"Bumsterism" in the Gambia: a Sign of Traditional Values Distorted by Mass Tourism

Walking down any dusty, unpaved road in any small town in Gambia, a foreign tourist is bound to be chatted up by a local within a matter of seconds.  "Hello, you alright?" blurts out the local, typically a young man in his late twenties, just casually strolling down the street in a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and flip-flops.  As the tourist takes this to be a casual greeting and responds with a polite "I am fine, how are you?" a seemingly genuine friendly smile appears on the youngster's face and the conversation continues to the standard questions about the tourists' national origins and motivations for coming to the Gambia.

But amazingly enough, the conversation almost always takes a sharp turn from politeness to intrusiveness in matter of a few quick exchanges.  The standard sign of the new orientation is rather philosophical on the part of the youngster.  Pensively, he would remark that in the "land of the smiling coast," (as the Gambia is often denoted to foreigners) every person, of any skin color, is a brother or a sister within a big extended family, because all humans bleed red when s/he is cut with a knife.  Rather surprised by the sudden comment, the foreign tourist would still be amused by the sign of cultural tolerance and openness.

So the youngster, having gained some sort of trust with the tourist, continues to follow around the tourist all day long, offering to guide the foreigners around his hometown and show them cheap places for food, drinks, and souvenirs, ran by his "brothers" and "sisters."  The situation quickly deteriorates as the relents to the offers of guidance.  Pleading to the tourists' "goodness of the heart," the youngster would then use every chance he get to ask for money, free drinks, free food, and in one instance of personal experience, exchanging shoes with the tourists.

Such is the way of the "bumster," as these young men currently hanging around foreign tourists come to be collectively known.  In a way, they are like hustlers everywhere, attempting to extract personal financial gains from tourists by constantly offering various goods and services, often in the context of cultural immersion or experience.  But unlike other hustlers, bumsterism somehow involves more cultural subtlety, with the youngsters smoothly projecting an image of genuine air of characteristically West African sense of friendliness toward strangers.

And they certainly exploit such perceived cultural subtlety extremely well.  By saying that their ways of extended hustling is a form of traditional cultural custom, a straightforward display of welcome, and symbol of racial equality, they place themselves on a sort of moral high ground that other hustlers in other places simply cannot achieve.  Any anger toward and outright rejection of bumsterism on the part of the tourists can therefore be immediately framed as refusal of cultural understanding, and worse, signs of condescension and racism.

So, grudgingly and without polite means to successful counter the smooth talks of the bumsters, some foreign tourists face the prospect of being followed all day long by these local youngsters, who seem to have made walking around town with foreigners, to and fro hotels, shops, tourist spots, and restaurants, their permanent and daily employment.  Most bumsters are quite nonchalant about the obvious discomfort of the tourists and makes absolutely no attempt to mask their personal poverty and need for financial sponsorship to drastically improve livelihoods.

Some, for an easy passage to Europe, would go so far as to involve themselves in hetero- or homosexual relationships with the many lonely middle-aged European men and women who arrive in Africa precisely for such "services."  A philosophical notion of cultural openness became the perfect excuse for many in this nominally Muslim nation to turn a blind eye to illegal and humiliating "national past-time" of begging wealthy foreigners, most of which from former colonizers of the Gambian people, for financial support by absolutely any means possible.

There should be no doubt that Gambians, and indeed most West Africans, are a friendly and an open people.  They exhibit cultural pride and openness to strangers not seen in most other parts of the world.  Unfortunately, in the face of grinding national poverty and obvious relative wealth demonstrated by foreign tourists, such beautiful culture is detrimentally leveraged for short-term, unsustainable incentives.  The only result of bumsterism, seen from a grander perspective, is entrenchment of an ever-greater disrespect for Africa and her culture among foreigners...