About The Gambia

The Republic of The Gambia is country in West Africa. It is the smallest country on the African continent and is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and the Atlantic Ocean in the West.
The banks of The River Gambia have been inhabited for thousands of years. There is some evidence that some of the ancient peoples of Europe, including the Carthaginians, were in steady contact with West Africa. The first known written record about The Gambia is a reference in the account of Hanno, the Carthaginian, of his voyage down West Africa about BC 470. These links were ended with the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam spreading south from North Africa. In the 14th century, the Empire of Mali (Manding)-founded by Sundiata Keita, leader of the Malinké (Mandinka) people - stretched from the edge of the Sahara to the forests of the south in what is now Liberia & Sierra Leone. From East to West, it encompassed all the region between Takedda beyond the Niger Buckle covering Senegambia on the Atlantic Ocean. The first Europeans to reach The Gambia River were the Portuguese.

In the early 15th century, Prince Henry of Portugal began encouraging navigators to sail down the coast of West Africa, aiming to circumvent the Arab and Muslim domination of the trans-Saharan trade in gold, which by that time was at the hub of Portugal's finances.

Gambia's first contact with Europeans came in 1456, when Alvise de Cadamosto and Antonioto Usi di Mare landed on James Island about 30km (19mi) upriver from the coast. They had named the island St. Andrews Island after a sailor who had died and was buried there. The name was changed later European colonials. Although the Portuguese didn't establish a settlement, they continued to monopolise trade along the West African coast throughout the 16th century. In their trading posts, salt, ostrich feathers, iron, pots and pans, firearms and gunpowder were exchanged for ivory, ebony, beeswax, gold and slaves. (It's been suggested that the Gambia River's name stems from the Portuguese word cambio, meaning 'exchange,' or, in this context, 'trade'.)

By the 1600s the large commercial estates owned by Portugal, in Brazil, needed more labourers, which the Portuguese began to take from West Africa. Although slavery had existed in Africa for many centuries, the Portuguese developed the trade on a large scale and had a virtual monopoly on it until the mid-16th century, when Britain joined the trade. The success of Portuguese exploration encouraged other Europeans to enter The Gambia river and trade with the local inhabitants. James Island which was to become the main settlement of the Europeans, frequently changed ownership. Thus from the Portuguese, its ownership switched to the Duke of Courland, the Dutch and finally the British. By the 1650s, Portugal had been largely ousted by the French and British.
First British traders in the Gambia came in 1587. They began to explore the river in 1618. They eventually got control of St. Andrew's Island 1661. It was renamed James Island after the Duke of York, later King James II, a name it has retained to this day. Trading companies were set up and they tried to control the trade of the river. The companies, such as the Companies of Merchant trading in West Africa, The Royal Adventurers and the Royal African Company traded and controlled the area. By the mid-seventeenth century, the slave trade had over-shadowed all other trade. The British and French competed for the control of the trade of the area. In 1765, the forts and settlements were vested in the British Crown and for eighteen year what is now The Gambia, formed part of the British Colony of Senegambia, with headquarters in St. Louis at the mouth of the river Senegal. However in 1783, the greater part of the Senegambia region was handed to France. The Gambia section ceased to be a British colony and was again placed under the charge of the African Company.

With the British abolition of the Slave Trade in their settlements in 1807, they tried to look for a suitable location in The Gambia from where they would be able to monitor the river and stop ships from entering and leaving with slaves. Alexander Grant, sent out from Goree for this purpose, found the fort at James Island to be too far inland and in ruins and therefore from there. He therefore entered into a treaty with the Chief of Kombo in April, 1816; for the cessation of the detached sand bank known as St. Mary's Island. Originally called Banjulo by the Portuguese, Grant named the new settlement, Bathurst after the Colonial Secretary of the time Lord Bathurst.

Britain declared the Gambia River a British Protectorate in 1820 and for many years ruled it from Sierra Leone. In 1886, Gambia became a crown colony, and the following year France and Britain drew the boundaries between Senegal (by then a French colony) and Gambia.

With the slave trade at an end, the British were forced to come up with a new source of wealth to support the fledgling protectorate, which led to the planting of groundnuts. The groundnuts or peanuts are originally South American, were they were grown by Indian communities. (It was introduced to West-Africa (first the Senegambia area) by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Here it spread quickly, though faster in the interior of Africa than along the coast). The harvested nuts are crushed to make oil, which is exported to Europe for use in food manufacture. In the 1950s, Gambia's groundnut production was beefed up as a way to increase export earnings and make the country that much more self-supportive, and today groundnuts remain the chief crop of both Gambia and neighbouring Senegal.

{mospagebreak} The pioneer of the struggle for self-determination in the Gambia was Edward Francis Small. He realized that orginazation and enlightenment were the tools of national liberation. He was only 30 years when he attended the meeting of The National Congress he started to call for representative institutions. In 1924, Edward F. Small formed Bathurst Trade Union and established Rate Payers Association to ensure that rate payers struggled for the slogan “ No Taxation Without Representation”. This shows true liberators do not belong to tribe or place of origin.

Political parties emerged in 1950s. Between 1951 and 1954, the Democratic Party led by J.C Faye, The Muslim Congress by Ibrahima Garba Jahumpa and United Party led by P.S Njie. Protectorate People’s Party was formed in 1959, a year after the death of Edward F. Small led by Dawda K. Jawara.

On April 24, 1970, The Gambia became a republic following a majority-approved referendum. The election system was slightly modified in 1982, with a change to the direct election of the president, rather than indirectly by the Members of the Parliament. Until a military coup in July 1994, The Gambia was led by President Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was broken first in a violent coup attempt in 1981. The coup was led by Kukoi Samba Sanyang, who, on two occasions, had unsuccessfully sought election to parliament. After a week of violence, which left several hundred dead, Jawara, in London when the attack began, appealed to Senegal for help. Senegalese troops defeated the rebel force. In the aftermath of the attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed the 1982 Treaty of Confederation. The result, the Senegambia Confederation, aimed eventually to combine the armed forces of the two nations and unify economies and currencies. The Gambia withdrew from the confederation in 1989.

On July 22 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) seized power in a military coup d’etat, deposing the government of Sir Dawda Jawara. Lieutenant Yayha A.J.J Jammeh, Chairman of AFPRC, became head of state. Yahya Jammeh contested and won 56% and 53% in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

In October 2001, Jammeh defeated human-rights lawyer Oussainou Darboe and won a second five-year term. The National Assembly elections were held in January, 2002 and was boycotted by the UDP opposition party. As a result therefore, the APRC won all but three of the 15 constituencies contested and also their candidates went unopposed in the rest of the 33 constituencies.
On the 21st and 22nd March 2006, alleged planned military coup was uncovered. President Yahya Jammeh was forced to return from a trip to Mauritania, many suspected officials and civilians were arrested.