Arts & Crafts in Gambia
Arts & Crafts: Introduction
Within the vicinity of most of the major tourist hotels you will find a small craft market (called bengdulas) made up of a number of small stalls offering a selection of wood carvings featuring tribal masks, elephants, hunters etc., batiks, tie dye fabric prints, trade beads, gold and silver jewellery and locally made hand woven 
baskets. Despite the influence of tourism in creating mass production of such art (particularly in Brikama Craft Market)
you can still see authentic local handicrafts and cultural dancing in the villages along the coast and the River Gambia. Artworks can be found being peddled on the beach as well as in craft shops.
Batiks, Tie-Dye, Waxes & Damask Cloths
Gambian Tie dye and batiks are extravagant, rich in different shades of colour and are compulsory item to be seen at every tourist market and are tailored into men's Kaftans (haftans), 
women's warambas (grandmubas), skirts, shirts, ladies blouses, skirts as well as bed sheets, curtains and tablecloths. Many are made by local professional women who produce the finished fabrics from their own homes using hot dye, 
oil drums and various techniques to produce abstract designs as well as animals, natural objects and people.
Basketware
Baskets are woven in either
plain beige or intertwined using coloured strips of mostly dry palm leaves and are shaped into not only baskets but hand fans, table mats, lampshades, fruit bowls and a variety of other household objects. The craftsmen tend to be from Senegal and the quality is generally quite good.
Calabash & Gourds
The gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, which includes the
pumpkin and squash has many different uses. Before use as utensils the insides of the gourd is saturated in water and left to rot after which they are left to sun-dry which hardens them greatly. They are then used as ladles, storage containers and spoons (bottle gourd). The larger versions (called leket) are used to make food preparations and the Kora string instrument.
Jewellery
Traditionally gold and silver jewellery is made by the lower
caste of people called the tega in Wolof. The families that are famous for making local jewellery are the Touray, Mbow, Jobe and Cham clans. The metals are made into bangles, bracelets, pendants, brooches, earrings, spoons and fine rings. However, you can also see wealthy women who go to special occasions dripping with 
hugely extravagant gold jewellery which would put MR.-T to shame!
Glass beads which one sees being peddled to tourists do not have Gambian origins. After Europeans began to mass manufacture them they bought them to West Africa and Gambia in exchange for slaves and gold with local chiefs.
Pottery
Clay pots have been made in the Senegambia area for
over 6,000 years and 
is the preserve of the women, with the finest examples being made by the Mandinkas, Jolas and the Serahules. This last group are mainly concentrated in the Upper River Division town of Basse and the nearby village of Alohungari where they are known to make beautifully decorated clay pots from a clay silicate mineral called kaolin (or dar) dug up from the fields or river banks. The clay is particularly suitable for making terracotta
containers.
Pottery is shaped and moulded by hand and without the use of a kiln or potter's wheel then it is placed into a hollow in the ground where it is subsequently fired. Many pieces are moulded to be used as water containers and coolers, colanders, cooking pots, grain storage jars called buntungo and for incense burning in the home.
Within the vicinity of most of the major tourist hotels you will find a small craft market (called bengdulas) made up of a number of small stalls offering a selection of wood carvings featuring tribal masks, elephants, hunters etc., batiks, tie dye fabric prints, trade beads, gold and silver jewellery and locally made hand woven 
baskets. Despite the influence of tourism in creating mass production of such art (particularly in Brikama Craft Market)
you can still see authentic local handicrafts and cultural dancing in the villages along the coast and the River Gambia. Artworks can be found being peddled on the beach as well as in craft shops. Batiks, Tie-Dye, Waxes & Damask Cloths
Gambian Tie dye and batiks are extravagant, rich in different shades of colour and are compulsory item to be seen at every tourist market and are tailored into men's Kaftans (haftans), 
women's warambas (grandmubas), skirts, shirts, ladies blouses, skirts as well as bed sheets, curtains and tablecloths. Many are made by local professional women who produce the finished fabrics from their own homes using hot dye, 
oil drums and various techniques to produce abstract designs as well as animals, natural objects and people. BasketwareBaskets are woven in either
plain beige or intertwined using coloured strips of mostly dry palm leaves and are shaped into not only baskets but hand fans, table mats, lampshades, fruit bowls and a variety of other household objects. The craftsmen tend to be from Senegal and the quality is generally quite good. Calabash & GourdsThe gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, which includes the
pumpkin and squash has many different uses. Before use as utensils the insides of the gourd is saturated in water and left to rot after which they are left to sun-dry which hardens them greatly. They are then used as ladles, storage containers and spoons (bottle gourd). The larger versions (called leket) are used to make food preparations and the Kora string instrument. JewelleryTraditionally gold and silver jewellery is made by the lower
caste of people called the tega in Wolof. The families that are famous for making local jewellery are the Touray, Mbow, Jobe and Cham clans. The metals are made into bangles, bracelets, pendants, brooches, earrings, spoons and fine rings. However, you can also see wealthy women who go to special occasions dripping with 
hugely extravagant gold jewellery which would put MR.-T to shame!Glass beads which one sees being peddled to tourists do not have Gambian origins. After Europeans began to mass manufacture them they bought them to West Africa and Gambia in exchange for slaves and gold with local chiefs.
PotteryClay pots have been made in the Senegambia area for
over 6,000 years and 
is the preserve of the women, with the finest examples being made by the Mandinkas, Jolas and the Serahules. This last group are mainly concentrated in the Upper River Division town of Basse and the nearby village of Alohungari where they are known to make beautifully decorated clay pots from a clay silicate mineral called kaolin (or dar) dug up from the fields or river banks. The clay is particularly suitable for making terracotta
containers.Pottery is shaped and moulded by hand and without the use of a kiln or potter's wheel then it is placed into a hollow in the ground where it is subsequently fired. Many pieces are moulded to be used as water containers and coolers, colanders, cooking pots, grain storage jars called buntungo and for incense burning in the home.
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