So you were looking at a map of West Africa, or just thinking about this country, and wondered
just why does The Gambia exist separate from Senegal?
After all, even keeping colonialism in mind, wouldn’t it just make sense for the two
countries to be one?
The Gambia, for those unfamiliar, only encompasses… well I’m showing you the map, look at it,
it’s basically just the area around a river!
So how did this little strip of land become a country, why did it stay so skinny, and
given how problematic it can be for Senegal, how has it remained independent?
Some countries in this world just don’t make any sense.
Like Belgium, which just… why?
Why, Belgium?
Why?
But in terms of borders, post-colonial Africa is a goldmine of what people subscribed to
channels like mine would call bordergore, although that isn’t always a good thing
for the people on the ground who have to live with these clucked-up borders.
For someone to drive from Senegal’s capital, largest, and coolest-named city, Dakar, to
a city in the south like Ziguinchor, one can either travel 8 hours, but cross a border
twice, or travel all around The Gambia, adding 5 more hours (or you could probably fly, but
that’s no way to hold a land-based country together).
Oh also yes, it’s *The* Gambia, basically because they didn’t want anyone to confuse
them with Zambia (although maybe someone tell Zambia they could be confused with Zimbabwe),
and also the The is often capitalized because the The symbolizes the transition from the
colonial protectorate to The modern republic.
It is unsurprisingly for this reason Senegal has often tried to infiltrate Gambian politics,
but more on that in a bit.
So yes, the answer does indeed have to do with colonialism.
Senegal was a French colony while The Gambia was British.
In fact for two months after independence from the French in 1960, Senegal was briefly
united… with Mali, in the Mali Federation, which the Gambia still wasn’t part of.
However Senegal and The Gambia later united under the Senegambia Confederation in the
80’s… which failed miserably.
So… why?
Looking through a geographical lens, at least part of the reason for the division becomes
clearer, as The Gambia appears to straddle the border between Senegal’s dry, desert
north and its lush, wet south.
But now the question becomes, why does Senegal have this southern portion?
Why does the country wrap its way around The Gambia?
There are two rivers to keep in mind here, the Senegal River and the Gambia River (not
the The Gambia River, just Gambia this time).
The Senegal River flows largely to the north of Senegal, forming the border with Mauritania,
and ending at St. Louis.
The Gambia River however has much more to do with our story, not just with geography
but also the borders.
Before the arrival of Europeans, this whole area hadn’t been united under one kingdom
anyway.
Much of what would become Senegal, pretty much down to the border of modern The Gambia,
was under the rule of the Wolof Kingdom, until their fall in the 19th century.
The first European ventures to this general area were achieved by the Portuguese in the
15th century, though these outposts were quickly abandoned, although they did inspire a decent
name for the area as theirs was a mission of trade, or in Portuguese, cambio.
But by the late 16th century the British and French had started competing to establish
a presence here, as the Senegambia Region became an important post for the so-called
triangular trade, something which I will not be making any jokes about because, aside from
gold and ivory, this route also involved the trading of enslaved people to colonies in
the New World.
The French established trading posts here in the mid-18th century, however during the
Seven Years’ War, or the French and Indian War, or the “oh yeah, that war before the
Revolutionary War” war, British forces took over the French settlements, creating the
crown colony of Senegambia.
However the Brits were a little preoccupied, what with America trying to exist, allowing
the French to swoop back in in 1779.
The Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Paris (the one in 1783) then established that
the French would be left with Saint Louis, Île de Gorée, and the Senegal River region,
while the British would be left with just the Gambia River region.
However no chartered company made enough of a real profit here yet to allow for any real
expansion.
Okay so for this next section I couldn’t find any pictures of either of the people
I mentioned, so I’m just going to represent them with Minecraft villagers.
In 1816 though, Britain sent Alexander Grant (yeah good luck not getting his name confused
with any other historical figures) to establish a foothold in the Gambia River to reestablish
a base for the British navy, mainly to better control the slave trade.
He purchased Banjul Island from Mansa (King) Suling Jatta of a small local kingdom called
Kombo, on which quickly grew the town of Bathurst (now the Gambian capital and largest city,
Banjul).
Ten years later the same king ceded a one-mile strip of land on the northern bank of the
river, though later on that century the British and French started to expand inward, with
Britain taking the Gambia River region and France taking basically everywhere else in
West Africa, and these borders crystallizing with the Berlin Conference.
Senegal was created as a republic in 1958 and broke off from Mali in 1960, while the
Gambia gained its independence in 1965.
In 1981 there was a coup attempt against Gambian president Dawda Jawara, which was put down
after Senegalese forces were allowed to intervene.
Around this, discussions of some sort of unification increased in volume, with the two countries
coming together to create the Senegambia Confederation.
This confederation however was not a single country, rather a loose… well, confederation
between the two countries, still largely separate in all affairs except military and economic.
However while leaders and elites from either country largely supported the confederation,
the same could not have so easily been said about the people of either country.
Gambians in particular developed strong fears of losing power under this arrangement, eventually
leading to the confederation being disbanded in 1989.
One group that strongly benefited from this union however was, unsurprisingly, those in
Senegal’s Casamance region– you know, the part south of The Gambia– whose quality
of life as a result of the confederation’s disbandment gradually worsened, empowering
militant separatist groups, resulting in the ongoing, low-level Casamance conflict, though
which since 2015 has only seen minimal actual fighting.
So if someone ever asks you this question, then aside from recommending them this video,
you can technically tell them, “because America exists”.