Reception committee.

This group of children were standing by the road into the village of Juffure chanting 'Welcome' as loudly as they could. What I couldn't get into the picture was the rival group on the right hand side of the road, who were also chanting 'Welcome' as loudly as they could, try to drown out the opposition!

Juffure was brought to prominence by Alex Haley and his 1976 book, then television miniseries, 'Roots'. The eighth generation of the Kunte family still live in the village. We also visited Kinta Kunte Island (formally James Island) which is 3 nautical miles away from the village and usually the last piece of African soil slaves saw before they were taken to the Americas. It was said that if a slave could swim the distance between island and mainland, get ashore and touch the flagpole about 100 from the beach they would be free, however none of those who tries managed it.