My parents grew up in The Gambia, and at The Gambia Introductory Workshop [see previous two articles] I got a glimpse of what it might have been like for them growing up amidst all the different peoples, of different subcultures, getting on well with each other. 


Each person in The Gambia speaks some of the languages of the other sub-cultures. People learn each other’s languages growing up together and reach adulthood being able to communicate with and live comfortably among others who do things differently.


The workshop was fantastic! A highlight: After the men’s and women’s support groups I went to call the men into the main room to begin the culture sharing. They were singing a song (the kind you sing in primary school to choose someone whose turn it is to do something), and I knew the song and joined in. I knew it because my oldest brother, who was born in The Gambia and came to live in England when he was five years old, had taught it to my older sister, the first of us born in England, and she had taught it to me!