Serekunda is the real Gambia, without the tourist make-up: the country's biggest city, a whirlwind of markets, car horns, workshops, fruit stalls and crowds that stands in sharp contrast to the calm of the capital, Banjul, and the comfort of the coastal resorts. There are no great monuments or beaches here, but there is the raw energy of an African city in full swing, where the commercial and human heart of the country beats.
Born in the 19th century from the merger of several villages around the family of the Wolof trader Sayerr Jobe, Serekunda —whose name means 'the home of the Sayerrs'— grew to become The Gambia's largest urban area and its great national marketplace. Its Sandika Market is the biggest in the country, an endless maze of fabrics, spices, fish, crafts and everything imaginable, drawing traders from all over West Africa.
This guide sets out to show Serekunda for what it is: not a tourist postcard, but an immersion in everyday Gambian life. We'll explore its market, its batik and dyeing workshops, the tradition of Gambian wrestling and the hustle of its transport, with practical tips for getting around, bargaining and enjoying an authentic city that most tourists only pass through.
Serekunda emerged in the second half of the 19th century, when Sayerr Jobe, a Wolof trader from what is now Senegal, settled in the area; the settlement took his name —'Sayerr Kunda', 'the home of the Sayerrs'— and grew as several neighbouring villages merged into it. In colonial times and, above all, after independence in 1965, the city boomed until it overtook Banjul to become the country's largest city, with its market as The Gambia's great commercial engine. Its story —from a trader's village to a metropolis of groundnuts and West African trade— is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The urban heart of Gambia: a tiny capital born as an anti-slavery fort on a river island, and the bustle of Serekunda and Bakau around it.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Serekunda is neither an ancient nor a planned city, but the result of spontaneous growth that began, according to tradition, with a single man and his family in the second half of the 19th century. That man was Sayerr Jobe, a Wolof trader and farmer who came from the region of present-day Senegal and settled with his people in a spot in the Kombo region, on the south bank of the Gambia River, inland from the colonial capital, Bathurst (now Banjul).
The settlement founded by his family was named 'Sayerr Kunda', which in Mandinka means 'the house' or 'the home of the Sayerr'. Over time, the pronunciation shifted to 'Serekunda', the current name. Like so many African villages, it started out as a simple cluster of family compounds devoted to farming —above all growing groundnuts, The Gambia's great cash crop— and to passing trade between the interior and the coast.
What made Serekunda special was its location and its commercial energy. Sitting at the crossroads of the Kombo, it gradually absorbed the neighbouring villages —tradition speaks of nine settlements merging— until it formed an increasingly dense urban sprawl. The market, which according to popular memory began with a few women selling fish and fruit by the roadside, became the magnet that drew traders and shoppers from the whole area.
During the British colonial period, while Bathurst concentrated the administration, the port and Creole society on its island, Serekunda grew on the mainland as a farming and trading centre. The economy of the Gambia protectorate revolved around groundnuts, grown by Mandinka, Wolof and Fula farmers in the interior, and Serekunda, with good road links, steadily established itself as a place for collecting, exchanging and distributing goods.
Serekunda market —also known as Sandika or Sabina— kept growing in size and importance until it became the largest in the country, a maze of stalls where produce from the Gambian countryside, imported goods and local crafts all came together. Around it sprang up workshops, shops and residential neighbourhoods that attracted people from every ethnic group in the country and even from neighbouring countries, giving the city its mixed, lively character.
Unlike Banjul, hemmed in on a low-lying island with no room to expand, Serekunda could grow without limits inland and towards the coast. That geographical advantage would prove decisive: while the capital stagnated for lack of land, the mainland city expanded year after year, swallowing villages and farmland and weaving together the great Kombo urban area that dominates the country's life today.
After The Gambia's independence in 1965, Serekunda's growth sped up dramatically. Rural migration, the development of tourism on the nearby coast and the concentration of trade, services and jobs in the Kombo area turned the city into a magnet for thousands of Gambians looking for work and opportunities. Within a few decades, Serekunda had far outgrown Banjul in population and become the country's largest urban centre.
The city merged with neighbouring towns —Bakau, Fajara, Kanifing, Bundung, Latrikunda and many others— forming a continuous metropolitan area that is now home to more than half of the Gambian population. Administratively, much of this urban area was brought under the municipality of Kanifing (Kanifing Municipal Council), one of The Gambia's demographic and economic engines. Banjul remained the political capital, but the human and commercial heart of the country had, without doubt, moved to Serekunda.
That explosive growth also brought the typical problems of big African cities: dense and sometimes precarious neighbourhoods, chaotic traffic, overstretched services and an ever-present informal economy. But also an extraordinary vitality: Serekunda today is a young, hard-working city that never stops moving, with its great market as the symbol of a people's economy that never sleeps.
Serekunda is, above all, a city of living popular culture. Its market, the Sandika, is the largest in The Gambia and a microcosm of West Africa: it sells brightly coloured fabrics and batiks, clothes, spices, dried fish, fruit, utensils and crafts, and traders come to it from Senegal, Mali, Guinea and beyond. Haggling, street cries and the coming and going of wheelbarrows set the natural rhythm of an economy built on dealing face to face.
The city and its surroundings are also a centre of Gambian textile craft: batik (wax-resist dyeing) and tie-dye are produced in small workshops, many run by women, who print and dye fabrics by hand that are then sold across the region. Alongside groundnuts, textiles are one of the productive traditions that give the area its identity.
And when it comes to leisure and identity, Serekunda shares with all of The Gambia and Senegal a passion for traditional wrestling, the national sport. In sand arenas scattered through the neighbourhoods, to the beat of drums and with the wrestlers covered in protective charms, bouts are held that are at once spectacle, ritual and community celebration. Going to one of these events, especially in the dry season, is a glimpse into the soul of the country's people.
Today Serekunda is The Gambia's big city: dense, young, commercial and constantly growing, very different from the quiet island capital of Banjul and from the tourist world of the coastal resorts. It is the hub of the national transport network —from its stations, shared taxis, 'gelly-gelly' minibuses and 'seven-seater' cars leave for every corner of the country— and the great market where much of the population does its shopping.
For travellers, Serekunda offers no beaches or monuments, but it does offer something increasingly valued: authenticity. Wandering through its market, visiting a batik workshop, trying a plate of benachin in a local eatery or making your way through the crowds at the Westfield junction is a way to understand how most Gambians really live, far from the brochure postcard. It is also the gateway to the interior of the country, a natural base for trips to Brikama, Abuko, Makasutu or the slave route.
The story of Serekunda —from the home of a Wolof trader to the nation's largest city— is, at heart, the story of modern Gambia: a small, agricultural country urbanising at full speed, with all its tensions and its energy, around trade, migration and market life. In its bustling streets beats the present and the future of a people as welcoming as they are enterprising.
