Female Sex Tourism in The Gambia | Secrets of The Smiling Coast
Think of a sex tourist and who do you picture? My guess would be an older man with a soft middle and a leery expression, drooling over girls young enough to be his granddaughter in Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia etc.
People have very mixed views on sex tourists, with many viewing sex tourism as an inherently exploitative practice that takes advantage of vulnerable and impoverished communities, and others seeing it as a fair exchange, a transactional relationship where both parties know what they are signing up for and no harm is done.
However, whatever your personal stance on the matter, you probably aren’t picturing your friendly neighbourhood grandma when you think about the typical sex tourist.
Unless you’ve been to The Gambia that is.
Female Sex Tourism in The Gambia
The Gambia, located on the west coast of Africa between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, is a tiny nation that has soared in popularity in recent years due to its white sandy beaches, wildlife, and cheap package holidays.
However, rather than attracting hordes of young partiers, fresh out of college and looking for some fun in the sun, The Gambia has found itself catering to a somewhat older market, resulting in it being awarded the dubious title of ‘West Africa’s sex paradise for retired women,’ and garnering a rather unsavoury reputation as a sex tourism hotspot.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Before we delve any further into the topic of female sex tourism in The Gambia, I want to outline what sex tourism actually is.
What is sex tourism?
Sex tourism, or sex travel is the practice of travelling somewhere for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.
This could involve (but is not limited to) massage parlours, full service sex work (prostitution), gentleman’s clubs, brothels, ping pong shows and foreign dating sites that cater specifically to tourists looking for a good time.
The top countries for sex tourism are: Thailand, The Netherlands, Brazil, The Gambia, The Philippines, Spain, Cambodia and parts of the Caribbean.
While traditionally, sex tourists have always been men (there’s a reason Pattaya is full of retired old farts), in recent years there has been an increasing number of women from Europe, Canada and the United States travelling to developing countries for the purpose of sex with local men.
While the demographics of female sex tourism differ from place to place, female sex tourists are usually older white women from developed countries who might struggle to find love or a sexual connection in their home countries and travel elsewhere for the promise of excitement and romance.
A 2009 survey conducted by Wanjohi Kibicho in his book about sex tourism in Kenya found that ‘women who feel rejected by men in the developed countries for being overweight and older find that in Kenya, this is suddenly reversed. There, they are romanced, appreciated and loved by men. This appeal can result from the ethnic differences between the sex worker and the sex tourist or the foreign lifestyle that the local men live. Women who have sexual encounters with such men are typically middle-aged and of European ethnicities.’
One of the key differences between male sex tourism and female sex tourism then, is that men, for the most part, are aware of their status as sex tourists.
Romance tourism
Many female sex tourists on the other hand, do not see themselves in this way, instead identifying more with the term ‘romance tourism,’ since their relationships with local men often involve more ‘romance’ and intimacy than the more typical transactional relationship that we see between male sex tourists and female sex workers.
To these female sex tourists, the term ‘sex tourism’ oversimplifies the reasons why they are engaging in relationships with these men (or perhaps, they just don’t want to see what other people see).
However, this notion of ‘romance tourism’ creates an uncomfortable grey area, where female sex tourists leave themselves open to being hurt by men who are really just trying to make a living for themselves.
Because female sex tourists often do not view themselves as such, and thus may not want to embark on an explicitly transactional relationship, the male sex worker has to be a little sneakier about how he goes about his work. He will usually observe holidaymakers and profile them in the hopes of selecting a worthy target.
Typically, he will look for older women who may be overweight or considered unattractive back home. He considers such women vulnerable, or ‘easy prey,’ and he will play on this woman’s vulnerability in order to get her to obtain feelings for him. When feelings are involved, the male sex worker finds it easier to convince the woman to spend her money on him, and so the exchange begins.
Female sex tourism in The Gambia
Despite the Gambian government trying to promote their country as a destination for nature tourism and sustainable tourism, The Gambia continues to be known for its sex tourism.
One of the most well-known areas for sex tourism in Gambia is the ‘Senegambia strip,’ the coastal area around Kololi, where holidaymakers and local men (known as ‘Bumsters’) come together in the kind of relationship that The Gambia is infamous for.
Wait…did you just say ‘Bumsters’?!
I sure did.
Taken from the English slang word ‘bum,’ which means a beggar or a tramp, Gambian bumsters are young, unemployed Gambian men who hustle tourists into giving them money, usually by sweet talking them and showing a romantic interest in them.
Many bumsters are school dropouts who have found that ‘bumsterism’ (yes really) pays far more than a regular job, and so even though they may say that they want to work, the facts are that their Gambian bumster lifestyle is their full time job, and the relationships they ensue in are transactional, with the women being seen as ‘clients’ rather than girlfriends or lovers.
What does female sex tourism in The Gambia look like?
The Bumsters – young, attractive and charming – will walk up and down Kololi beach day and night and hang out in the local pubs and nightclubs, sweet talking tourists and sticking with whichever one takes the bait.
The women, often middle-aged and above and hailing from the UK, are flattered by the attention and can’t resist the temptation of a young Black body that they deem to be theirs for the taking.
A female sex tourist named Jackie, who is in her sixties and has been to The Gambia 15 times in 8 years, told Eammon Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning, ‘you can get your choice, from Tinie Tempah, Snoop Dogg, will.i.am…it’s a Pick ’n’ Mix there.’
Yikes.
Describing The Gambia as a ‘real women’s holiday,’ (whatever that means), Jackie defends the claim that The Gambia is a ‘Tinder dream for geriatric sex tourists,’ asking ‘why shouldn’t we enjoy ourselves?’ and acknowledging the power imbalance at play by referring to the fact that the men are ‘really poor,’ so ‘a nice meal and a few drinks is good for them.’
This brings us to the next section.
Poverty and sex tourism
Poverty and sex tourism – two phenomenon that are problematically yet inextricably linked, and which muddy the waters when it comes to deciding whether or not somebody is being exploited.
You see, while these young Gambian men are not being controlled by violent pimps or traffickers, it is difficult to ascertain true freedom of choice when somebody is living in abject poverty.
The Gambia is an incredibly poor country, where over a third of its population (1.7 million people) survive on less than $1.25 a day (source).
Rampant poverty, mass unemployment and lack of opportunities for education make it difficult for young Gambians to survive, and for many Gambian men, their bodies are their main source of capital.
We have to ask ourselves, do men like this have free choice when it comes to selling their bodies, or are they selling sex for survival?
We can easily talk about the ‘happy hooker’ trope, where young and attractive women in developed nations turn to sex work in order to live lavish lifestyles and afford luxuries that an office job would not provide, but when a young and uneducated man from The Gambia is expected to put food on the table for his entire family, can we really say that he is making a free choice to sell his body?
Whatever your opinion on sex work, I think most people would agree that any ‘relationship’ born out of need rather than want is exploitative, regardless of whether it is a man or woman paying for sex.
The race issue
Given the history of the matter, I believe that race plays an important part when it comes to understanding female sex tourism in The Gambia.
The Gambia was once a major slave-trading port and The British Empire (as well as the Spanish and Portuguese) used this region for its people. At this time, Black people could be legally bought, sold, shipped abroad, raped and forced to work.
With this in mind, it isn’t much of a stretch to see some of these women’s fantasies about young Black men as neo-colonial in nature.
There are hundreds of thousands of young, single, Black men in the United Kingdom, but yet these women are flying thousands of miles away to a poverty-stricken country to engage in sexual activity with Black men, because in The Gambia, a British woman’s money and the power that comes with it buy her things that she could never dream of having at home.
I am not saying that these women are consciously racist.
However, it is impossible not to notice the unsavoury implications of a (comparatively) rich woman falling into bed with a man young enough to be her grandson and buying him a bag of crisps and a Coke as a thank you.
Don’t Gambian bumsters exploit women, too?
While many see the female sex tourists as the exploiters, many of the women involved hold the opposite view.
While the women who appeared on This Morning were under no illusions about their lover’s motives, saying ‘they probably want to get to England,’ thousands more are not so savvy.
These women visit The Gambia for romance, and to them, the sex is not transactional.
They are under the impression that they are in a real relationship with their Gambian lover, and often, Gambian men actively encourage this belief, professing their undying love for the woman, keeping in touch for months after they have left The Gambia, and even proposing marriage (when they may be happily married to a Gambian woman!).
When these women, who are convinced that they are in a monogamous and committed relationship, discover that they are one of many, or that the men may have an ulterior motive, they feel blindsided and scorned, unwilling to take a step back from their emotions and view the situation from an outsider’s perspective.
It is difficult to listen to a woman who is clearly heartbroken and ignorant to the reality of her ‘relationship,’ but we do have to remember that these women are adults who have no problem travelling to undeveloped nations and taking advantage of economically disadvantaged men who would not look twice at them if their circumstances were different.
It may be harsh, but it’s true.
As one Gambian bumster says – ‘We’re not exploiting the women. It’s transactional. They are getting treated like a Queen and having good sex and we get money to survive and hopefully a visa. What’s wrong with that?’
What’s wrong, as far as the women are concerned, is the deceit involved – nobody likes to feel as though they have been hoodwinked – but can we blame these men for doing what is necessary in order to provide a better life for themselves and their families?
These so-called ‘Gambian love rats’ are not the same as the infamous ‘Nigerian credit card scammers,’ whose sole purpose is to extract a person’s entire life savings from them by way of catfishing and deception.
Gambian bumsters, just like any other kind of sex workers, are providing a service, and they view themselves as self-employed freelancers who work hard for what they get.
Female Sex Tourism in The Gambia | Final Thoughts
Sex tourism in The Gambia is a complex topic, and when researching this article, I found myself going back and forth numerous times as to whether I find the practice morally wrong or not.
The liberal in me wants to believe that sex tourism in The Gambia is not harming anyone, and that if young, hot Gambian men want to sell their bodies to geriatric tourists then more power to them.
However, as much as I might want to, I just can’t view it that way.
When a lack of opportunity and abject poverty are a daily reality, the lines between what is free choice and survival sex become too blurred, and I can’t shake the notion that none of these men would be doing what they’re doing if they had any other option.
It makes me sick to my stomach that rich Westerners continue to travel to poor countries to take advantage of the economic situation there and enjoy the kind of carnal pleasures that are not on the table for them back home.
I judge Western men who go to Thailand to do this, and I don’t believe that female sex tourists in The Gambia should be exempt, even if they are clinging onto the notion that what they are experiencing is love.
But now I want to know what YOU think.
I am aware that this is a hugely controversial topic, and I know full well that a lot of you reading this may be women who have taken what I have said personally – I am completely open to discussing this more in the comments section; all I ask is that you remain respectful and civil 🙂
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I find those guys a really irritating aspect of travelling in Africa.
In some places I am approached all day everyday.
One time one approached me in a hostel. I though nothing of it, because surely hostels keep people with agendas out. I didn’t mind because he was attractive and entertaining enough.
Then after a few days of him chatting with me and hanging out with me at the hostel he asked me to buy him a phone, so he can message me when I go home.
It was a very very disgusting experience!
Oh god, that’s shameless! I’m sure he probably already had one as well! Like you, I would feel safer in a hostel – it’s definitely a lesson to always be on guard, even if you’re staying somewhere that you wouldn’t usually associate with this stuff!
Really
Consent is the antithesis of exploitation and consent requires honesty. A very good friend of mine who did her doctoral thesis in human sexuality put the sum total of her research thusly:
If you are lying to yourself then you cannot be honest with the other person and therefore have taken consent off of the table. If these tourists are lying to themselves or trying to live some kind of alter ego abroad identity,
Then they are predators, end of conversation. If its a pitiful predatory incarnation that doesn’t make it less predatory. Whatever dynamic they find themselves subsequently embroiled in are strictly products of the initial self subterfuge. Super first world problems. Perspective is key
Very true! Thank you for your comment.
Wow – totally new to the term “sex tourist”. Fantastic read and yes its difficult for me to separate the aspects of it all. I’m pro sex workers yet in this article I can see the situation as exploitation. Don’t get me wrong Id be all about if I had gone there and a hot black man offered sex and companionship and it may have even seemed innocent. As soon as money becomes involved it sullies that experience and reveal’s it for what it really is whether you see it or accept it or not. Very eye opening though changing read.
You’re totally right, it is a super complex issue with so many grey areas. Thank you so much for commenting!
I totally, completely and unreservedly undertsnd the problem of power imbalance. However, while the power imbalance does make this a very tricky issue, what is the author trying to achieve? Is it better for the sex workers involved if they lose their work, and become even poorer?
Obviously in a better world, there would be no poverty, and sex workers could all choose between their current occuption and (say) becoming a teacher, doctor or artist. The fact is that they don’t. So in the real world, which is better – that they take on sex work, or find it has become unviable due to pressure from rich westerners and they must return to work in a mine, field or factory?
I’ve never been involved in sex work as a client or worker, but some of my work has involved protecting the rights of sex workers from less developed countries. As I understand it, given the reality of their situation they would generally much rather get a living as sex workers than in the lowly-paid and often filthy and dangerous jobs that are the alternative, if they are lucky.
If this is (as the article claims) “survival sex” then who are we to discourage it and remove the workers’ chance of survival? From some angles, articles that could remove what extremely disadvantaged people find to be their best option as a job may make their disadvantage even worse.
Great points, thank you.
Do you believe the same arguments can be used when judging female prostitution?
Article is biased and based on wrong facts and assumptions!! People who called “Bumsters” in The Gambia are not sex workers! These are people who make their living from cheating tourist in many ways, “fake love” is just one of their tricks, this have nothing to do with survival, this is just one of criminal activities! Local people do hate bumsters, as any normal people in any country hate criminals! Gambia is NOT in a great poverty, that is LIE!! It is considerably well living country in the Africa, nobody is starving here and never did! So all this article is incorrect from scratch. Just feminist b***t. I’m currently here staying in the hotel exactly on “sinegambia strip” and did that many times knowing this country a lot, not from newspapers, as I guess author does.
I concur. The men are convincing. Some women truly believe the men actually care the widows, the lonely, the often naive lady tourists. Why would they prefer to see the truth? They are for once feeling sexually attractive and cherished. The men never reveal their true intent and profession. They totally fleece their victims, emotionally and physically.
Depends on nature of person nationality region
Oh yeah right! Paint these rich old White thirst traps as the preyed upon! These women come to Gambia with an agenda– to live out their fetishes of being “ravished” by young, virile African men! White wealthy men have trafficked non-white women and children for decades. They buy the favors of the indigent women then return home to their wife and children, while boasting under their breaths to White male friends about the sex buffets abroad. And for the record, those old wealthy White women have created this type of sexual supply and demand in Gambia. They are not preyed upon any more than the creeping wife of slave owners creeping into slave quarters to set up a meeting for her to have her yearning and curiosity fulfilled by having sex with an African slave and then yelling, Rape!” if caught during legalized slavery!. White folks have been victimizing indigenous populations while acting like they are victims, for centuries! Slavery enabled White males to sodomize African boys and rape African enslaved females and the practice continued when England and America continued to colonize nations of color. Those Gambian men wield no economic or political power. At any moment they grow tired of being a boy toy, and the wealthy cougar is not ready to let go, all she has to do is play the victim, go to the police and spend a lie about being victimized and her boy toy can be arrested. These White cougars realize their wealth and white power can be weaponized against those impoverished Gambian men. The women chose to have this type of sex for hire involvement. They are NOT preyed upon.
So what exactly were those white old ladies looking for in Gambia?
They are bored at home and went abroad with the hope of getting sexual satisfaction but its never free. They better face the reality.
I fail to see what the fuss is about.I havnt travelled to Africa,but I have taken vacations in the Caribbean.Two friends and I,(we are all in our 50s) had a fabulous time there.Wonderful weather and food and yes.the local boysWe spent our days admiring their beautiful physiques on display at the beach.It was a demonsration of our feminism to take these boys into our beds.
Yes I’m sure it’s a demonstration of your “feminism” you broad to have a sense of superiority you feel when you wield your vagina power. Contemporary (2nd and 3rd wave) feminism in the West always been about superiority, never equality. You are the symptom of a dying society.
Calling these men bumsters is pretty offensive and racist, If older white women want to travel to Africa for sex and romance, that’s fine. Categorizing the men as deceitful and calling them bumsters is not.
I didn’t coin the term, it’s what they are known as.
What a load of rot , I’ve been travelling throughout Africa since the 70s n as ever it takes 2 to tango…..
You could almost make a similar statement in almost any vacation location….
This is a known phenomenon.
Great article! I never knew, but I’m American, that there was a trend of older white British women flocking to Gambia for a different kind of BBC experience! LOL
So presuming that these grannies aren’t messing with underage individuals like some of the “dirty old men” that flock to the P.I. and Thailand, and that these Gambian dudes don’t mind going full Capt Ahab and “harpooning” a few “white whales” once in awhile . . . have at it!
Hahaha, this made me chuckle.
What you describe happening in The Gambia is the same what’s happening in Thailand, just check all the YT vdos warning men that they’re Thai GF will scam them.
Thai feminists do not share the same opinions on sex work as white feminists. The men of Gambia may not agree with your view also. Both are adults, being poor doesn’t deny them agency. If you could stop it would you? Would you like to control the sex lives of others?
Let’s just say that even when women are clearly the predators, they still try to pass themselves off as victims. They behave like men in the symmetrical situation, but with the added hypocrisy.
Seems Brits don’t want to shag each other much anymore. The men may have left for SE Asia, so rather than whither up and die, the women go to Gambia. It’s all kind of sad and weird.