Juffureh

Juffureh is a Mandinka village in North Bank Division made famous by Alex Haley's novel "Roots," which traced his ancestry to Kunta Kinteh, a man taken into slavery from this village. Juffureh, together with the neighbouring riverside settlement of Albreda and Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly James Island, about 30 km upriver, renamed in 2011), forms the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites," inscribed in 2003 for its role in Afro-European trade including the transatlantic slave trade. The site includes the ruins of Portuguese and French settlements at Albreda and Juffureh — among them the CFAO building, the Maurel Frères building, and a Portuguese chapel. Since 1996 the Gambian government has run the annual International Roots Homecoming Festival, a heritage week aimed at drawing visitors from the African diaspora, with Juffureh and Kunta Kinteh Island as its symbolic centre.

By car/road: bush taxis from Barra (15 km east). Short walk from Albreda.

Walkable.

• Juffureh's Mandinka village core, linked to the Kunta Kinteh story
• The colonial-era ruins at neighbouring Albreda (CFAO building, Maurel Frères building, Portuguese chapel)
• Kunta Kinteh Island, reached by boat from the riverfront
• The Gambia River waterfront

Walk between Juffureh and Albreda to see the UNESCO-listed heritage sites. Take a boat out to Kunta Kinteh Island.

• Albreda — 2 km west, slave-trade museum
• Barra — 15 km west, ferry to Banjul
• Niumi National Park — 20 km north