Serekunda
City
Downtown Serekunda
Downtown Serekunda
Serekunda is located in The Gambia
Serekunda
Serekunda
Location in the Gambia
Coordinates: 13°26′N 16°40′W / 13.433°N 16.667°W / 13.433; -16.667
CountryGambia
DivisionKanifing
Founded bySayerr Jobe
Named forFounder
Population
 (2021)[1]
 • Total340,000
Time zone0 GMT

Serekunda (proper: Sayerr Kunda or Sere Kunda, sometimes spelled Serrekunda) is the largest urban centre in The Gambia.[2] It is situated close to the Atlantic coast, 13 km (8 mi) south-west of the capital, Banjul,[3] and is formed of nine villages which have grown together into a larger urban area.

History and toponymy

Sayerr Jobe, the founder of Serekunda, was a 19th-century lamane originally from the Sine-Saloum region of Senegal. He migrated to the Gambia in the mid 19th Century and is believed to have initially settled around Jinack Island in Banjul, before relocating to the southern bank of the country (near Sukuta) where he established Serrekunda.[4]

Serekunda means "home of the Sayer [or Sayerr] family" and is named after its founder, Sayerr Jobe.[3] The name Serrekunda (or "Sere Kunda") is a Mandinka corruption of the name Serrereh — denoting the Serer people in Mandinka, as the Mandinka people of Sabiji believed that Sayerr Jobe (the founder of Sererkunda[4]) and his brother Massamba Koki Jobe/Diop (relative of Lat Dior - King of Cayor and Baol) and the Jobe family in general were members of the Wolof ethnic group.[5] Thus, in the oral tradition of the Mandinkas of Sabaji (of which Serekunda was part), they initially referred to the area with the Mandinka saying: "mbitala serrereh kunda" (I am going to Serer area/country), later shortened to Serreh Kunda (or Serekunda). The word kunda or kundaa is a Mandinka word for place, area, country or compound. In essence, Sere Kunda means Serer country/area made in reference to Sayerr Jobe who was from the Serer Sine-Saloum area, and whom the Mandinkas believed to be of Serer origin.[5] Although born in Serer country, and possessed the Serer title lamane, he was not of Serer origin, but of Lebou origin, as Jobe or Diop is a Lebou surname.

Population history

1973 1983 1993 2007 2021
25,505 70,435 194,987 348,118[6] 340,000

Districts or suburbs

The following districts form part of Serekunda:

  1. Bakoteh
  2. Bunungka Kunda
  3. Dippa Kunda
  4. Eboe Town
  5. Faji Kunda
  6. London Corner
  7. New Jeshwang
  8. Old Jeshwang
  9. Kololi
  10. Kotu
  11. Latri Kunda
  12. Latri Kunda Sabiji
  13. Manjai Kunda
  14. Serekunda District
  15. Talinding Kunjang
  16. Churchill's Town

References

  1. ↑ "Population of Cities in Gambia (2021)". Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  2. ↑ "Introducing Serekunda & the Atlantic Coast". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Serrekunda Town, Gambia". Access Gambia. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  4. 1 2 Briggs, Philip; Fenton, Simon; The Gambia, Bradt Travel Guides (2017), p. 103, ISBN 9781784770648
  5. 1 2 Sarr, Assan, Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin: The Politics of Land Control, 1790-1940, Boydell & Brewer (2016), pp. 64–95, 176, ISBN 9781580465694
  6. ↑ "Gambia town information".

13°26′N 16°40′W / 13.433°N 16.667°W / 13.433; -16.667

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