Gambia

Gambia follows a single river. The country is a narrow strip on both banks of the River Gambia, and apart from its short coast it is wholly enclosed by Senegal. It is the smallest country on the African mainland. Near the sea the river is wide and salty, fringed by mangrove creeks called bolongs where oysters cling to the roots; upstream come rice fields, savanna and the islands of the River Gambia National Park, where rescued chimpanzees live.

Stone circles at Wassu, raised over a thousand years ago, mark old burial grounds; later the river lay within the reach of the Mali Empire and the Mandinka kingdom of Kaabu. An island fort first built by the Baltic duchy of Courland in 1651 passed to the English and shipped captives across the Atlantic. Britain founded Bathurst at the river mouth in 1816, and independence came in February 1965. Alex Haley’s Roots traced his ancestor Kunta Kinte to Juffureh.

Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Jola and Serahule people live side by side, most of them Muslim, and griots sing family histories to the kora, a harp-lute strung across a large gourd. Wrestling draws crowds to village grounds. Benachin, rice cooked in one pot with fish and vegetables, and domoda, a groundnut stew, are everyday meals. Groundnuts are the old export crop, boats land bonga along the coast, and European visitors escaping winter fill the beach hotels around Kololi.