Holidays to Gambia
Many tourists like to visit the African nation of Gambia to see the famous cities and tourist attractions of the African nation. Some may want to see the culture, history, architecture, historical areas, of the nation. Some may want to see the sports, culture and entertainment of the nation. Some tourists may want to enjoy the cities or the rural regions. Some may want a cabin, cottage, villa, house, apartment, hotel, or other accommodation to stay at. They may want accommodation that has good prices and good access to transport and parking.
The Gambia is a very small and narrow country with the border based on the Gambia River. The country is less than 48km wide at its greatest width. The country's present boundaries were defined in 1889 after an agreement between the United Kingdom and France. The distance of the borders from the Gambia River correspond to the area that British naval cannon of the time could reach from the river's channel. Apart from its coastline, where The Gambia borders the Atlantic Ocean, it is an enclave of Senegal and by far the smallest country on the continent of Africa.
In the 10th century, communities of Muslim merchants and scholars became established in several of West Africa’s commercial centres; trans-Saharan trade routes for gold, ivory, slaves, and trade followed. The first written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the ninth and tenth centuries AD.
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. Between 1651-1661
some parts of Gambia were under Courland's rule, bought by prince Jacob Kettler,
who was a Polish vassal.
A map of James Island and Fort Gambia.
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 (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 USA Army Air Corps and a port of call for Allied naval convoys. USA 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 as head of state.
Banjul (formerly Bathurst), officially the City of Banjul, is the capital of The Gambia, and located within the division of the same name. The population of the Greater Banjul Area, which includes the City of Banjul and the Kanifing Municipal Council. It is located on St Mary's Island (Banjul Island) where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean. The island is connected to the mainland by passenger and vehicle ferries to the north and bridges to the south. In 1816, the British founded Banjul as a trading post and base for suppressing the slave trade. It was first named Bathurst after Henry Bathurst, the secretary of the British Colonial Office, but was changed to Banjul in 1973.
The Gambia River is a major river in Africa, running 1130 km from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable for about half that length.
The river is known largely because of The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, which consists of little more than the downstream half of the river and its two banks.
From the Fouta Djallon, the river runs northwest into the Tambacounda province of Senegal, where it flows through the Parc National du Niokolo Koba, then is joined by the Nieri Ko and Koulountou before entering The Gambia at Fatoto. At this point the river runs generally west, but in a meandering course with a number of oxbows, and about 100 km from its mouth it gradually widens, to over 10 km wide where it meets the sea.
List of cities in the Gambia include or have included ; Abuko, Albreda, Aljamdu, Allunhari, Amdalai, Baja Kunda, Bakadaji, Bakau, Bakindick Mandinka, Bambali, Bani, The Gambia, Banjul, Banjulunding, Bansang, Bantanto, Banyakang, Barajally, Baro Kunda, Barra, Gambia, Basse Santa Su, Brikama, Brufut, Fajara, Farafenni, Janjanbureh, Jigimar, Jufureh, Kalagi, Kanifing, Kanilai, Kerewan, Kololi, Kuntaur, Lamin, North Bank Division, Gambia, Lamin, Western Division, Gambia, Mansa Konko, Nema Kunku, Pakali Ba, Sankandi, Serekunda, Soma, The Gambia, Sukuta, Tanji, Yundum
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