an epidemic in the area. The governor then asked her to go to Sierra Leone. Again she focused her efforts on tending to the sick and injured. After three months, there was an outbreak of yellow fever; again Javouhey recovered, but was so very weak that she returned to France.

This building in the photos is the remains of the hospital where she worked when she was at Banjul (St. Mary's). The building stands in a corner within the premises of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital and the largest in the country originally founded by the British colonialists in 1853.

The street that runs alongside this modern hospital is named after this French nun who nursed sick slaves.

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Banjul Central Mosque, Banjul, The Gambia

King Fahad Masjid is the most prominent masjid in Banjul, the capital city of Gambia. The two minarets of the masjid grace the skyline of the city and the architecture of the masjid represents the variation in the Islamic architecture in Banjul.

The modern architecture of the masjid has given the traditional style a new meaning. The entrance is hemmed by an open round arch and the minarets are octagonal. The bright colours of the masjid offer a pleasant feel. The masjid was built in 1988 and replaced the 1930 masjid as the main masjid of the city. It can easily accommodate up to 6,000 worshippers.

Article 7 of the Gambia constitution identifies Sharia as a source of law in matters of personal status and inheritance among members of communities to which it applies.

Islam entered the country in the fourteenth century AD, because the Arab merchants and Berbers who came from Northwest Africa through the Sahara to market their goods were originally Muslims. They were able to spread the Islamic religion among the indigenous populations.

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The Catholic Cathedral in Banjul

Christianity came to stay in The Gambia with the establishment of a British garrison and settlement in the island of Banjul in 1816. Different church societies were invited to provide the spiritual needs of this growing settlement.

Hagan Street 1900

Anne Marie Javouhey (1779 - 1851), foundress of the sister of St Joseph of Cluny, was the first Catholic Missionary to come in modern time to the Gambia - she came with two sisters with a laywoman in 1821 and worked and lived in the hospital. She however could not stay long in the country. Only the Methodist Church was active in the Gambia during those first years.

It was after the establishment of the church in Senegal that an uninterrupted presence of Catholicism in the Gambia could also be seen. The migration of the people to the settlement since 1816 include Catholics and others open to becoming Catholic. Two Priests took residence in Banjul by 1849 to serve this population and Church began its slow but steady growth. The Banjul mission was under the Apostolic Vicarate of Dakar. It was concentrated in Banjul but around 1876 it began looking beyond to the Kombos and provinces

By 1905, Fr. John Meehan took up his appointment in the Gambia. It was his destiny to maintain and give quiet growth to the church. In 1931, the Holy See declared the Gambia “Sui Juris” and Fr. Meehan as ecclesiastical superior. Under him , the church was to develop towards an independent mission and diocese. In 1951, Fr. Michael Maloney was named Prefect Apostolic and consecrated first Bishop of the diocese of Banjul on 6 May 1958.

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Arch 22 is a commemorative arch on the road into Banjul in the Gambia. It was built in 1996 to mark the military coup d'état of July 22, 1994, through which Yahya Jammeh and his Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council overthrew the democratically elected Gambian government of President Dawda Jawara. The arch was designed by Senegalese architect Pierre Goudiaby, who also designed the Yundum International Airport at Banjul and the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar, Senegal.

Banjul, Gambia 5

As an aside..

"The Love For Africa

I love Africa. I would be living in Africa today but for considerations concerning my professional career and my personal life. Nevertheless, a location in Africa it is that will someday become my home, although which location exactly is as yet undetermined. It is on this continent that I feel most alive.

So as not to keep the reader wondering, yes, my roots are in Nigeria and as undesirable as Nigeria can be sometimes (save for the excellent food and the presence there of my loved ones) my country of origin is indeed my first choice of location, as it ought to be. However, I choose to keep my options open as my affinity is not for Nigeria alone, but for the continent itself, in particular the sub-Saharan parts of it. I am Nigerian, but I am also African. The intention and the desire is to visit as many African countries as time and my means will allow, to check them out, to get a feel and knowledge of the various places and the different cultures, the traditions and different peoples.

In the few countries I have visited so far in different parts of the continent, I have found that the many characteristics that the African people share in common surpass those aspects in which they differ, and any differences if at all, are minor. The fundamental concepts of respect for the person/for the other, respect for the neighbour, respect for elders, hospitality towards strangers and visitors, showing compassion for the less fortunate, striving for harmony within communities, the philosophy of 'Ubuntu' etc., are all-pervasive and apply almost equally in all of the countries I have visited except for one, (which I shall not name), where a pernicious unpleasant class division exists.

The next on the list at the moment, after Nigeria, has to be The Republic of Congo, or Congo Brazzaville. As an English speaker myself, a francophone country ought ordinarily to be at a disadvantage for this very reason. But Congo Brazzaville has had such a positive impact on my mind and on my senses that this language disadvantage has not stopped it from sweeping past even the anglophone countries. This place is like a jewel, one that the French have kept hidden from us. I like it very much here. The people are genuine, very down-to-earth, and I have encountered none of that faux holiness, the sanctimonious righteous indignation prevalent in places like Ghana, or Nigeria. I am quite willing to become fluent in the French language if necessary.

This writing is borne of a contemplative mood brought on by thoughts of having shortly to return to the cold wet winter weather of England in February; the melancholy of necessarily having to leave this warm beautiful friendly country to return to a dull grey England mired in the uncertainty and turmoil of a bruising Brexit debate."

The above was written in February 2019. I was driven during this recent visit to The Gambia to write an addendum to it.

Since I wrote that post in 2019, I have been to a few more places, still with the same purpose in mind. I have also become better educated on the issues that I ought to be taking into consideration in deciding on a place where to settle down to spend the rest of my years.

What I have found is that English is an official language in most so-called English-speaking countries in Africa, but it is not the lingua franca, it is not the language of social communication. Not in Kenya where the lingua franca is Swahili; not in Botswana, where everyone speaks Setswana; nor in Ghana where everybody speaks Twi, and other local languages like Hausa, depending on which part of the country you are. In Gambia, I did not hear anyone speak English, unless they were addressing me.

In all of these places they do not speak English to each other at all. In Uganda it's a bit different, you'd hear some English at least, but even this is Ugandan English, colloquially known as Uglish or Uganglish. But even then, Uganda, so far, has been the most desirable of all of the countries I have visited. Congo was a different matter. They spoke a lot of French, credit to them, but it was French, not English. The other half of the time they were speaking Lingala, or Kikongo.

What this meant was that I personally have felt isolated or excluded for much of the time, and this even when in the midst of people. This has caused me to feel like an outsider or intruder, until in the safety of a one-on-one with my friend when English came into play. I would concede though, that this happened less in Kenya than in other places, the Kenyans were more considerate.

What I have described here, however, I do not consider to be sustainable, or to be endured for an indefinite period of time. At the stage of life that I am now, I do not believe I have the time left to allow for me to adapt to new things. If I was younger, yes, maybe. But I am not at this stage of my life able to take on a new challenge or learn a different way of doing things. This is a time to step back and slow down, a time to embrace the familiar.

So while I intend to continue with my travelling and visit new places, I must set aside this idea of settling in an African country different from my own. Giving up my proximity to relatives and loved ones is not a price worth paying for ending up being isolated in a different country. This is the very reason why I am driven to relocate from the United Kingdom in the first place.

Peace to you all.