The Gambia, Introduction

The Gambia, officially known as Republic of Gambia, commonly known as gambia, is the smallest country on mainland of Africa situated on the westcoast. It is a long horizontal strip surrounding the river Gambia and enclosed by senegalto the north,south and east. It has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. It is about the same size as that of Tripura, India. Its national average per capita income using atlas method (est.2003) is 310 $ and rank from the bottmis 22nd. and from the top is 183. In the methods of IMF (est.2007), WB (est.2007), CIA (est.2008) rank/gni........rank/gni..............rank/gni

160/405.....155/377..............167/387

Signs are available of human existence in the GambiaKnown as joa. There are fragments of pottery dated about 5,500 years old.

Ancient Pottery, Gambia

Some ancient people of Europe were in continuous contactwith the west Afrcan region. The first written record about the Gambia is a notationin the writings of Hanno,the carthaginian, in about 470 BC. These links declined the fall of Roman Empire and rise and expansion of Islam from north of Africa.

The modern-day Gambia was once part of the Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires.the first written recrds came from Arab traders in the 9th. and 10th. centuries ADthe reign of the Mali Empire brought world wide recognitiondue to its enormous wealth, scholarships, and civility. The north Afrcan scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta visited the area and said "the negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorence of injustice than any other people."

The Gambia