
Ethiopia grows some of the best coffee in the world. The Rastafarian movement thrived and evolved in Jamaica, but claims Ethiopia as its spiritual homeland. Ethiopians have, and still use a thirteen-month calendar; they have also a different time schedule from what is generally used in the West. And every Ethiopian must be proud to tell you that Ethiopia was never brought under colonial rule.

And do you remember Kunta Kinte from Alex Haley’s classic autobiography, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and its hugely popular screen adaptation, Roots? The Gambia is Kunta Kinteh’s homeland. If that doesn’t tell you something about the rich importance of this place, you’ll realize on arriving here that tourists from all over the world come to the Gambia to see the home of Alex Haley’s famous ancestor shipped away during the slave trade, and to which Haley returned generations after, to trace his roots.