Kachikally Museum and Crocodile Pool

About

Kachikally lies in the heart of Bakau, a town some sixteen kilometres west of the Gambian capital Banjul. It is one of three traditionally sacred crocodile pools in The Gambia, alongside Folonko in Kombo South and Berending on the north bank of the river, each long associated with rites of fertility, healing, and the seeking of blessings.

The pool and the surrounding compound have long belonged to the Bojangs of Bakau, a family numbered among the original settlers and principal landholders of the town. For generations the Bojangs have served as custodians of the shrine, welcoming pilgrims, providing the simple rites of the place, and tending to the West African crocodiles that share the pool. The crocodiles, perhaps eighty in number, are allowed to roam freely and are approached with care by those who come.

Kachikally is also a meeting point of traditional African belief and the wider religious life of Gambian Muslims and Christians, who visit for blessings of children, healing, and the resolving of personal difficulties. A small museum on the site documents the cultural traditions of the Mandinka and other Gambian peoples, including the rites associated with sacred pools and the histories that surround them.

Significance

For many Gambians and other West Africans, Kachikally is among the most important places where the older traditional religion is encountered alongside Islam and Christianity, in a continuing practice of asking blessings of the spirits of the water. The Bojang family's stewardship across generations has preserved both the pool and its rituals as a living part of the spiritual landscape of the Gambian coast.