Keyword Gambia

When Lena and Ulli start the engine of their old Land Rover, Lady Terés, they have a plan: to drive from Hamburg to South Africa in six months. What they don't know yet is that they won't ever get there. Two totally different characters, jammed together in two square meters of space for almost two years, they experience what it really means to travel: leaving your comfort zone for good.

In recent years, stories of older British women hooking up with younger Gambian men have made news headlines, from one-night stands to whirlwind weddings. But what's the truth behind the stories? Seyi Rhodes investigates.

"Tubabs" is a nickname for foreigners, especially white ones, in the West African country of Gambia. In this documentary filmed by Mary Flannery, a group of college students from St. Mary's College of Maryland travel to Gambia as part of an anthropology course. Throughout their time in the river-country , they experience a world radically different from their own. Interactions with the local populace, daily chores, and the individual projects the students conduct all help them learn what exactly it means to be a "tubab".

Mariama is the best student in her village and has a bright future. Her parents dream of sending her to America. But a predatory teacher and the malevolence of patriarchy threaten to derail it all.

On a journey to West Africa, award-winning documentarian Mathew Welsh fashions portraits of six 'middle class' Gambians - taking us beyond stereotypes about Africa - and teaching us that we in the Developed World have a lot to learn from West Africa about how we give, how we live. These are six personalities that will resonate with a Western audience.