Written by Isatou Gaye | Editor in Chief
Photography by Frida Nsonde | NOIRE Photographer, Africa
Half a century after Alex Haley’s landmark book transformed how generations understood their African ancestry, Afrique Noire travels to The Gambia, where the history of the transatlantic slave trade remains inseparable from the lives of the communities entrusted with its memory.
In 1976, American author and journalist Alex Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a book that would profoundly influence how millions of people understood the history of slavery and their relationship to Africa. At a time when the genealogical records of many African American families ended with enslavement, Haley offered a narrative that crossed the Atlantic in the opposite direction, tracing his claimed ancestry to Kunta Kinte, a young Mandinka man taken from the village of Juffureh in present-day The Gambia. When the book was adapted into a television miniseries in 1977, its reach extended beyond American households, introducing international audiences to a story of displacement, resistance, family and the enduring search for belonging.
For many descendants of enslaved Africans, Roots offered something that had long seemed inaccessible: the possibility of identifying a place, a language and a family history preceding slavery. Although historians have since questioned the accuracy of aspects of Haley’s genealogy, the book’s cultural significance remains undeniable. It encouraged generations to investigate their ancestry and helped establish a new relationship between the African continent and a diaspora whose connections to it had been violently disrupted.
Fifty years later, Juffureh and the neighbouring village of Albreda occupy a remarkable position in this shared history. Situated along the Gambia River, the communities have become destinations for visitors seeking a personal encounter with the history they have inherited. Yet behind their international recognition are communities whose relationships with the past are shaped as much by family memory as by the practical realities of contemporary life.
The villages themselves hold a history considerably older than Haley’s account. For centuries, the Gambia River served as a major commercial route connecting West Africa’s interior with the Atlantic coast. European powers established trading posts and fortifications along its banks, participating in networks of commerce that included the trafficking of enslaved Africans. Albreda became an important European trading settlement, while nearby Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly known as James Island, housed a fortified trading post. The island and its associated historical sites, including structures in Juffureh and Albreda, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003.
Today, the surviving ruins remain physical evidence of this history, although the island itself faces the continuing threat of erosion. For visitors, these places offer an encounter with a past often learned through books, films and stories passed between generations. For residents, however, their significance extends into the present.Kady Taal, who identifies herself as a ninth-generation descendant of Kunta Kinteh, remembers the emotional impact of seeing her family’s history represented on screen.
“When I watched the series, I cried and cried,” she recalls.Taal also remembers Haley’s involvement with the community, crediting him with supporting her education and efforts to bring electricity to the village. Her recollections reveal how the international attention surrounding Roots became intertwined with the experiences of those living in Juffureh. Yet she also observes that the relationship between the community and the diaspora has changed over time, with less involvement today than she remembers in earlier years.
For members of the diaspora who continue to make the journey, the experience can be deeply personal. Sheila, a British-Jamaican visitor who first encountered Roots during her school years, describes arriving in The Gambia with a mixture of emotions. “Being here, I feel sadness and anger at the same time,” she explains. “It’s part of our roots, our heritage.”
Another British-Jamaican visitor, Jody, describes visiting historical sites connected to the transatlantic slave trade as an act of remembrance. Having previously travelled to Elmina Castle in Ghana and Gorée in Senegal, she considered a visit to Kunta Kinteh Island equally important. Yet the experience also exposed the complicated nature of heritage tourism, particularly when visitors approach the same historical spaces with different relationships to the events they commemorate.
“You’re experiencing these emotions, but you’re also surrounded by other people that don’t understand it from your perspective,” she reflects. “It’s my history.” Such encounters illustrate the challenges of presenting a history whose emotional significance is neither universal nor experienced in the same way. For some, visiting Juffureh represents a symbolic return to Africa. For others, it is an opportunity to understand the economic and political systems that enabled the transatlantic slave trade. The same landscape can therefore hold distinctly different meanings, shaped by ancestry, education and personal experience.
Through Frida Nsonde’s photographs, the villages emerge beyond their historical associations. Scenes of communal gatherings, dancing, everyday village life and architectural remains place the extraordinary weight of the past alongside the ordinary rhythms of the present. Together, the images make visible the communities that have continued to exist long after the events that brought them international recognition.
That distinction is particularly important to residents such as Bori Taal, a grandmother from Albreda who remembers the arrival of visitors during her younger years. She recalls growing up with stories of slavery before tourism became a familiar part of village life. For her, the interest shown by people tracing their ancestry is meaningful.
“It’s our blood and our ancestor. So, it’s good for people to come here and trace their roots,” she says. Nevertheless, Taal is equally concerned with the needs of the community today. Although she acknowledges that the area has developed over time, she points to the difficulties faced by local farmers, including limited access to tractors and adequate equipment to address flooding and changing water levels. Her observations introduce an important consideration into conversations about historical preservation: the responsibility to sustain the people living in the places whose heritage attracts international attention.
For Abdu Joof, who has worked at a local restaurant since 1997, tourism has been central to his livelihood. He has spent decades welcoming visitors, preparing meals and watching travellers move between the villages, the museum and Kunta Kinteh Island. In recent years, he says, the number of visitors has declined, leaving local businesses increasingly concerned about the future.
Joof understands the importance of preserving the region’s history, particularly through the work of griots, the traditional custodians of oral histories who transmit knowledge between generations. “Most of these tourists that are coming already know the history, but seeing is believing,” he explains. “That is why this place is important.” His words speak to the distinctive power of visiting a historical place, where the physical landscape can deepen an understanding formed through reading or listening. Yet he is equally insistent that the villages require greater investment and development if they are to benefit from their international significance.
These concerns have begun to inform broader discussions about the future of heritage tourism in The Gambia. On October 1, 2026, tourism stakeholders held a workshop to review a visitor management plan for Kunta Kinteh Island, Juffureh and Albreda, examining ways to strengthen historical preservation, community participation and the economic opportunities available to local residents. The initiative reflects a growing recognition that maintaining a heritage destination requires attention to the communities responsible for sustaining it.
The importance of these places also extends beyond international visitors. Lamin Jawo, a 22-year-old Gambian who first visited the area as a child, returned to experience its history with a greater understanding of its significance. For him, learning about Kunta Kinteh is connected to a wider desire to understand and communicate the history of his country, particularly in the face of misconceptions about Africa and its people.
His perspective offers another dimension to the enduring legacy of Roots. While the book became an important point of reference for African Americans seeking to reconnect with a distant ancestral homeland, the history it brought to international attention also belongs to generations of Gambians whose lives and identities have developed within the same landscape.
As Roots reaches its fiftieth anniversary, Juffureh and Albreda invite a more expansive consideration of what it means to preserve history. Their significance lies in the accounts of enslavement and displacement they help illuminate, in the families who continue to transmit their histories and in the communities negotiating what that inheritance means for their future.
Haley’s work encouraged millions to look across the Atlantic in search of an ancestral beginning. Half a century later, the people of Juffureh and Albreda remind us that the places to which those searches lead have histories that continue to unfold. Remembering the past must also involve listening to those who live with its legacy, recognising their authority over its preservation and ensuring that the international significance of their heritage contributes to the future of their communities.
