Welcome to Tanje Village Museum
The museum is the first private museum in The Gambia and we are presenting the ethnographic and natural history of the country. The museum was founded in 1997 and we believe it is our mission to preserve the real Gambian culture, which is rapidly dying due to western influences.When you come to visit, you are walking around on our 20.000 square meter open air museum. The light, bright and green environment, amongst many other things, consisting of 60 different plant species, are welcoming you to explore the museum and its facilities.
We try to present the entire country in our museum. To do so you will walk around in different galleries where you will learn about the fish and birds living in The Gambia, the reptiles living here, how we make traditional insect repellents, what our local drinks are, on which instruments we make our music and which wildlife you can find in The Gambia. All subjects cover the five, major, ethnic groups of the country.
Apart from cultural objects, different craft workshops are organized on a regular basis. If you like, you can participate in weaving, painting, tie and dye or put your blacksmith skills to the test.
On our terrain you are invited to walk through the traditional Gambian compound. The compound presents the Gambian way of life 150 years ago and provides more insight in culture and family structures and -hierarchies. Will it surprise you that many Gambians in the interior live in such compounds even today?
After your personal museum guide has shown you our museum you are free to walk around and ask questions to our staff. At the same time, for your pleasure, traditional music is played on the before seen instruments in the ‘bantaba’. Have you gotten thirsty? No worries, soft drinks are available for affordable prices.
Whether you are on holiday and you would like a nice excursion to a museum on a touristic location near the sea, or you are a student visiting the country and you would like to learn more about our country. Whether you would like a picknick in our bantaba, or you want to visit us for educational purposes (e.g. lower- and higher basic schools). Tanje Village Museum is there for you and our staff is looking forward to meet you!
We like to note that though we are a private museum, we continually keep investing our turnover in to sustain the museum. Also we privde lot of assistance to the community e.g. clean drinkwater, employment, traning, gardening for women etc just to name a few. These are all things that you will notice when you are coming to visit us.
After your personal museum guide has shown you our museum you are free to walk around and ask questions to our staff. At the same time, for your pleasure, traditional music is played on the before seen instruments in the ‘bantaba’. Have you gotten thirsty? No worries, soft drinks are available for affordable prices.
Whether you are on holiday and you would like a nice excursion to a museum on a touristic location near the sea, or you are a student visiting the country and you would like to learn more about our country. Whether you would like a picknick in our bantaba, or you want to visit us for educational purposes (e.g. lower- and higher basic schools). Tanje Village Museum is there for you and our staff is looking forward to meet you!
We like to note that though we are a private museum, we continually keep investing our turnover in to sustain the museum. Also we privde lot of assistance to the community e.g. clean drinkwater, employment, traning, gardening for women etc just to name a few. These are all things that you will notice when you are coming to visit us.