Have a look at these pictures: this is the reason you leave your west-European country and start travelling to the unknown.
All of a sudden you're in the middle of something outlandish. It definitely wasn't a place for outsiders like us, so we felt rather privileged to be able to visit this cattle market.
Think a terrain the size of a couple of football fields, with every few metres a pile of car tyres filled with straw, around which four to five goats are pegged, or, in a separate part of the market, a couple of cows (with very beautiful horns, all of them, and totally different from our European breed).
Cattle dealers bring in their stock, sometimes a couple of hundred at a time, and wait for buyers in impromptu tents. There they sit all day. It's a men-only place.
To give you an indication of the price range: a fully grown goat will sell for 70 to 150 euro, depending on the appearance - not weight! - of the animal. A cow costs around 1100 euros.
Anyone can come and buy the animals. After sale they will be taken to the abattoir bordering the terrain and checked for diseases by a vet before they are slaughtered.
Cattle are of course very important in a farming system. Owning cattle is seen as the first step out of dire poverty, if only because you can always sell your goats or sheep when you need cash (ie. in the months between planting and harvesting).
That's when you go to the local market and sell to the dealers.
We were told the goats were mainly bought for ceremonies or to give as (rather expensive) presents. We weren't able to get more information on the Gambian cattle trade, a pity, it was such an interesting subject - and a very interesting place.
All of a sudden you're in the middle of something outlandish. It definitely wasn't a place for outsiders like us, so we felt rather privileged to be able to visit this cattle market.
Think a terrain the size of a couple of football fields, with every few metres a pile of car tyres filled with straw, around which four to five goats are pegged, or, in a separate part of the market, a couple of cows (with very beautiful horns, all of them, and totally different from our European breed).
Cattle dealers bring in their stock, sometimes a couple of hundred at a time, and wait for buyers in impromptu tents. There they sit all day. It's a men-only place.
To give you an indication of the price range: a fully grown goat will sell for 70 to 150 euro, depending on the appearance - not weight! - of the animal. A cow costs around 1100 euros.
Anyone can come and buy the animals. After sale they will be taken to the abattoir bordering the terrain and checked for diseases by a vet before they are slaughtered.
Cattle are of course very important in a farming system. Owning cattle is seen as the first step out of dire poverty, if only because you can always sell your goats or sheep when you need cash (ie. in the months between planting and harvesting).
That's when you go to the local market and sell to the dealers.
We were told the goats were mainly bought for ceremonies or to give as (rather expensive) presents. We weren't able to get more information on the Gambian cattle trade, a pity, it was such an interesting subject - and a very interesting place.
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