Banjul, officially the City of Banjul, is the capital and fourth largest city of The Gambia. It is the centre of the eponymous administrative division which is home to an estimated 400,000 residents, making it The Gambia's largest and most densely populated metropolitan area. Banjul is on St Mary's Island, where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean. The population of the city proper is 31,301, with the Greater Banjul Area, which includes the City of Banjul and the Kanifing Municipal Council, at a population of 413,397. The island is connected to the mainland to the west and the rest of Greater Banjul Area via bridges. There are also ferries linking Banjul to the mainland at the other side of the river.
The first written records of the region come from Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries. In medieval times, the region was dominated by the Trans-Saharan trade and was ruled by the Mali Empire. In the 16th century, the region came to be ruled by the Songhai Empire. The first Europeans to visit the Gambia River were the Portuguese in the 15th century, in 1447, who attempted to settle on the river banks, but no settlement of significant size was established. Descendants of the Portuguese settlers remained until the 18th century. In the late 16th century, English merchants attempted to begin a trade with the Gambia, reporting that it was "a river of secret trade and riches concealed by the Portuguese."
The Gambia River is a major river in West Africa, running 1,120 kilometres (700 mi) from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable for about half that length.
The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, the Gambia and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic groups in Africa. They speak the Manding languages in the Mande language family, which are a lingua franca in much of West Africa. Virtually all of Mandinka people are adherent to Islam, mostly based on the Maliki jurisprudence. They are predominantly subsistence farmers and live in rural villages. Their largest urban center is Bamako, the capital of Mali.
Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly called James Island and St Andrew's Island, is an island in the Gambia River, 30 km (19 mi) from the river mouth and near Juffureh in the Republic of the Gambia. Fort James is located on the island. It is less than 3.2 km from Albreda on the river's northern bank. As an important historical site in the West African slave trade, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with related sites including a ruined Portuguese chapel and a colonial warehouse in Albreda, the Maurel Frères Building in Juffureh, and Fort Bullen and Six-Gun Battery, which are located at the mouth of the Gambia River.
Alvise Cadamosto or Alvise da Ca' da Mosto was a Venetian explorer and slave trader, who was hired by the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator and undertook two known journeys to West Africa in 1455 and 1456, accompanied by the Genoese captain Antoniotto Usodimare. Cadamosto and his companions are credited with the discovery of the Cape Verde Islands and the points along the Guinea coast, from the Gambia River to the Geba River, the greatest leap in the Henrican discoveries since 1446. Cadamosto's accounts of his journeys, including his detailed observations of West African societies, have proven invaluable to historians.
Operation Barras was a British Army operation that took place in Sierra Leone on 10 September 2000, during the late stages of the nation's civil war. The operation aimed to release five British soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and their Sierra Leone Army (SLA) liaison officer, who were being held by a militia group known as the "West Side Boys". The soldiers were part of a patrol that was returning from a visit to Jordanian peacekeepers attached to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) at Masiaka on 25 August 2000 when they turned off the main road and down a track towards the village of Magbeni. There the patrol of twelve men was overwhelmed by a large number of heavily armed rebels, taken prisoner, and transported to Gberi Bana on the opposite side of Rokel Creek.
Albreda is a historic settlement in the Gambia on the north bank of the Gambia River, variously described as a 'trading post' or a 'slave fort'. It is located near Jufureh in the North Bank Division and an arch stands on the beach connecting the two places. As of 2008, it has an estimated population of 1,776.
Nuno Tristão was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave trader, active in the early 1440s, traditionally thought to be the first European to reach the region of Guinea. Legend has it that he sailed as far as Guinea-Bissau, however, more recent historians believe he did not go beyond the Gambia River).
Kaabu (1537–1867), also written Gabu, Ngabou, and N'Gabu, was a federation of Mandinka kingdoms in the Senegambia region centered within modern northeastern Guinea-Bissau, large parts of today's Gambia, and extending into Koussanar, Koumpentoum, and the Casamance in Senegal.
The Gambia Colony and Protectorate was the British colonial administration of The Gambia from 1821 to 1965, part of the British Empire in the New Imperialism era. The colony was the immediate area surrounding Bathurst, and the protectorate was the inland territory situated around the Gambia River, which was declared in 1894.
Sir Samuel Rowe was a British doctor and colonial administrator who was twice governor of Sierra Leone, and also served as administrator of the Gambia, governor of the Gold Coast and governor-general of the West Africa settlements. He was known for his ability to form pro-British relationships with the local people. He was in favour of a vigorous programme of expansion from the coast into the interior in response to French activity in the Sahel region, at times in opposition to Colonial Office policy.
The Gambia Regiment was a British Army colonial regiment drawn from the Gambia Colony and Protectorate that existed between 1901 and 1958. Known as the Gambia Company from 1901 to 1939, and from 1945 to 1950, its strength fluctuated from peacetime and wartime, peaking at two battalions during World War II. It saw active service in both world wars, fighting in German colonies in Kamerun and East Africa during the first, and in Burma against the Japanese in the second. It was raised as part of the larger Royal West African Frontier Force, and was part of the 81st Division during its operations in WWII.
Sir Alexander Grant was a British Army officer who served as the first Commandant of St Mary's Island from 1816 to 1826.
The military history of The Gambia spans from the earliest colonial contact in the 1500s through to the present day. Although it is currently one of the least militarized countries in the world, The Gambia has seen various colonial conflicts, and has contributed soldiers to Britain in World War I and World War II as part of the Gambia Regiment. Since independence in 1965, The Gambia has experienced various peacekeeping operations, as well as the 1994 military coup d'état and the 2017 ECOWAS military intervention.
The Gambia Constabulary, also known as the Gambia Police, was the colonial police force of The Gambia, in existence from 1866 to 1965. The constabulary has been described as paramilitary, and the colonial authorities themselves described it as "semi-military". The constabulary for a period also had responsibility for firefighting in the colony.
Suling Jatta was a Mandinka and jola of King of Kombo during the mid-nineteenth century. Jatta was persuaded to cede a portion of his territory called Kombo North/Saint Mary to the British in 1840 for African-American freed slaves. He led the Soninke during the early part of the Soninke-Marabout War, and after the Storming of Sabbajee in 1853, ceded more land to the British. Jatta was killed after being shot through the heart during a Marabout attack on his capital at Busumbala in 1855. He was buried in Old Busumbala( Tungbung Ngoto). After the war most of the Jatta clan moved to [all over the regions].
Luke Smythe O'Connor was a British army officer and colonial administrator. He served as Governor of the Gambia from 1852 to 1859, and held senior roles in the Colony of Jamaica during the 1860s, including President of the Privy Council of Jamaica.
The Soninke-Marabout War of 1850 to 1856 was a civil war between factions of the Kingdom of Kombo in the Gambia. The war resulted from a dispute between the Soninke people – pagans who were the ruling class in Kombo – and the Marabouts – a radical Muslim group with no representation in the governance of Kombo, partially inspired by Jihad. The British Empire, to whom parts of Kombo had been ceded by the Soninke since 1816, was initially reluctant to intervene. However, during the course of the war, the British intervened on two occasions. British forces stormed the Marabout town of Sabbajee twice, in 1853, and again in 1855, razing the town following the second intervention.
The Kingdom of Niumi, also known as the Kingdom of Barra, was a West African nation at the Gambia River. Niumi was located at the mouth of the river, and extended nearly 60 kilometres (40 mi) along and north of its north bank. For much of its existence, its eastern border was occupied by the Kingdom of Baddibu, and its northern border was open savanna leading to Senegal. Formally becoming part of the Gambia Colony and Protectorate in 1897, the Kingdom now forms the Upper Niumi and Lower Niumi districts of the North Bank Division in The Gambia.
British Empire