Gambia: History, Politics, Population, and Geography

Created: 12/18/2021, 7:50 PM

The King Fahad Mosque in Banjul © Maggie Janik / IMAGO

Gambia takes its name from the river that runs through the territory.

The state has only narrow access to the west coast of Africa and the Atlantic, as makes the Gambia the smallest of all African states.

The Gambia borders the much larger Senegal on three sides.

Banjul - The border lines that demarcate Africa's smallest state Gambia from its large neighbor Senegal on three sides have remained unchanged for over a century.

With an area of ​​just over 11,000 square kilometers, the Gambia had barely more than 2.23 million inhabitants in 2020.

Nevertheless, the small country is a multi-ethnic state that administers itself through the official language, English.

Gambia: Close ties to the Mediterranean and a long history

We know from ancient sources that the banks of the Gambia River were inhabited centuries before the turn of the century. Carthaginian seafarers were in contact with the estuary and the people living there, and there were close ties with the Mediterranean during the Roman Empire. From the 7th century AD, coastal shipping and caravan trade gradually brought Islam to Gambia, which is the predominant religion today.

Like other West African regions, the Gambia came into contact with Europe from the 15th century through Portuguese traders.

The natural resources and the good accessibility of the interior via the river soon aroused desires, so that various colonial powers raised claims on parts of the country.

From the middle of the 18th century, the Gambia fell to Great Britain and remained a British colony until 1965.

Millions of slave trades

The lively slave trade is part of the dark history of Gambia.

Historians assume that over three million people were abducted from here alone, mostly via the notorious triangular trade between Great Britain, West Africa and the Caribbean.

Despite the official abolition of human trafficking, slaves were still sold after 1807, some of which were brought from far inland.

Independence and transition to the 3rd millennium

The Gambia only gained independence from Great Britain in 1965, initially as a member of the Commonwealth in the form of a constitutional monarchy.

The country's first prime minister was David Kwesi Jawara.

When the small state was converted into a republic in 1970, he became president and remained so for five more terms.

There was a change of government only in 1994 through a military coup that brought officer Yahya Jammeh to power and confirmed him in office in the elections that were held two years later.

The increasingly repressive president was replaced by the entrepreneur Adama Barrow in elections in December 2016.

Since then, observers have seen signs of an upturn in the Gambia.

Gambia: geography and demography of the state

Undoubtedly, the river not only determines the name of the state that is officially called The Gambia today. The geography is also shaped by the current. The mouth of the Gambia lets in salt water from the Atlantic, which causes problems for agriculture. Due to this peculiarity, the Gambia is navigable far inland, for around 240 kilometers even for ocean-going ships. Along the river there are plains, about a quarter of which is covered by tropical forest, as well as wet savannas. The Gambia is no longer in the so-called Sahel, like the north of Senegal, and not yet within the tropics, like its neighbors further south.

There are mangrove swamps in the lower parts of the country.

The banks of the river allow agricultural use, rice, millet and peanuts as well as products for subsistence are grown here.

On the savannahs of the highlands there are no longer any large game species such as elephants, giraffes or lions, which were exterminated during the colonial era.

But the Gambia can still come up with various antelope species, monkeys and above all a rich bird life, which enjoys special protection in various national parks.

Multi-ethnic state on the riverside

Despite its limited area, the Gambia is a real multiethnic state.

Various ethnic groups have settled in the catchment area of ​​the river for centuries, of which the Jola have the longest presence in western Gambia.

The Malinke make up the largest ethnic group with over 30 percent, the Senegalese Wolof are also well represented, especially in the capital Banjul.

The Fulani settle upstream in the east of the country.

The small country has at least twenty languages ​​spoken, nine of which are common.

It is therefore hardly surprising that English remained the official language even after independence and, as a lingua franca, facilitates communication.

In addition, many residents are multilingual.

The favorable conditions for business and trade meet a young population - according to estimates from 2016, around 45 percent of Gambians are under 15 years of age, which is understandable in view of the birth rate of 5.3 children per woman.

However, demographics are putting enormous pressure on the education and health systems and the labor market.

Since salaries are low even for trained employees, the majority of Gambians with professional qualifications can be described as poor to very poor.

Gambia: economy with no significant natural resources

Unlike some better-off African countries, the Gambia's economy cannot rely on raw material deposits.

The basics of the economy are agriculture and fishing, as well as income from tourism.

The country also has to import many products to meet its needs: including rice that is not grown in sufficient quantities, but also other foodstuffs, as well as industrially manufactured goods and machines.

Agriculture

In addition to returnees from compatriots abroad, around two thirds of the Gambians live from agriculture, which is responsible for a quarter of the gross domestic product.

Thanks to the good irrigation options along the course of the river and its tributaries, farmers harvest not only rice and maize, but also manioc and millet, but above all peanuts, which thrive and are exported very well.

The cultivation of oil palms and cotton is less important.

Fishing

Fishing on the coast is important for the inhabitants, but is endangered by trawling on an industrial scale.

Industry

There is no differentiated industry, mainly peanuts are processed.

tourism

An important and expandable source of money is tourism, and not just bathing tourism on the Atlantic, but increasingly visiting the species-rich national parks. The Gambia is becoming more and more popular as a destination among bird watchers, travelers are now finding a suitable infrastructure that has established the Gambia on the tourist map.

The change in government is having a positive impact.

Observers certify that the Gambia has successfully reformed since 2017, which brought the economy a six percent increase in gross domestic product.

However, the corona pandemic brought key tourism to a standstill, as a result of which unemployment and the poverty rate rose to over 40 percent.

According to the UN's classification in the Human Development Index, the West African country is still far behind in 172th place out of a total of 189 positions, despite enormous efforts.

A visible relaxation of the economic situation is expected for 2021 and 2022.

State of Gambia: reform policy since 2017

The Gambia is rated in the middle in terms of democracy, freedom of the press and freedom of expression and fragility and is not considered a state at risk. The Gambian President is both head of government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and is elected every five years. Democratic institutions are able to withstand the economic and demographic challenges to some extent, as demonstrated by the 2017 election of President Jammeh in favor of Adama Barrow. In the run-up to the elections, there were clear threats against the opposition candidate, and the incumbent Jammeh had initially revoked his acceptance of the election result. In the end, it had to be removed by intervention by the West African Economic Alliance.

Adama Barrow has been running the government since 2017 and has worked with his cabinet on a national development plan that will focus primarily on investments in energy and infrastructure projects, in particular in the form of public-private partnership projects.

In addition to the expansion of the electricity supply, the roads are to be improved and the capital's airport expanded.