Gambia

The Republic of the Gambia is a small, narrow West African country with a largely Muslim population, located on the Gambia River. Almost all sides of the 4,361 square mile (1 square mile = 2.59 square kilometers) country are surrounded by Senegal. The majority of Gambia's 1.7 million residents (2010 United Nations estimate), according to the 2003 census, belong to the Mandinka (42%), Fulani (18%), Wolof (16%), Jola (10%), and Serahuli (9%) ethnolinguistic groups. Nationally recognized languages include the official language, English, and the locally spoken Mandinka, Wolof, and Fula. Gambia gained independence from Britain in 1965 and briefly was involved in the federation of Senegambia with Senegal from 1982 to 1989. Today, Senegal and Gambia are on mostly cooperative terms, engaged in trade agreements with occasional infighting over chosen policy. Gambia has been a multiparty republic since the 1996 constitution reinstated presidential elections following a 2-year military regime run by Yahya Jammeh. Jammeh has provided an ironfisted stability to the country as president since 1996, instituting a tightly watched press as well as establishing his own HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) clinic, which was internationally denounced in 2007, after Jammeh claimed to have personally “cured” AIDS patients through his scientifically unproven, dream-inspired healing methods.

The nation's religious makeup is 90% Muslim, 8% Christian, and 2% indigenous practitioners. Muslims in Gambia have traditionally combined local Sufi forms of marabout divination, community ceremony, griot storytelling, and rituals of protection with tenets of the Islamic faith. Marloes Janson notes that the Indian-derived Islamic missionary movement, Tablighi Jamaat, which stresses purification of practices, prayer, and moral standing, is on the rise for youth in Gambia, creating an odd imbalance between traditional views of elder knowledge being deferred to and the younger generation's perception of “true” faith requiring proselytization to the masses. This cultural mix of religious themes is increasingly apparent and the basis of some controversy, as variations in the mix differ from locale to locale.

Today, rural citizens are most likely to find work in agricultural industries, particularly in fishing, animal husbandry, and the farming of groundnuts, rice, cassava, palm kernels, cotton, and sorghum. Due to the capital's strategic waterfront location and the country's affordable pricing by European standards, in recent years, vacationers have used Gambia's beaches for rest and relaxation, with a booming tourist market catering to British nationals. Because the predominantly Muslim nation dresses conservatively, with females wearing long and loose Dutch African prints and batiks, the exposure to British bikinis, alcohol consumption, and more open displays of public affection have led to cultural clashes with many Gambian residents. This, however, has been tolerated because of the nation's reliance on foreign aid and the struggle to financially progress as Gambians seek improvement in literacy, health, transportation, and education.