Info Gambia English

Arab traders provided Gambia's first written accounts in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the 10th century, Muslim merchants and scholars created communities in several of West Africa’s commercial centers. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to an exchange for gold, and ivory.

By the 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur (a kingdom centered on the Sénégal River just to the north), Ancient Ghana and Gao, had converted to Islam and had appointed Muslims who were literate in Arabic as advisers. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, most of what is today called The Gambia was a tributary to the Mali Empire. The Portuguese reached the area by sea in the mid-fifteenth century and began to dominate trade.

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, James I granted a charter to a British company for trade with Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Between 1651-1661 some parts of Gambia were under Courland's rule, bought by prince Jacob Kettler, who was a Polish vassal.
During the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth, Britain and France struggled continually 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 River, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on its north bank. This was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1857.

As many as 3 million slaves may have been taken from the region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by inter-tribal wars or Arab traders prior to the transatlantic slave trade. Most of those taken were sold by other Africans to Europeans; some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were sold because of unpaid debts; while others were kidnapped.

Traders initially sent slaves 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, the British abolished slave trading throughout their Empire. They also tried, unsuccessfully, to end the slave trade in The Gambia. The British established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816. 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. The Gambia became a British Crown Colony, British Gambia, 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. It passed a 1906 ordinance abolishing slavery.

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. U. S. 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 a sitting American president.

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. The Gambia achieved independence on February 18, 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations. Shortly thereafter, the government held a referendum proposing that an elected president replace the Gambian Monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) as head of state. The 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 April 24, 1970, The Gambia became a republic within the Commonwealth, following a second referendum, with Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, as head of state. This made The Gambia the first and last British colony in West Africa.

The Gambia was led by President Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was shattered first by a 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 people 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 goal of the Senegambia Confederation was to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. In 1989 The Gambia withdrew from the confederation.

In 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) deposed the Jawara government and banned opposition political activity. Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. The AFPRC announced a transition plan for return to democratic civilian government. The Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) was established in 1996 to conduct national elections. The PIEC was transformed to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in 1997 and became responsible for registration of voters and conduct of elections and referendums. In late 2001 and early 2002, The Gambia completed a full cycle of presidential, legislative, and local elections, which foreign observers deemed free, fair, and transparent, albeit with some shortcomings. President Yahya Jammeh, who was elected to continue in the position he had assumed during the coup, took the oath of office again on December 21, 2001. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections.

• Socio-economic context: The economy, rather poor, is based on Agriculture. The pasture are the major groundnut, millet and the rice fields; pasture others are those of the palm and cotton Olier. The livestock of some importance is livestock bovine, ovine and cabrini. Logging is scarce, despite the extraction of mahogany, bamboo and some palm trees. River fishing leads to a small export Ghana, but fishing the Atlantic that has a good future. Most mining is, there are heavy deposits of metallic minerals (ilmenite, rutile and zircon). Industry, developed slightly, in some processing industries: exclofoliada and olive products from peanuts and rice to Banjul. Transport takes place mainly by the River Gambia, one of Africa's best navigable Occidental. The other communities are very poor: lack of rail and road network is 2388 km passable throughout the year. Foreign trade is very poor: in 1990 exports accounted for only 20.4% of imports, which consist principalemtente food (33%), followed by basic manufactures (20%) and fuels and lubricants (9% ). Imports out of the fish (13%), peanut meal (2.5%) and exports (41%). Over 50% of trade in The Gambia is the echo of the countries of the EEC (European Economic Community). The economy is very fragile because it depends on the extracted minerals and monoculture peanuts, affected by low international prices and erratic rainfall.

• Socio-cultural Context: Gambia's population is made up of groups of blacks Sudani Mandinga (42% total), Fulani (18%), Wolof (10%), Diola (9%) and other minorities such as native and sere aku. The annual growth rate is 25.8 per thousand births (47.5 per thousand), The unemployment rate is 50%, the infant death rate to 122 per thousand, the literacy is 28% of the Hope life is half of 48 years. The population is essentially rural (78 per thousand), less the capital, Banjul, no other urban center is less than 25,000 inhabitants. The official language is English, but there are very social dialects estendidosm especially the Mandingo and Wolof. 80% are Muslim, the rest are animists i, i Protestant Catholics. Primary education begins at 8 years old, is free but not compulsory and lasts for 6 years. There isn't university. 1997 which introduced the study of Alcora at all levels of learning. The president, elected by universal suffrage every 5 years, is commander of the armed forces and has the executive power. The legislature is the House of Representatives, composed of 49 members, of whom 35 are elected by universal suffrage, 5 appointed by the assembly of tribal chiefs, 8 nominated members without voting rights and the prosecutor general. The largest political party People's Progressive Party, founded in 1959. Gambia is a member of the UN, the OAU, the Commonwealth and the Organization for Desenvolupamiento River Gambia.