Gambia-Historical General Assembly Flashcards
First people settle
Jola/Diola tribe: 10% of Gambia Population, SW Gambia,
Location
west Africa, the smallest country in Africa
The fist known recard
the Carthaginian, of his voyage down the west coast of Africa in about BC 470. These links came to an end with the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise and the subsequent expansion of Islam from North Africa.
5th and 8th centuries
most of the Senegambian area was populated by the tribe of the Serahule, and their descendants represent about 9% of today’s Gambian population.
14th century
Mali Empire controled Senegambian
Middle of 15th c..
a group of Mandingos drifted into the area of the Gambia River basin and with them came Islam.
The first European reached the Gambia river
were the Portuguese in 1455. Captains Luiz de Cadamosto and Antoniotti Usodimare traveled a few kilometres upstream before being repulsed by the angry local inhabitants. In 1456 the same group returned and this time managed to travel 20 miles up-river and came across what was later re-named James Island. It is said they had named the island St. Andrews Island after a sailor who had passed away and was buried there. The name was later changed by European colonialists.
Early 15th Century, Portugal
Prince Henry of Portugal began instructing navigators to sail along the west coast of Africa, trying to circumvent the Arab and Muslim domination of the trans-Saharan gold trade, which by that time was at the centerpiece of Portugal’s public finances. Although the Portuguese didn’t establish a settlement, they continued to monopolise trade along the West African coast throughout the 16th century. In their trading posts, salt, ostrich feathers, iron, pots and pans, firearms and gunpowder were exchanged for ivory, ebony, beeswax, gold and slaves. (It’s been suggested that the Gambia River’s name originated from the Portuguese word cambio, meaning ‘exchange,’ or, in this context, ‘trade’).
1600s, Portugal
large agricultural and commercial estates owned by Portuguese, in Brazil, needed more labour, which the Portuguese began to transport from West Africa. Although slavery had existed in Africa for many centuries, the Portuguese developed the trade on a large scale and had a virtual monopoly on it until the mid-16th century, when Britain joined the trade. The success of Portuguese exploration encouraged other Europeans to enter The Gambia River and trade with the local inhabitants. James Island which was to become the main settlement of the Europeans, frequently changed ownership. Thus from the Portuguese, its ownership switched to the Duke of Courland, the Dutch and finally the British. By the 1650s, Portugal had been largely ousted by the French and British.
The first European Settlement in Gambia
was made by Baltic Germans, who built a fort on James Island in 1651. Ten years later, they were ousted by the British, who were themselves ever under threat from French ships, pirates and the mainland African kings. Fort James lost its strategic appeal with the construction of new forts at Barra and Bathurst (now Banjul) at the mouth of the Gambia River, which were better placed to control the movement of ships, though Fort James continued to serve as a slave collection point until the trade was abolished.
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), endorsed by governments at the United Nations in September 2000, aim to improve human well-being by reducing poverty, hunger, child and maternal mortality, ensuring education for all, controlling and managing diseases, tackling gender disparity, ensuring sustainable development and pursuing global partnerships.
The eight MDGs are:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other disease
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
