The Gambia
The Gambia, officially the Republic of the Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, the Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for the western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
Its territory is on both sides of the lower reaches of the Gambia River, which flows through the center of the country and empties into the Atlantic. The national namesake river demarcates the elongated shape of the country, which has an area of and a population of 2,422,712 people at the 1st of May 2024 Census which is a 30.45% population increase from 2013. The capital city is the island Banjul, formerly called Bathurst during the colonial era, which is the most extensive metropolitan area in the country. The second- and third-largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama. Other significant cities are Kanifing and Farafenni in the north bank, Basse in Upper River Region, and Soma in lower river region.
Arab Muslim merchants traded with indigenous West Africans in the Gambia, under an arrangement known as the trans Saharan trade, using a barter exchange system. Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries, Islam was introduced by the Arab traders to Western Sudan. In 1455, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter the Gambia, although they never established significant trade there. The British Empire established a colony in 1765. In 1965, 190 years later, the Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara. Jawara remained the president, winning several elections, until he was overthrown by Yahya Jammeh in a bloodless coup on July 22, 1994.
Adama Barrow was elected as the Gambia's third president in December 2016; He defeated Yahya Jammeh with the help of a coalition of other opposition political parties. Jammeh initially accepted the results, but then refused to leave office claiming he was cheated, triggering a constitutional crisis. The Economic Community of West African States conducted a military intervention and achieved Jammeh's removal two days after his term was initially scheduled to end. In a swearing-in ceremony at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, Senegal, on January 19, 2017, Adama Barrow formally became president of the Gambia.
The Gambia's economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism. In 2022, 17.2% of the population lived in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than US$2.15 per day. The Gambia is a founding member of the ECOWAS. It rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2018 after previously withdrawing in 2013. English is the country's sole official language; it became widely used during British rule.
Etymology
The name "Gambia" is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra/''Kambaa, meaning the Gambia River. Portuguese explorers, who reached the region in the 15th century, adopted a variation of this local name, which was later anglicized to Gambia during British colonial rule.Upon independence in 1965, the country used the name The Gambia. Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the long-form name of the country became the Republic of the Gambia.
The Gambia is one of only two countries for which the definite article is commonly used in its English-language name and where the name is neither plural nor descriptive, the other being the Bahamas. The article is also officially used by the country's government and by international bodies. In 1964, shortly prior to the country's independence, Prime Minister Dawda Jawara wrote to the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use requesting that the name the Gambia retain the definite article, in part to reduce confusion with Zambia which had also recently become independent. Some scholars suggest it also emphasizes the nation's connection to the Gambia River, a defining geographical feature.
The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the long-form name to Islamic Republic of the Gambia in December 2015. On 29 January 2017 newly elected President Adama Barrow changed the name back to Republic of the Gambia''.
History
Muslim and Portuguese influence (9th–16th centuries)
traders provided the first written accounts of The Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes. They carried out a large export trade of local people taken captive in raids and sold as slaves. Gold and ivory were also exported, and the trade routes were used to import manufactured goods to these areas.File:Wassu Stone Cirles shaunamullally 02.jpg|thumb|left|Senegambian stone circles run from Senegal through The Gambia. They are described by UNESCO as "the largest concentration of stone circles seen anywhere in the world".
By the 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur, ancient Ghana and Gao had converted to Islam. They had appointed to their courts Muslims who were literate in the Arabic language. At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called The Gambia was part of the Mali Empire. The Portuguese reached this area by sea in the mid-15th century and began to dominate overseas trade.
English and French administration (17th–19th centuries)
In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants. Letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with The Gambia and the Gold Coast. Between 1651 and 1661, some parts of The Gambia – St. Andrew's Island in the Gambia River, including Fort Jakob, and St. Mary Island and Fort Jillifree – came under the rule of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a vassal state of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in what is now Latvia, having been bought by Prince Jacob Kettler. The colonies were formally ceded to England in 1664.During the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century, the British Empire and the French Empire struggled continually for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal River and the Gambia River. The British Empire occupied The Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there following the capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on the river's north bank. This was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856.
Slavery
Slave ships intercepted by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron in the Atlantic were also returned to The Gambia, with people who had been slaves released on MacCarthy Island far up The Gambia River where they were expected to establish new lives. The British established the military post of Bathurst in 1816.Gambia Colony and Protectorate (1821–1965)
In the ensuing years, Bathurst was at times under the jurisdiction of the British Governor-General in Sierra Leone. In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colony.An agreement between Britain and France in 1889 established the boundaries of the colony. In 1891, a joint Anglo-French Boundary Commission faced resistance from local leaders whose lands would be divided. The Gambia became a British Crown colony called British Gambia, divided for administrative purposes into the colony and the protectorate. The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901, and it gradually progressed toward self-government. Slavery was abolished in 1906 and following a brief conflict between the British colonial forces and indigenous Gambians, British colonial authority was firmly established. In 1919, a romantic relationship between Travelling Commissioner J. K. McCallum and Wolof woman Fatou Khan scandalized the administration.
During World War II, some soldiers fought with the Allies of World War II. Though these soldiers fought mostly in Burma, some died closer to home and a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery is in Fajara. Banjul contained an airstrip for the US Army Air Forces and a port of call for Allied naval convoys.
After World War II, the pace of constitutional reform increased. Following general elections in 1962, the United Kingdom granted full internal self-governance in the following year.
Contemporary (1965–present)
Independence and formation of the republic
The Gambia achieved independence on 18 February 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, with Elizabeth II as Queen of The Gambia, represented by the Governor-General. Shortly thereafter, the national government held a referendum proposing that the country become a republic. This referendum failed to receive the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results won widespread attention abroad as testimony to The Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, civil rights, and liberties.On 24 April 1970, The Gambia became a Republic within the Commonwealth, following a second referendum. Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara assumed the office of President, an Executive Post, combining the offices of head of state and head of government which he held since 1962. President Sir Dawda Jawara was re-elected five times.
An attempted coup on 29 July 1981 followed a weakening of the economy and allegations of corruption against leading politicians. The coup attempt occurred while President Jawara was attending the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in London and was carried out by a rogue group of leftists calling themselves the National Revolutionary Council, composed of Kukoi Samba Sanyang's Socialist and Revolutionary Labour Party and elements of the Field Force, a paramilitary force which constituted the bulk of the country's armed forces.
President Jawara requested military aid from Senegal, which deployed 400 troops to The Gambia on 31 July. By 6 August, some 2,700 Senegalese troops had been deployed, defeating the rebel force. Between 500 and 800 people were killed during the coup and the ensuing violence.
In 1982, in the aftermath of the 1981 attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed a treaty of confederation. The Senegambia Confederation aimed to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. The Gambia permanently withdrew from the confederation in 1989.
In the general election of April 1992, Dawda Jawara once again won a fifth term as president of The Gambia.