Gambians are comprised of three ethnic groups: Mandingo, Fula, and Wolof. Peanuts grown for export provide almost all of the country's income. Ninety percent of Gambians are practicing Muslims. Many still live in huts made from a material called banco, which is a mixture of straw and sun-dried clay and is similar to adobe brick. Silk-cotton tree branches form the roof beams, the roof itself being thatched from long grasses and millet straw. The most common food staple is couscous, which the women of the village pound with mortars; the men still paddle pirogues (dugout canoes) to work in the distant couscous and cotton fields.
Oral tradition. Roots is based on the oral tradition that Haley's family handed down through seven generations. He heard the history of his ancestors from his grandmother and his cousin, who "had talked the family narrative on the... front porch" (Haley, Roots, p. 670). Correlating what he had been told with the facts he found in libraries and other repositories of official data, Haley discovered how accurate the information was that his relatives had passed down to him.
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