In your today's edition of 'Towns and Villages', we bring to the spotlight, the tales of a community that is the roots of the country's second most senior person, Her Excellency the vice president and minister of Women's Affairs, Aja Dr. Isatou NJie-Saidy. The community can also be said to be the headquarters of the land of Jokadu; built on the pillars of Islam. This community still observes the fundamentals that warranted its establishment, community spirit, hospitality of the people and mutual understanding also remain key features of the village. This community is no other than the settlement of Kuntair. Please read on to uncover the historical rite of passage of this community.

The foundation
During our chat with the current custodian of the land of Kuntair, Alhagie Abou Fatou Khan, a living history library,  uncovered that, Kuntair was founded in 1817, a year after Banjul was founded and the name of the community simply means home of Kunta. The community was given this name by the Mandinka and the Fula refered  to it as Sare Kunta, while the wollof called it Kerr Kunta. These individual names emerged simply because, people refered to the community by the name of the founder, one Kunta Khan, whose roots was traced from a village called Kobilo in the Ndendarr Region of Futa Toro.

According to our sources, the founding of the settlement of Kuntair all began in the region of Futa Toro, which is in present day Guinea Conakry where, the grand father of Kunta Khan, Alhagie Abdou Qadir Khan, a renowned marabout leader, launched a major military onslaught (Jihad) against non-Muslims. He was said to have fought and conquered 37 wars and built 37 Mosques; meaning a Mosque was built in each of the conquered settlements. When he decided to suspend his military operations, his followers told him to fight three more Jihads so that, he can complete a record of forty, but this Alhagie Abou Qadir Khan insisted that his sons and grand sons would complete his divine journey. It happened that, one of his sons, Hamadi Khan alias Ngorba Khan (a name he acquired in the battle field after conquering Cayor), who is also the father of the founder of Kuntair, decided to continue what his father started; an insurrection that brought him to the Gambian valley where he and his son, Kunta Khan established a settlement and name it after the son Kunta Khan, this settlement is now known as Sami and it is on the outskirts of Essau.

At Sami, Hamadi told his son Kunta to settle down and preach the word of God, (Islam) while he himself returned to Cayor where he established his own theocratic state called Woji Cayor. Kunta Khan then stayed at Sami for some years until his demise. After his death, his son Momodou Raki Khan migrated. Based on the advice of his marabou that, he is yet to build his settlement, he established the present day Kuntair. After he left this first settlement Sami, the Serere took over and name it Jefeti before it was renamed Sami again. Since then, Kuntair remained a citadel of Islamic religious teachings and practices.

Aborigines and expansion
Based on the fact that, the community of Kuntair was founded from jihad, the community from the onset received mass migration as disciples of the spiritual leader, Raki Khan followed him to the new settlement to receive his blessing and perfect the teaching and practice of the Islamic faith. Majority of these followers were Fulas and in 1926, the community of Kuntair built its first mosque to become part of the three remaining mosques to complete the forty-mosque target of Alhagie Qadir Khan, protagonist of the jihad movement. Since then, people began migrating from left, right and center, not only to expand the community but  become part of the cohort of the Islamic revivalists. Up till today, the pillars of the Islamic faith are well constructed in Kuntair.

The alkaloship
Despite been a theocratic settlement, the community of Kuntair did not depart from the traditional linage line of authority, in which authority passes from generations within the same clan based on age. Since the foundation, the seat of the alkaloship of the community of Kuntair remained  in the house of the Khan as the founders. From one alkalo to the other, they rotated the throne  among themselves based on age. Our sources however, recalled from 1914 to 1924 that, the then alkalo handed over the alkaloship to his nephew Omar Isaha Bah, because he was older than him and felt it was in the absence of respect to summon his brother to answer to him. But since then, the Khan’s were in full control.

African tradition
Kuntair is one rare community that does not enjoy  African traditional practices and philosophies, our sources noted that, the community was built on the foundation of Islam and as such, Islam was the dominant practice of the community since foundation. We could not ascertain any sacred site of ritual, even for a small group of minority but  the fact that the community mosque was first erected in 1926, testifies that, traditional practices had a minor space in the community.