Gambian culture: Greetings

Hi all,

For those of you that have never been, the Gambia is a beautiful place with wonderful people. It is not only interesting but also essential to understand the culture. Over the next couple of weeks I'll post a few tit bits of info on what you may think about when you visit to make sure that you are respectful and gain the most from your time there.

Greetings:

Always avoid immediately getting down to the subject matter and spend at least 15 seconds (30 seconds for people in authority) saying hello and how is the family? Anything less is perceived as disrespectful or that you are looking down on them. If you do not follow the above advice your life will be made very difficult. Remember that handshaking with your right-hand is a compulsory form of greeting except where you are visiting somebody who has recently been bereaved in which case it is the cultural norm that you do not shake hands with them. However, when you are travelling out of the country or going up-river for more than a day it is customary to shake hands using your left-hand. If someone is busy working or with their hands & are tied -up they may offer you their arm instead and you would hold it as if it were their hand. Though it sound obvious, never greet anyone who is praying as they will not answer back.

So there you go. I'll post some more useful advice for traveling next week.

All the best.