The Gambia

The Gambia River was a highway into West Africa for gold, ivory, and — for more than 200 years — enslaved people. European forts and trading posts dotted its lower reaches: the Portuguese first, then the British and the French, who fought over the river mouth. A small island in the river, long called James Island and now renamed Kunta Kinteh Island, was a British fortified base central to that trade, and its story was carried worldwide by Alex Haley's book "Roots."

Britain gained the river by treaty in 1783 and built it into a colony, creating a narrow colony that made no geographic sense — a sliver of land following the water through French-held Senegal. The Gambia became independent in 1965 and a republic in 1970 under Dawda Jawara, whose long, relatively liberal presidency was ended by a 1994 coup.

Yahya Jammeh then ruled for 22 years, a period of disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and eccentric decrees. When he lost the 2016 election to Adama Barrow and refused to step down, a regional military force and diplomatic pressure eased him into exile in early 2017 — an unusually peaceful end to a dictatorship, followed by a truth-and-reconciliation process. Barrow was re-elected in 2021.

The Gambia's peoples — Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, Jola, Serer, and others — are shared with Senegal, and the two countries are culturally almost one, briefly joined as "Senegambia" in the 1980s. Islam is the religion of about 95 percent of Gambians, practised in a relaxed, Sufi-influenced form, with a Christian minority and traditional beliefs woven through both.

Griots (jalis), hereditary musicians and oral historians, are central to cultural life, and the kora — a 21-string harp-lute — is the Gambia's great instrument, played by jali families such as the Susos. Wrestling, the national sport, drumming, and elaborate naming ceremonies and weddings mark the social calendar.

Hospitality is a strong value: sharing food from a common bowl, long greetings, and attaya (the three rounds of sweet green tea, brewed slowly over charcoal) are the fabric of daily social life. Respect for elders and for religious observance is expected, and modest dress is appreciated outside the beach zone.

About half of Gambians live in the built-up coastal area around Serekunda, the largest town, and the small capital, Banjul, on an island at the river mouth. The rest live in farming villages strung along the river, growing groundnuts — the historic cash crop and long the mainstay of export earnings — along with rice, vegetables, and fishing the river and the sea.

The Gambia is one of the poorer countries in the world, with an economy dependent on agriculture, on winter-sun tourism from Europe, and on remittances from a large diaspora. Many young men attempt the dangerous irregular journey to Europe, and the money and the losses both shape village life.

Daily life follows the farming and fishing seasons, the five daily prayers, market day, and the shared evening meal, with the tourist strip a distinct world of hotels and beach bars along a few kilometres of coast.

Gambian cooking is West African and shared with Senegal. Domoda, a groundnut stew with meat or fish over rice, and benachin (called thieboudienne in Senegal), rice cooked in a rich tomato-and-fish sauce with vegetables, are the staples. Yassa, chicken or fish in a tangy onion-and-mustard sauce, and superkanja, an okra-and-palm-oil stew, are common.

Rice is the everyday base; millet and findi (fonio) porridge feature up-country. Fresh and smoked fish from the river and sea, and oysters gathered from the mangrove roots, are important proteins. Street food includes akara (bean fritters), tapalapa bread, and grilled meat.

Attaya green tea is the social drink; wonjo (hibiscus), baobab juice, and ginger drinks are the non-alcoholic favourites, with locally brewed and imported beer available on the coast.

Most visitors base themselves on the short Atlantic coast, where a strip of beach resorts around Kololi, Kotu, and Cape Point offers winter sun, seafood, and nightlife, plus easy day trips: the Abuko Nature Reserve, the Kachikally sacred crocodile pool at Bakau, the Tanji fishing village and bird reserve, and the craft markets.

The history is up the river. Kunta Kinteh Island and its associated sites — the ruined fort on the island, a colonial warehouse at Albreda and the Maurel Frères building at Juffureh on the north bank — form a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the emotional core of a Gambian visit, reached by boat. Further upriver, near Janjanbureh, the stone circles of Wassu — part of a wider UNESCO listing spanning Senegal — are ancient burial monuments.

The Gambia is one of Africa's most accessible birdwatching destinations, with more than 500 species recorded in a tiny area — best seen on the river, in the mangroves, at Kotu Creek, and in the Kiang West and River Gambia national parks further east, the latter home to a chimpanzee rehabilitation project on its islands, hippos, and, occasionally, manatees.