Jeshwang: Home of the slaves
 In this edition of Know your Towns and Villages we will be featuring the town of Old Jeshwang.

This town is the last settlement on your way to Banjul the capital of the country. Old Jeshwang is found within the Kanifing Municipality and it is one of the few settlements that are blessed with an electoral district of their own; this electoral district is called the Jeshwang constituency.

The foundation

In our encounter with the current Alkalo of the town of Jeshwang, Alhaji Karamo Mustapha Ceesay, we established that the name Jeshwang is a Mandinka word (JUNGSUWO) meaning home of the slaves. Historical facts gathered by this column have it that the land was initially a slave settlement. Alkalo Cessay narrated it this way:"A slave camp was built there and the cemetery of Banjul was where the slave camp was; it was a big fortress". At that time there was war in kombo between the people of Kombo and the British; the captives were sold there as slaves and if they get fourteen days in that fotress, the slaves were washed or bathed and then taken to place known as Mantel Farm. This Mantel Farm was said to be located at the opposite of precent day MRC. Mantel Farm was the home of the Parish Priest. Inside this compound was also a big underground hole. There was also a big "Taboo" tree inside it; the hole has its exit at the mouth of the river. "When the white people capture the slaves, they chained them on their necks, some have their hands tied, put them inside that hole to enter the slave ship. At that time, there were no engine boats.What was in existence was Kolomakulung, these ships transport the slaves to the west , Portugal or America".

The slaves were bought in a trade system called batter. A young energetic man was exchanged for a gun while boys were exchanged for gunpowder.Women and girls also have similar prices. Some times our people are even exchanged for alcohol. At that time, Busumbala was located at where the Banjul cemetery is before the people relocated to where they are now.

Aborigines and expansion

Jeshwang was an established settlement well before Barthust became a crown colony in 1827.Apart from Bakau, which was at the time located at present day Saroo.

According to our sources, at that time when the slave fortress was in existence, Jeshwang was divided into two: there was Jeshwang and Jeshwang Baa. At that time, there was only one powerful Aku businessman called Sir Sang Forster, who was resident at the seaside. This Aku businessman was a host toa man from Guinea Bissau called Mamadi Manjang Ceesay who later was to be associated with the development and expansion of what today is known as Old Jeshwang.Legends have it that this Mamadi Manjang was a son to one Alagie Ceesay who left Guinea Bissau to study at the ancient Malian University at Timbukutu under Sheikh Fanta Madi. This Seikh Maditold Alagie Ceesay, his student, to go out in search fora living but advised him to settle in The Gambia. It was as a result of this movement that Alagie Ceesay settled in Jeshwang from where his son Mamadi Manjang Ceesay was born.

On your way to Banjul, the mosque that is on the junction to the Jeshwang prison was where his home was. Our sources however confirmed that earlier before the arrival of the Aku businessman in Jeshwang, the West Indies were the inhabitants of the land, the climatic conditions made them victims of tropical diseases resulting to mass deaths. This unfortunate reality left them with no option but to leave. They were also a people who feed on oyster. It was as a result of their mass dependence on oyster that the abundance of oyster cells became a future of the Jeshwang beach.

However, the first family to settle in Jeshwang as a recorgnised settlement was the Ceesays; then came the Jatta family when the ceesay family offered the hand of one of their daughter's for marriage the Jattas'. One Kekuta Badjie followed the Jatta family. This migration of people into Jeshwang led tomore than a hundred families in Jeshwang.

Ritual sites

Just like any other African settlement, the town of Jeshwang did not do without the practice of traditional African religion. Our sources confirmed that even today, people still uphold the values of the traditional religion as some do resort to them. Among such ritual sites that once existed in Jeshwang was a place called 'Kamaalo'.wherethere is plenty water in a planting season, it wasa Jola tradition,to take alcohol to the site and perform their rituals and before they leave the ground, it do rain,and when there is draught, they do the same. 

The premises that is today hosting the headquarters of Taf Construction Company limited was one time a ritual site called 'Kayupa'. This 'Kayupa' was administered by only women and it is only women who visit the site. Baren women conceived after they have gone through the ritual rites of the jungle. There are also the tree stones in the mangroves belonging to the ceesay family. There stones were a bathroom fora circumcised boy and immediately after circumsion. One week after circumsion and before they are re united into the society.