Gambian Minnesotans seek a community center to connect to their African roots

When Sainabou Jaye Marong moved to Minnesota in 2011, her family was quickly able to plug into the local Gambian community. They found plenty of people to connect with.

"People would hear about Minnesota and just come here," she said.

Now the Gambian Association of Minnesota is hoping to buy a building to make into a central hub for the community's cultural events, education, small business assistance and immigration support — a multipurpose center that can serve as a gathering point for Gambians in the state. It's seeking a large space such as an old library with multiple rooms and a gathering area.

The association hopes to raise around $200,000 for a down payment, keeping monthly mortgage payments about the same as what it pays to rent space at the Islamic Educational and Cultural Center in north Minneapolis. The center ideally would be near Brooklyn Park in the northwest metro area, where there is a high concentration of Gambians — the vast majority of whom are Muslim — and other West African groups.

Jaye Marong's husband grew up in Farafenni, a city in the north of Gambia — a small West African nation enveloped by Senegal that runs along the Gambia River to the Atlantic Ocean. Farafenni has around 25,000 residents, several of whom now live in Minnesota.

Buying a community center has been a goal for two decades, according to Nfamara Dampha, president of the Gambian Association. But the sizable down payment needed to purchase such a building has been a barrier, he said. The association recently started collecting monthly cash donations from members to make its dream a reality.

"Our priority is to, as a community, have a place to convene meetings — a place to bring the kids together, a place to interact and share resources," Dampha said.

In the past decade, Jaye Marong said, she has seen the Gambian community grow in Minnesota, with people from all regions of the nation making their way here. The Gambian Association recently conducted a census and found just over 2,000 Gambians in the state.

Most Gambians in Minnesota are citizens of the United States, Dampha said. A big reason they want their own community center is to help the younger generations connect with their cultural roots as they become more integrated in American society.

"We want to see a broader future for our kids, and we also want them to identify with our community," Jaye Marong said.

Dampha became involved in the local Gambian community in 2015 when he came to the Twin Cities to work on his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Minnesota. Today he is a researcher at the U's Institute on the Environment, and consults on climate adaptation projects for the World Bank.

He recently lent his scientific background to conducting a census of sorts on Gambians in Minnesota. The oldest immigrants have been here for 40 years, he said. Like other West African diasporas in Minnesota, Gambians are most concentrated in the northwest metro area.

The Gambian Association worked with Brooklyn Park to establish a sister-city connection with The Gambia's capital, Banjul, in 2022. But Gambians are increasingly spreading across Minnesota. They include academics, medical care providers and small business owners.

With early immigrants starting to age, the association is now beginning to help families plan and pay for burials, Dampha said. It provides obituaries for the deceased, and celebrates accomplishments like school graduations for the living.

The association also plays a key role in helping people new to the United States with the immigration process, connecting them to education and health care, and assisting people as they work to buy homes or start businesses.

The Gambian Association hosts several social events every year and frequently partners with other West African immigrant communities for celebrations. It threw a party on Feb. 18 to mark Gambia's independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. This year it hosted a small business resource conference, and it plans to hold the 14th annual women's banquet on May 28.

The association constantly raises money for development projects in Gambia, and is sending money home this month to fund Ramadan meals. When 17 Gambians died in an apartment building fire last year in New York City, home to a large Gambian community, the association contributed relief funding.

"It's a very cohesive community," Jaye Marong said.

With second- and third-generation Gambian Americans growing up, Gambian Association members are trying to walk the balance between participating in American life and grounding young people in traditions from home. They believe that having their own building will help them realize the goal of establishing those roots.

"It's about heritage, but it's about integration and understanding a multicultural society and how it functions," Dampha said.