Makasutu Culture Forest is situated approximately five kilometers to the north east of Brikama which is a luxuriant green wilderness fed by a tributary of the Gambia River generally known as the Mandina Bolon. It is a private owned eco-tourist reserve that is usually accessible to the public for full or half-day cultural guided eco-tours of the forest. Within the reserve there is also five star luxury eco-tourist lodge called Mandina Lodges right on the tributary within lush bush mangroves.
Makasutu – means ‘sacred forest’ in Mandinka – as both an ecology project and a place for people to come and learn about the local cultures. Makasutu is a tropical one thousand-acre reserve encompassing five different eco-systems, including gallery mangroves, forest, palm forest, savannah and wetland. Wildlife is abundant with many bird species, monitor lizards, lots of baboons, vervet and red colobus monkeys and the infrequent crocodile and even the odd mongoose which can be seen on the riverbanks.
