Haruna, its got to be remembered that james island was never inhabited by
the locals. According to oral narration, there was a myth about the island
because it was believed that a Dragon lives there and as a result, nobody
goes near the Island. That seems to suggest that the locals knew very
little about the Island prior to the arrival of the Europeans.

The myth was apparently broken by the Europeans who first settled there.

Names of places in mandinKa tradition don't just come from the vacuum. They
always come out of either landmark events, practices or the name of the
first settling family or person(s) even though that person may not be the
first to discover the place. For example, the geographical land area of
 Kunta-yaa Village was not first discovered by Abu Kunta Khan but he
settled there first with his family hence the name Kunta Yaa, a fula
settlement with a mandinka touch on its name; Saaba Village in Badibbu
apparently used to be patrolled by a sacred snake in protection of its
inhabitants hence, its name Saaba (big snake) but it could have been
Singhateh Kunda since the Singhatehs are said to be the founders or first
settlers there. This is just to explain how, in my strong opinion,
'Sandemungu' is the original name for James Island. There is no written
evidence to the contrary neither of any oral narration of the same.

I think the Island only got a name after it became first inhabited.

Thanks
Daffeh





On Saturday, 20 July 2013, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Badou,
>
> I just wanted to report back to the Gambia-L that you are well informed
on Matters about James Island and Alex harley's alleged fraud. Dr. Donald
Wright (2010) in his book, "The World and a Very Small Place in Africa"
argues that Alex visited the Gambia in 1976 where he met one guy called
Fofana who falsely claimed was a griot, and volunteered to Harley what he
wanted to hear.
>
> Roots succeeded in making Juffure a "tourist Mecca" for Americans (Wright
2010, P. 203).
>
> Regards to James Island, its naming has to do with the competition
of europeans for slaves. The Europeans negotiated with the mansas, thus "On
March 19, 1661,employees of the Royal Adventurers occupied the Island,
names it James Island, the Duke of York..."(Wright 2010, P.89).
>
> Again, Wright's (2010) book is a master piece on Niumi. I certainly
recommend it for research and leisure reading.
>
> Thanks & best,
> Yero.
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:38:59 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [G_L] [OKO DRAMMEH] Renaming James Island to Kunta Kinteh
Island - whats your take?/ Wassa
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Oko's Kunta Kinteh Agenda
> We, Ifang Bondi, never had anything to do with Alex Haley.
> Haley never worked with Ifang Bondi into(?) his Roots project and he
never invited us to make some of the music.
> We were never asked by the American Embassy to promote Kunta Kinteh in
the USA.
> We never had any ambition to be part of Alex Haley's or Oko's dreams of
transforming all of gambia into Kunta Kinteh-USA- Africa meeting point for
history culture & education.
> We never had any intention to express our artistic vision on Roots, The
Gambia & Kunta Kinteh.
> In short, we were never part of Oko's Kunta Kinteh agenda.
> We belonged to those Gambians who didn't remember Kunta Kinteh, simply
because Kunta Kinteh never existed.
> Everyone knew that the Kunta Kinteh story was fiction, even worse, that
Haley stole the Kunta Kinteh story from another novel "African" by
Courlander, who promptly took him to court. In the end Haley had to pay him
$ 650,000 in damages. Other scholars proved that more of Haley's claims
were fake. Check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley  /
"Plagiarism dispute and other criticism"
> The Gambia owes Haley for the creation of a major tourist attraction, but
Kunta Kinteh has no more links with the reality as Walt Disney's Snow White
has.
> James Island was renamed after a fake character fabricated by an American
writer who ripped it off from yet another American writer.
> "What use to be a source of Shame in is now acceptable norm in the
gambia." Indeed.
> Badou Jobe
>
>
>
>
> KUNTA KINTEH
> Alex Haley worked with Ifangbondi into his ROOTS PROJECT and invited the
band to make some of the music. Senemie was contacted and Samson Gassama,
Badou andyself with the American Embassy planned on promoting Kunta Kinteh
in The USA. The Jealous reign of that time buried the dreams of Alex Haley
because we wre going to be in the mix. All of gambia was going to
transformed into a Kunta Kinteh- USA-Africa meeting point for history
culture & education together with Goree & Elmina in Ghana. Our artists are
not given chance to express thier artistic vision on Roots, the Gambia &
Kunta Kinteh and much more. [----- ] You know  more to do with James Island
& Kunta Kinteh than a by-passer. We have a Kunta Kinteh agenda.BUT Who
remembers Kunta Kinbteh, only Gambians. this isld news, we have to reinvent
it and repackage it.
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To
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