GAMBIA

Development Theory and Practice

Development Theory and Practice

Introduction

Gambia, officially the Republic of Gambia, is a country in West Africa surrounding the lower reaches of the River Gambia. It has a small stretch of Atlantic coastline to the west, and a long border with Senegal on all other sides. Its capital is Banjul (Golub, 2009). The story goes that the French proposed to the British that would only have possession of territory they could achieve with bullets cannons placed along the river. Although there is no historical evidence of this peculiar definition of frontier, the locals say that the country was well defined, "the bullet of cannon.”

Gambia was part of the Ghana Empire and the Songhai Empire. The first written wills that have come from the region was from some texts written by Arab traders in the ninth and tenth centuries, when Arab traders established a trade route that traded slaves, gold and ivory. In the fifteenth century, the Portuguese inherited this trade by establishing a trade route of the Mali Empire, which belonged to the time zone.

Since the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century the region of Senegal and Gambia rivers was the target of the dispute between English and French. In 1783, the Treaty of Versailles gave possession of the Gambia River to the British, but the French retained an enclave in the region that was only ceded to the UK in 1857. More than 3 million slaves were shipped to the colonies in this region (Golub, 2009). In 1807, slavery was abolished in the British Empire, the British try to finish with the slave trade in Gambia. For this, in 1816 they created the military post of Bathurst, which is known as Banjul. In the ensuing years, Banjul was submitted to the British governor in Sierra, Leone. Later in 1888, Gambia became an independent colony, and a year later, in real colony.

Gambia became independent from the UK in 1965. In 1970, Dawda Jawara became the first president of the new state and was reelected in 1972 and 1977. After independence, Gambia has improved its economic development through the loop in the prices of its main raw export, peanuts, and development of tourism internationally.

Discussion

Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa. A long strip of marshy land that stretches along about 320 km inland from West Africa but never reaches the 50 km width along both banks of ...