The Gambia - History
The Gambia was once part of the Mali and Kaabu Empires. The first written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries A.D. Arab traders established the trans-Saharan trade route for slaves, gold, and ivory. In the 15th century, the Portuguese took over this trade using maritime routes. At that time, The Gambia was part of the Kingdom of Mali.
In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, Antonio, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on The Gambia River to English merchants; this grant was confirmed by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I. In 1618, King James I granted a charter to a British company for trade with The Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana).
During the late 17th century and throughout the 18th, England and France struggled continuously for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal and Gambia Rivers. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of The Gambia, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on the north bank of the river, which was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1857.
As many as 3 million slaves may have been taken from the region during the 3 centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by Arab traders prior to and simultaneous with the transatlantic slave trade. Most of those taken were sold to Europeans by other Africans; some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were sold because of unpaid debts, while others were kidnapped. Slaves were initially sent to Europe to work as servants until the market for labor expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century.
In 1807, slave trading was abolished throughout the British Empire, and the British tried unsuccessfully to end the slave traffic in The Gambia. They established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul). The military post was established to control the slave trade in Bathurst, modern day Banjul, in 1816. The city was settled, and soldiers were successful in stopping the slave trade within the year. Ironically, this left Gambians economically worse off than before. Now having to depend on peanut trade, many rural people saw marked declines in their quality of life. This spurned internal conflict in The Gambia. The Marabout-Soninke Wars lasted 50 years and left Gambians divided and damaged.
Senegambia comprised the regions watered by the Senegal and the Gambia, and was divided politically into English, Portuguese, and French Senegambia. The first comprised the settlement on the left bank of the Gambia at its mouth, Elephant's Island, 100 miles inland; McCarthy's Island, still farther from the sea, and the Los Islands, forming together the colony of Gambia, with Bathurst, on St. Mary's Island, as the capital, and was connected with Sierra Leone. Portuguese Senegambia (also called Guinea) lies between the Nunez and Casamanza rivers, including Bissagos Archipelago. Area. 17 000; population, 150,000.
But little of this fertile territory, watered by rivers rising in the Futa-Jallon highlands, had been actually occupied by the European masters. French Senegambia constituted the province of Senegal, or the French Soudan, and had a coast line extending from the Mallecory to the Nunez (150 miles) ; and passing by the Portuguese possessions, it commenced again at the Cassamanza and continued to Cape Blanco (450 miles).
In the ensuing years, Banjul was at times under the jurisdiction of the British governor general in Sierra Leone. In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colonial entity.An 1889 agreement with France established the present boundaries, and The Gambia became a British Crown Colony, divided for administrative purposes into the colony (city of Banjul and the surrounding area) and the protectorate (remainder of the territory). The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901 and gradually progressed toward self-government. A 1906 ordinance abolished slavery.
Officially, the country was ruled throughout these wars off and on by the British governor general in Freetown, Sierra Leone. With the ending of the wars, The Gambia was in more favorable shape for colonialism. In 1888, it became its own entity, having been separated from the Senegalese territory. The French and British came to an agreement, allowing the British to control the Gambia River. Thus, in 1889, the presentday boundaries were drawn and The Gambia became a crown colony.
The Gambia was separated into the colony, which consisted of the city of Bathurst and surrounding towns, and the protectorate. The protectorate was divided into seventeen administrative divisions, based on geography. Each division was assigned its own chief, who in turn was directed by the governor in Bathurst. The differences in efficiency of this theoretical and actual indirect rule of the country were great. British were beginning to lose interest in their claim.
The Gambia and its waterway became less important with the construction of a rail line from Dakar to Bamako. But Gambians were content with their British rulers and local leaders enjoyed their new status and wealth. Seeing that they would not get any trouble from Gambians, the two countries maintained an indifferent relationship with each other. As a result, few investments were made by the British outside of Bathurst.
During World War II, Gambian troops fought with the Allies in Burma. Banjul served as an air stop for the U.S. Army Air Corps and a port of call for Allied naval convoys. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped overnight in Banjul en route to and from the Casablanca Conference in 1943, marking the first visit to the African Continent by an American president while in office.
After World War II, the pace of constitutional reform quickened. Following general elections in 1962, full internal self-government was granted in 1963. The Gambia achieved independence on February 18, 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth. Shortly thereafter, the government proposed conversion from a monarchy to a republic with an elected president replacing the British monarch as chief of state. The proposal 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, and civil rights and liberties. On April 24, 1970, The Gambia became a republic following a referendum.
Until a military coup in July 1994, The Gambia was led by President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was first broken by a violent, unsuccessful 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, President 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 to unify economies and currencies. The Gambia withdrew from the confederation in 1989.
A protest by soldiers over late salaries in July 1994 turned into a coup d'etat, led by a young lieutenant, Yahya Jammeh, who appeared in public wearing combat fatigues and dark sunglasses - a look that did little to endear him to the international community. In July 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) seized power in a military coup d'etat, deposing the government of Sir Dawda Jawara. The 26-year Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. Jammeh's Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) ran the country by decree and all political activity was banned until the second Republic was established in 1997. What appeared to be a counter coup in January 1995 was put down and its ringleaders, who were former close allies of Jammeh, were imprisoned.
There was civil unrest in Banjul and Brikama in early 2000 as Gambian security forces were put on full alert following violence in the streets of the capital, Banjul. According to Amnesty at least 14 people were killed as a student demonstration called to protest against police brutality degenerated into a pitched battle between demonstrators and police forces. Schools and colleges were temporarily closed and riot police patrolled the streets. More recently things have calmed down. There was another alleged coup in March 2006 which was unsuccessful.
President Jammeh spent large sums on public works projects: renovating the airport and building hospitals, roads, a TV station, new schools and a huge monument to his revolution on Independence Drive in Banjul.
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