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The Gambia
Constitutional progress led by the People's Progressive Party brought independence to the small river territory in 1965.
- Independence
- February 18, 1965
- Before
- Gambia Colony and Protectorate
- Metropole
- United Kingdom
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- People's Progressive Party (PPP)
- Head of government at independence
- Dawda Jawara
“With my people, I take pride in the thought that, without ever departing from the path of peaceful and orderly progress, the Gambia has taken its rightful place in the family of nations.”
— Sir Dawda Jawara, Prime Minister, September 21, 1965
A Colony Along the River
British presence began in 1816, when Captain Alexander Grant bought Banjul Island and founded Bathurst (now Banjul) as a base against the slave trade. The interior was declared a protectorate in 1894 and placed under indirect rule in 1900. An Anglo-French agreement of 10 August 1889 fixed borders running about ten kilometres either side of the Gambia River, leaving the territory surrounded by French Senegal except on its coast. Britain long assumed that so small a groundnut-dependent territory would eventually merge with Senegal.
Protectorate Politics
Political parties were slow to develop, and the first were based in Bathurst. The Protectorate People's Party, formed in 1959 and soon renamed the People's Progressive Party, gave a voice to the rural majority. Its leader, Dawda Jawara, a veterinary surgeon, was appointed Premier after the PPP won the 1962 elections and became Prime Minister when full internal self-government was granted in October 1963. Revised constitutions in 1954, 1960 and 1962 paved the way to independence.
Independence and Republic
The Gambia became independent on 18 February 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, with Jawara as Prime Minister. A referendum in November 1965 won a majority for a republic but fell short of the two-thirds required; a second in 1970 succeeded, and Jawara became President on 24 April 1970. After a 1981 coup attempt was crushed with Senegalese troops, the two states formed the Senegambia Confederation, which lasted from 1982 to 1989.
Chronology
- 1816 — Bathurst founded by the British
- 10 August 1889 — Anglo-French agreement fixes the Gambian borders
- 1894 — Protectorate declared over the interior
- 1959 — Protectorate People's Party (later PPP) formed
- 1962 — PPP wins elections; Jawara becomes Premier
- 18 February 1965 — Independence
- 24 April 1970 — Republic proclaimed; Jawara becomes President
- 1982–1989 — Senegambia Confederation
Documents
- Treaty Anglo-French Arrangement on the delimitation of possessions on the West Coast of Africa (Paris, 10 August 1889)
- Act The Gambia Independence Act 1964 (UK, c. 93)
Aftermath
The Gambia remained one of Africa's few successful parliamentary democracies, with the PPP winning six successive free elections, until Yahya Jammeh's bloodless military coup in July 1994. Jammeh ruled until his defeat by Adama Barrow in the December 2016 election; after briefly refusing to accept the result, he left the country in January 2017.
Legacy
Despite British doubts that it could stand alone, The Gambia sustained multiparty politics from independence until 1994. Its borders, drawn along the river, remain a vivid example of colonial boundary-making.