By Tijan Nimaga, New York
Watching from my vantage point at the New York City Ports Authority a familiar noise drew my attention. This was no ordinary noise; it was noise from a cargo ship leaving New York for an unknown destination. It quickly reminded me of The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA). The cargo ship attracted me further as it gently moved towards the horizon, leaving a score of joyous merchants in possession of goods on the cargo ship. The cargo ship it self and the numerous others at the New York Port are almost identical to those I saw back in The Gambia at the GPA Harbour on Wellington Street Banjul.
The Gambia Ports Authority, which lies on Wellington Street Banjul, few meters from The Banjul & Barra Ferry Terminal, is a Harbour that unites The Gambia with the outside world. The arrival of Cargo ships and their cargos beautifully displayed on ship decks and the shrines as the captain signals his ship’s arrival from Europe, Asia, America and other African countries, creates a beacon of hope for the nation’s unemployed young men and women. The ships and their convoys employ the usually jobless elderly men as laborers who laboriously load and unload every ship that visits Banjul.
After all it was another tribute to Sir Dawda Jawara for his efforts in establishing a unique form of transportation systems on The River Gambia. The nation’s five Ferry crossing terminals were all very efficient and financially rewarding to the nation. Out of the five Ferry crossing terminals, only two are economically important. These are the Banjul and Barra and the Bamba Tenda and Yeli Tenda Ferry Terminals. These two terminals not only contribute to the nation’s economy but also unite The Gambia to neighboring Senegal. The Senegalese commercial truckers and their convoys which are desperately in need for a faster trips to Northern Senegal use these two terminals each day for their trips to Cassamance .The tariff charges that this truckers pay each tripe crossing The River Gambia has become one of the Nation’s economic life blood for so many years. The remaining other three terminals two on either side of Georgetown and the last one between Kaur and Lamin Koto are also very important but not economical as the Banjul and Barra or the Bamba Tenda and Yeli Tenda
Terminals. One of the most interesting one of the two Ferry terminals on both
sides of Georgetown are the manual Ferry. Here is the passenger themselves that cross themselves across the river since the Ferry has no engine. The natural believe in physics; pull or push is what is applied on this Ferry to cross its cargoes to the other side of the river. Some of these efforts, which began during the independences and postcolonial era, have unified the nation and created easy ways for transportation needs.
During the late 1960s there was a presence of a vessel named Lady Wright which transports goods and human cargoes from Banjul to Basse in as little as two or three days. Lady Chilele then later replaced that vessel, which for several years remain the nation’s only vessel that transports human cargoes as well as goods from Banjul to Basse. Today though it seems as if these achievements never existed. The Gambia Ports Authority must have a share from the recent road construction and transportation proposals that has been already decided by the European Union in an efforts to help The Gambia to reconstruct roads and the nation’s transportation systems. This is an important issue that President Yahya Jammeh and every responsible Gambian must consider.
As I continue wondering about the ship and its convoy, another interesting event captured my imagination; a fishing boat was also making its way from the Atlantic Ocean with energetic fishermen and their catch heading to New York’s fish markets. A very familiar scene in the Banjul I grew up in. By the time I turned around to take a final glance at the ship and it’s convoy, all I could see was smoke from the ship’s engine and the clouds across the horizon as it disappeared into the high seas.