Portal:The Gambia

The Gambia Portal

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for the western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.

Its territory is on both sides of the lower reaches of the Gambia River, which flows through the centre of the country and empties into the Atlantic. The national namesake river demarcates the elongated shape of the country, which has an area of 11,300 square kilometres (4,400 sq mi) and a population of 2,422,712 people at the 1st May 2024 Census which is a 30.45% population increase from 2013. The capital city is Banjul, which has the most extensive metropolitan area in the country. The second and third-largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama.

Arab Muslim merchants traded with indigenous West Africans in The Gambia throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1455, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter The Gambia, although they never established significant trade there. The British Empire established a colony in 1765. In 1965, 200 years later, The Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara. Jawara remained the president winning several elections until he was overthrown by Yahya Jammeh in a bloodless coup on July 22, 1994. (Full article...)

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The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in the Sahara, Sahel, and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 40 million people worldwide.

A significant proportion of the Fula—a third, or an estimated 7 to 10 million—are pastoralists, and their ethnic group has the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. The majority of the Fula ethnic group consist of semi-sedentary people, as well as sedentary settled farmers, scholars, artisans, merchants, and nobility. As an ethnic group, they are bound together by the Fula language, their history and their culture. The Fula are almost completely Muslims, with a small minority being Christians and Animists. (Full article...)

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Image 1Fish being smoked in Tanji
Image 2Front and back view of the Gambian dalasi and coins from 5 bututs to 1 dalasi
Image 3Gunjur is a small coastal town in south-western Gambia.
Image 4Arch 22 in the Gambian capital city of Banjul
Image 5A view of Janjanbureh, Gambia
Image 6Gambian postage stamps from 1953
Image 7A Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) in the Abuko Nature Reserve in The Gambia
Image 8A donkey cart at a beach in The Gambia
Image 9Traders at a fish market on the Gambian coast
Image 10Life in Serekunda
Image 11Banjul International Airport

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... that Paschal Eze resigned as editor-in-chief of The Daily Observer, a newspaper in The Gambia, after being pressured by management not to publish stories about a certain politician?

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Portrait of Sir Gilbert by Alexander Bassano, 1893

Sir Gilbert Thomas Carter (also Gilbert-Carter) KCMG (14 January 1848 – 18 January 1927) was an administrative officer in the Royal Navy and a colonial official for the British Empire.

Starting as a Collector of Customs for the Gold Coast, he then became a Treasurer of the Gold Coast and the Gambia. Moving on to colonial administration, he started as the Administrator for the Gambia, where he dealt with the aggression of the native king of Gambia. (Full article...)

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Gambia Regiment Gambia women's national football team Alexander Grant (British Army officer) The Gambia at the 2000 Summer Olympics The Gambia at the 2008 Summer Olympics The Gambia at the 2012 Summer Olympics The Gambia at the 2016 Summer Olympics The Gambia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics