History of the Gambia

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History of the Gambia

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Mali Empire Songhai Empire Couronian Colonization Albreda Gambia Colony and Protectorate Gambia Independence Act 1964 Commonwealth realm Senegambia Confederation 1994 Gambian coup d'état 2014 Gambian coup d'état attempt
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Map of Gambia

The modern-day Gambia was once part of the Mali and Songhai Empires.

Early history

A map of James Island and Fort Gambia

It is possible that the Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator sailed as far as the Gambia on an expedition in the sixth or fifth century BC.^[1]

However, the first verfiable written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. In medieval times the area was dominated by the trans-Saharan trade. The Mali Empire, most renowned for the Mandinka ruler Mansa Kankan Musa, brought worldwide recognition to the region due to its enormous wealth, scholarship, and civility. The North African scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta visited the area in 1352 and said this about its inhabitants:

The negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.^[2]

From the early 13th century, the Kouroukan Fouga, Mali's constitution, was the law of the land. The Songhai Empire, named after the Songhai people whose king assumed formal control of the Empire, came to dominate the region in the 16th century. As time went on the area began to suffer from continuous Moroccan and Portuguese invasion and looting. By the end of the 16th century, as the raids continued, the empire collapsed and was conquered and claimed by Portugal.

Gradual British Acquisition

An 1880 stamp from Gambia

In 1588 English merchants purchased from the Portuguese the exclusive right to trade between the rivers Senegal and Gambia.^[3] The transaction was confirmed for a period of ten years by Letters Patent issued by Queen Elizabeth I. Letters Patent conferring exclusive trading rights in the River Gambia were granted in 1598, 1618 and 1632.^[4] The first British settlement was established at Fort James on Dog Island (then called St. Andrew's Island) by a British chartered company, the Adventurers of London Trading with Africa, the grantees of the Letters Patent of 1618.^[5] In that year, an expedition commanded by George Thompson wss exploring the River Gambia when the crew of the ship were massacred by the Portuguese.^[6] The grantees then lost interest in the Gambia.

In 1651 the Government of the Commonwealth of England granted a further patent to London merchants, but they in their turn abandoned the enterprises when Prince Rupert sailed into the Gambia and captured their vessels.^[7] In 1651 native chiefs ceded Dog Island, Half-Die (then called Banyon Point), Jufureh and Gasson to the Duchy of Courland under Jacob Kettler, the Duke of Courland.^[8] Merchants and missionaries were then sent out and forts were erected at Dog Island and at Half-Die.

In 1662 new Letters Patent were granted to another British company, the Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa.^[9] They dispatched an expedition which, after occupying Dog Island, compelled the Duke of Courland's small garrison to surrender, took possession of Kunta Kinteh Island (then named James Island).^[10]

A period of competition with France followed. Albreda was established as a French settlement. However, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French recognised the British title to Kunta Kinteh Island and settlements in the River Gambia.^[11]

By an Act of Parliament in 1765,^[12] the forts and settlements belonging to the Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa were transferred to the Crown. From 1765 until 1783 the Gambia formed part of the Crown Colony of Senegambia. In 1783 Senegambia was abolished.^[13] The Gambia was again transferred the Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa. However, the Royal Adventurers made no attempt to administer the Gambia.^[14]

The exact date on which Banjul, then called St. Mary's Island, was ceded to the British is not clear. It is on record that in 1806 it was purchased by the British Government.^[15] On 23 April 1816, a British officer called Captain Grant made a treaty with the King of Kombo for its cession to the United Kingdom.^[16] A further treaty made in 1827 confirmed possession of the island "and adjoining territory", as the earlier treaty could not be found.^[17]

In 1823 MacCarthy Island was ceded to the United Kingdom by King Collie and others.^[18] In 1826 MacCarthy Island was established as a settlement for liberated slaves. In 1826 the north bank of the River Gambia was ceded by the King of Barra. The town of Fattatenda, with the surrounding district, was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1829.^[19] In 1840 and 1853 there were cessions of areas of the mainland adjoining Banjul by the King of Kombo. In 1850 the King of Barra ceded sovereignty over the French enclave of Albreda, subject to French rights, which were, however ceded to the United Kingdom in 1857.^[20]

In 1887, the Emir of Betente ceded his territory and a number of treaties of protection were concluded with the principal chiefs living along the banks of the River Gambia.^[21] In some small cases small tracts of land were ceded but it was not practicable to administer them as part of the Colony, and beginning in 1895, there was a series of Ordinances bringing them under the Protectorate system of administration; but this local legislation could not, of course, nullify the cession. From 1902 the whole of the Gambia was administered as a Protectorate, except St. Mary's Island (Banjul) and, from 1947, the Kombo St. Mary Division of the Colony.^[22]

Moving Boundaries and Status

During the period 1821 through 1888, there was constant merging and separation of the Colony of the Gold Coast, Colony of The Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Lagos. In 1821 the Gambia along with Gold Coast became part of Sierra Leone.^[23] In 1843 the Gambia became a separate colony under Letters Patent dated 24 June 1843. A final severance of the Gambia from Sierra Leone took place in 1888 under Letters Patent dated 28 November 1888.^[24]

Slavery

As many as three million slaves may have been taken from the region during the three centuries that the Atlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by Arab traders before and during 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 labour 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 trade in the Gambia. They established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816. 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 colonial entity.

20th century on

1881 map of Senegambia Full resolution

The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901 and gradually progressed toward self-government. A 1906 ordinance abolished slavery.

During the Second World War, Gambian troops fought with the Allies in Burma. Banjul served as an air stop for the US 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 the Second World War, the pace of constitutional reform increased. Following general elections in 1962, full internal self-governance was granted in the following year. The Gambia achieved independence on 18 February 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth. Shortly thereafter, the government held a referendum proposing that an elected president replace the Gambian monarch as head of state. The referendum failed to obtain the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results received widespread attention abroad as testimony to the Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, and civil rights and liberties. On 24 April 1970, the Gambia became a republic within the Commonwealth, following a second referendum, with Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara as head of state.

Until a military coup in July 1994, the Gambia was led by President Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was first shattered 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.

Arch 22 monument, a memorial of the 1994 coup

In the aftermath of the attempted coup, Senegal and the Gambia signed the 1982 Treaty of Confederation. The Senegambia Confederation came into existence; it aimed eventually to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. The Gambia withdrew from the confederation in 1989.

In July 1994, Yahya Jammeh led a coup d'état that deposed the Jawara government. Between 1994 and 1996, Jammeh ruled as head of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) and banned opposition political activity. The AFPRC announced a transition plan for a return to democratic civilian rule, establishing the Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) in 1996 to conduct national elections. After a constitutional referendum in August, presidential and parliamentary elections were held. Jammeh was sworn into office as president on 6 November 1996. On 17 April 1997 the PIEC transformed into the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Jammeh won both the 2001 and 2006 elections. He was re-elected as president in 2011. The People's Republic of China cut ties with the Gambia in 1995 after the latter established diplomatic links with the Republic of China. The Gambia was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council from 1998 to 1999.

On 2 October 2013, the Gambian interior minister announced that the Gambia would leave the Commonwealth of Nations with immediate effect, stating that they would "never again be part of a neo-colonial organization"^[25]

In December 2014, an attempted coup was launched to overthrow President Jammeh.^[26]

Notes

↑ Harden, Donald (1971) [First published 1962]. The Phoenicians. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
↑ Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354 pg323-335
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ 5 G. 3, c.44
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ The Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. I. p. 7
↑ Gambia Annual Report, 1960 and 1961, p. 70
↑ The Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. I. p. 11
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ The Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. I. p. 18
↑ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. Pp. 782-785.
↑ The West Africa Act, 1881 (1 & 2 G. 4, c. 28)
↑ Letters Patent, No. 28, 1888; State Pp., Vol. 81, pp. 140 and 145
↑ "UK regrets The Gambia's withdrawal from Commonwealth". BBC News. 3 October 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
↑ Rice, Andrew (21 July 2015). "The reckless plot to overthrow Africa's most absurd dictator". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.

External links

History of Africa

Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

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Legend: Current territory; Former territory; * Now a Commonwealth realm; Now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; Historical flags of the British Empire

Europe

1542–1800 Ireland (integrated into UK) 1708–1757 Minorca Since 1713 Gibraltar 1763–1782 Minorca 1798–1802 Minorca 1800–1813 Malta (Protectorate) 1813–1964 Malta (Colony) 1807–1890 Heligoland 1809–1864 Ionian Islands 1878–1960 Cyprus 1921–1937 Irish Free State

North America

17th century and before		18th century	19th and 20th century

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1. Occupied jointly with the United States.
2. In 1931, Canada and other British dominions obtained self-government through the Statute of Westminster. See Name of Canada.
3. Gave up self-rule in 1934, but remained a de jure Dominion until it joined Canada in 1949.

South America

1631–1641 Providence Island colony 1651–1667 Willoughbyland (Suriname) 1670–1688 Saint Andrew and Providence Islands⁴ 1831–1966 British Guiana (Guyana) Since 1833 Falkland Islands⁵ Since 1908 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands⁵

4. Now the one the departments of Colombia. 5. Occupied by Argentina during the Falklands War of April–June 1982.

Africa

17th and 18th centuries	19th century		20th century

Since 1658 Saint Helena¹⁴ 1792–1961 Sierra Leone 1795–1803 Cape Colony	Since 1815 Ascension Island¹⁴ Since 1816 Tristan da Cunha¹⁴ 1806–1910 Cape Colony 1807–1808 Madeira 1810–1968 Mauritius 1816–1965 The Gambia 1856–1910 Natal 1862–1906 Lagos Colony 1868–1966 Basutoland (Lesotho) 1874–1957 Gold Coast (Ghana) 1882–1922 Egypt	1884–1900 Oil Rivers/Niger Coast 1884–1966 Bechuanaland (Botswana) 1884–1960 British Somaliland 1887–1897 Zululand 1890–1962 Uganda 1890–1963 Zanzibar (Tanzania) 1891–1964 Nyasaland (Malawi) 1891–1907 British Central Africa Protectorate 1893–1968 Swaziland 1895–1920 East Africa Protectorate 1899–1956 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	1900–1914 Northern Nigeria 1900–1914 Southern Nigeria 1900–1910 Orange River Colony 1900–1910 Transvaal Colony 1903–1976 Seychelles 1910–1931 South Africa 1914–1960 Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria (Nigeria) 1915–1931 South-West Africa (Namibia) 1919–1961 British Cameroons (Cameroon)⁶ 1920–1963 Kenya 1922–1961 Tanganyika (Tanzania)⁶ 1923–1965 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)⁷ 1924–1964 Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) 1979–1980 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)⁷

6. League of Nations mandate.
7. Self-governing Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence in 1965 (as Rhodesia) and continued as an unrecognised state until the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement. After recognised independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was a member of the Commonwealth until it withdrew in 2003.

Asia

17th and 18th century	19th century		20th century

1685–1824 Bencoolen 1702–1705 Pulo Condore 1757–1947 Bengal (West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh) 1762–1764 Manila and Cavite 1781-1784 Padang (Indonesia) 1786–1946 Penang (Malaysia) 1795–1948 Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1795-1819 Padang (Indonesia) 1796–1965 Maldives	1812–1824 Banka (Sumatra) and Billiton (Sumatra) 1819–1826 British Malaya (West Malaysia and Singapore) 1826–1946 Straits Settlements (Malaysia and Singapore) 1839–1967 Colony of Aden 1839–1842 Afghanistan 1841–1997 Hong Kong 1841–1946 Kingdom of Sarawak (Malaysia) 1848–1946 Labuan (Malaysia) 1858–1947 British India (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Burma) 1874–1963 British Borneo (East Malaysia and Brunei)	1879–1919 Afghanistan (protectorate) 1882–1963 British North Borneo (Malaysia) 1885–1946 Unfederated Malay States 1888–1984 Sultanate of Brunei 1891–1971 Muscat and Oman protectorate 1892–1971 Trucial States 1895–1946 Federated Malay States 1898–1930 Weihai Garrison 1878–1960 Cyprus	1907–1949 Bhutan (protectorate) 1918–1961 Sheikhdom of Kuwait 1920–1932 Iraq⁸ 1921–1946 Transjordan⁸ 1923–1948 Palestine⁸ 1945–1946 South Vietnam 1946–1963 North Borneo (Malaysia) 1946–1963 Sarawak (Malaysia) 1946–1963 Singapore 1946–1948 Malayan Union 1948–1957 Federation of Malaya (Malaysia) Since 1960 Akrotiri and Dhekelia (before as part of Cyprus) Since 1965 British Indian Ocean Territory (before as part of Mauritius and the Seychelles)

⁸ League of Nations mandate. Iraq's mandate was not enacted and replaced by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty

Oceania

18th and 19th centuries		20th century

1788–1901 New South Wales 1803–1901 Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania 1807–1863 Auckland Islands⁹ 1824–1980 New Hebrides (Vanuatu) 1824–1901 Queensland 1829–1901 Swan River Colony/Western Australia 1836–1901 South Australia since 1838 Pitcairn Islands	1841–1907 Colony of New Zealand 1851–1901 Victoria 1874–1970 Fiji¹⁰ 1877–1976 British Western Pacific Territories 1884–1949 Territory of Papua 1888–1901 Kingdom of Rarotonga/Cook Islands Federation⁹ 1889–1948 Union Islands (Tokelau)⁹ 1892–1979 Gilbert and Ellice Islands¹¹ 1893–1978 British Solomon Islands¹²	1900–1970 Tonga (protected state) 1900–1974 Niue⁹ 1901–1942 *Commonwealth of Australia 1907–1953 *Dominion of New Zealand 1919–1942 and 1945–1968 Nauru 1919–1949 Territory of New Guinea 1949–1975 Territory of Papua and New Guinea¹³

9. Now part of the *Realm of New Zealand.
10. Suspended member.
11. Now Kiribati and *Tuvalu.
12. Now the *Solomon Islands.
13. Now *Papua New Guinea.

Antarctica and South Atlantic

Since 1658 Saint Helena¹⁴ Since 1815 Ascension Island¹⁴ Since 1816 Tristan da Cunha¹⁴ Since 1908 British Antarctic Territory¹⁵ 1841–1933 Australian Antarctic Territory (transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia) 1841–1947 Ross Dependency (transferred to the Realm of New Zealand)

14. Since 2009 part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Ascension Island (1922–) and Tristan da Cunha (1938–) were previously dependencies of Saint Helena. 15. Both claimed in 1908; territories formed in 1962 (British Antarctic Territory) and 1985 (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands).

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