Kankurang: here comes machete man!
- Owner
- Sep 6
- 2 min read
During my first week in The Gambia I already experienced a bit of local culture that had me taken aback. I was surprised and a little shocked when, walking down one of the dirt roads from my house to the beach, I was suddenly approached by a masked person wrapped in bright red leaves and bark, wielding two machetes!
He noticed us too, because he came right up to us and planted his knife-hands in the ground as we stood frozen in position. A voice in my head said that this was surely some cultural festival and that I should try to enjoy this instead of being scared, but another voice took over advising me to give the guy a few dollars so he would move on quickly. And so we did.
Soon, another machete man came stomping down the road, trailed by a small entourage that included a few boys and a baby. This seemed less threatening and, now that I was in habit of giving money to leaf-clad men, I dared to ask for a picture. We also asked what they were doing but were still too stressed to have a proper conversation, and I only caught the word ‘circumcision.’
As it turns out, in August and September Madinka tribes in this area perform these initiation rites called Kankurang. There’s a cool video about it on the UNESCO website below. If you google it you’ll see pictures of the red variety of the costume, which is what the first guy we saw wore.
Soon after the bizarre encounters the adrenaline I felt from having worried, even if only for a few seconds, that I would have to defend my children against a man with machetes turned into a lot of laughs with my family about the whole situation. My kids weren’t as shocked as I was though—I guess they expect the unexpected after all these years of living abroad.
I couldn’t wait to share my adventures with other expats, convinced I’d just witnessed something unique, but they barely responded when I shared the story and the pictures. Apparently they’d all seen it before and the only aspect they wanted to discuss was the security implication of giving money, because as soon as you give people money, like everywhere else in the world, you’re likely to attract unwanted attention.
A few days later I saw two smaller Kankurangs—little boys dressed in blue and white costumes. I suppose it’s not so rare indeed! It just takes a minute to get used to.
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