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The smiling Coast Of Africa’

Arguably one of the safest and friendliest places to visit, Gambia commonly referred to as ‘The smiling Coast Of Africa’ is a must-visit county especially if you want to sample its unique sex life where male prostitution is the order of the day.

Located on the West coast of Africa between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, is a tiny nation that has soared in popularity in recent years due to its white sandy beaches, wildlife, and cheap package holidays. Also, due to its position on the map of Africa as the country cuts through the middle of Senegal and its position appears like that of a smile on the map of the continent, greeting those who make their way up the River Gambia.

Thanks to branding and marketing Gambia has run away with the nickname and today ‘The Smiling Coast’ continues to be a number one tourists spot for visitors keen to explore Africa’s incredible nature and culture in a safe and friendly setting. Not all is all smiles in Gambia though since the country ranks among the poorest countries in the world where over a third of its population (1.7 million people) survive on less than $1.25 a day. Rampant poverty, mass unemployment and lack of opportunities for education make it difficult for young Gambians to survive, and for many Gambian men, their bodies are their main source of capital.

Prostitution in The Gambia

A recent documentary reports on a new tourism trend seeing older European women traveling to West African country Gambia for love and sex with younger men. In turn, the aspirational Gambian men may often receive gifts of tens of thousands of dollars for their company.

Unlike other countries where female prostitution is common, in Gambia, it’s the total opposite where male prostitution is the order of the day. The Gambia has become a darling to old retired women who come for holidaymaking with the “bumsters”. This has in turn resulted in it being awarded the dubious title of West Africa’s sex paradise of retired women.

Who Are Bumsters?

Bumsters are the unemployed young men who try to hassle and hustle tourists into giving them money in exchange of sex or other benefits.

Many bumsters are school dropouts who have found that the hustle really pays far more than a regular job, and so even though they may say that they want to work, the facts are that their Gambian bumster lifestyle is their full time job, and the relationships they ensue in are transactional, with the women being seen as ‘clients’ rather than girlfriends or lovers.

Going with the high youth unemployment rate, Gambia has become a popular destination for sex tourism where western female tourists who are eager for sex with the bumsters come for merrymaking.

Sex tourism, or sex travel is the practice of travelling somewhere for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. This could involve (but is not limited to) massage parlours, full service sex work (prostitution).

Sex tourists have been turning to the Gambia as the authorities in destinations such as Thailand and the Philippines run vigorous campaigns to keep them off their soil.

Female Sex tourism in The Gambia has hit headlines on many occasions in recent years, with stories of middle-aged Western women in search of long-term love, holiday romances and one-night stands.

Female sex tourism typically differs from male sex tourism in that women often do not seek only sexual contact. Instead, female sex tourists will often look for romance and intimacy with men living in the host community.

Both the female tourists and the Gambian bumsters fashion their sexual encounters as ‘relationships’, although many would not choose to describe it this way.

These ‘relationships’ provide Gambian men with opportunities to make a living through the money made from sex tourism, while female tourists get the chance to satisfy their (neo-colonial) fantasies about young black bodies.

The top countries for sex tourism are: Thailand, The Netherlands, Brazil, The Gambia, The Philippines, Spain, Cambodia and parts of the Carribean.

The Senegambia Strip

The most popular sex tourism hotspot is the Senegambia strip, the coastal area around Kololi.

Sex tourism in the Senegambia strip is said to be so rife that it gives both Thailand and Philippines a run for their money.

The town is known for it’s three S’s: Sea, Sand and Sex.

Local men who work on the streets (bumsters) seek women who will embark on a sexual relationship with them.

Sometimes referred to as the sexual economy, thousands of European women travel to the Senegambia strip each year for the purpose of the consumption of young, male, Gambian bodies.

From Slave trade to sex trade

I believe that race plays an important part when it comes to understanding sex tourism in The Gambia.

The Gambia was once a major slave-trading port and The British Empire used this region for its people. At this time, Black people could be bought, sold, shipped abroad, raped and forced to work, and none of this was illegal.

Although slavery was outlawed in the UK at the time, it was still alive and thriving in The Gambia, and it isn’t much of a stretch to see some of these women’s fantasies about young Black men as neo-colonial in nature.

There are hundreds of thousands of young, single, black men in the United Kingdom, but yet these women are flying thousands of miles away to a poverty-stricken country to engage in sexual activity with Black men, because in The Gambia, a British woman’s money and the power that comes with it buy her things that she could never dream of having at home. 

Government Effort In Reducing Sex Tourism

The Gambian State sees the bumsters as a nuisance because they allegedly are doing nothing more than harassing tourists. This brings a set of negative guest/host interactions. This leads the State to act very aggressively towards Gambians involved in the sexual economy by arbitrarily arresting them and taking them into labor camps, where those wearing dread locks are shaved off by the military.

Rather than being a tourist-harassing nuisance, however, these men are in fact actors and agents of The Gambia’s tourism industry. The men provide services to tourists who visit the country with a specific demand in mind. They contribute a great deal to the tourism industry and have a positive

The Gambian government has however made limited efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and child sex tourism by displaying posters in resort areas targeting potential buyers of sex and posting Tourism Security Unit officers in the Tourism Development Area.

With such little effort by the Gambian government, the sex tourism levels in The Gambia will very soon be similar as that in Thailand or Philippines.

This article was written by Stigg Muh Nene

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