50 Fun Facts About The Gambia

Gambian voters have long chosen a president by dropping which object into a drum bearing their candidate's picture?

A marble goes into the chosen candidate's drum and a bell confirms each vote, a system introduced in the 1960s.

The Gambia, a ribbon of land following a single river, holds which record among the countries of mainland Africa?

Smallest by area on the African mainland, The Gambia covers about 11,300 square kilometres and has an Atlantic shoreline of only 80 kilometres.

The Gambia is one of only two countries whose official short name begins with 'The'; which is the other?

The Bahamas is the only other country that officially keeps the definite article in its short English name, a detail Gambian leaders asked Britain to preserve before independence.

Which bestselling 1976 novel follows Kunta Kinte, a young man captured in The Gambia and sold into slavery in America?

Roots, by Alex Haley, made the Gambian village of Juffureh, named in the book as Kunta Kinte's birthplace, a major tourist destination.

Domoda, widely regarded as The Gambia's national dish, is a stew thickened with a paste made from what?

Peanuts, known locally as groundnuts, give domoda its thick sauce, and the same crop was long The Gambia's main export earner.

At the sacred Kachikally pool in the Gambian town of Bakau, visitors can walk up to and touch which animals?

Crocodiles roam freely at Kachikally, one of three sacred pools in The Gambia where people come to pray for fertility.

Which island city at the mouth of the Gambia River serves as the capital of The Gambia?

Banjul sits on St Mary's Island and is linked to the mainland by bridges, with ferries crossing to the river's far bank.

The Gambia's only international airport was for years a designated emergency landing site for which kind of craft?

Space Shuttles on low-inclination launches could have diverted to the Gambian runway, which NASA upgraded with landing aids and kept on standby until 2002.

In 1964 The Gambia asked to keep 'The' in its name partly to avoid confusion with which African country?

Zambia had just become independent under its new name, so the Gambian prime minister wrote to Britain's place-names committee asking that the article stay.

Which combat sport, shared with neighbouring Senegal, is regarded as the national sport of The Gambia?

Wrestling is The Gambia's traditional national sport, and three of the six athletes the country sent to the 1988 Seoul Olympics were wrestlers.

Which nickname does The Gambia's official tourism board use to market the country to holidaymakers?

The Smiling Coast of Africa is the full slogan, which the Gambia Tourism Board uses to greet visitors on its official travel website.

Until 1973 The Gambia's capital carried which name, honouring a British colonial secretary of the 1810s?

Bathurst honoured Henry Bathurst, the 3rd Earl, who ran Britain's War and Colonies office when the settlement was founded as a garrison post in 1816.

Kunta Kinteh Island in the Gambia River carried which English prince's first name until it was renamed in 2011?

James Island honoured the Duke of York, the future King James II, and its fort is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Wassu site in The Gambia, on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 2006, preserves which kind of ancient monument?

Stone circles at Wassu are part of a band of over 1,000 such monuments, the largest concentration seen anywhere in the world.

Which currency, divided into 100 bututs, has The Gambia used since it gave up its own pound in 1971?

Dalasi notes and coins replaced the Gambian pound at five to one, so each new unit was worth four old shillings.

Dawda Jawara, who led The Gambia to independence in 1965, had trained in Glasgow for which profession?

Veterinarian Dawda Jawara came home to work as a government veterinary officer, then entered politics and led the country for three decades.

Which 29-year-old army lieutenant seized power in The Gambia in a 1994 coup and went on to rule for 22 years?

Yahya Jammeh took over without bloodshed in July 1994, lost an election in December 2016 and left the country the following month.

Which winner of The Gambia's 2016 election was sworn in at an embassy abroad while his defeated rival clung to office?

Adama Barrow, a property developer who once worked in security at an Argos store in London, took the oath at the Gambian embassy in Dakar.

Which international body did The Gambia quit in 2013, calling it a neo-colonial institution, before rejoining in 2018?

The Commonwealth lost The Gambia after 48 years of membership, and a new government began the process of returning within weeks of taking office in 2017.

Who remained The Gambia's head of state for five years after independence in 1965, until the constitution was rewritten?

Elizabeth II reigned as Queen of The Gambia until 1970, when a second referendum succeeded where the first had fallen short of a two-thirds majority.

The Gambia's long, narrow borders were fixed in 1889 by an agreement between Britain and which other colonial power?

France kept the land all around, which is why English-speaking Gambia is a sliver inside French-speaking Senegal.

An island in the Gambia River was leased in 1651 by the Duchy of Courland, which lay in which present-day country?

Latvia was home to the wealthy Baltic duchy, which held its Gambian outpost for less than a decade before England took it over.

Which Scottish explorer set out from the Gambia River in 1795 on a quest to trace the course of the Niger?

Mungo Park sailed 200 miles up the Gambia to a British trading station, then struck out into the interior with two local guides.

In 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt slept a night in The Gambia on his way to which wartime Allied conference?

Casablanca was his destination, and the night in the Gambian capital made Roosevelt the first US president to visit Africa while in office.

A 1981 coup attempt in The Gambia began while President Dawda Jawara was in London as a guest at which event?

A royal wedding, that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, had drawn Jawara away when rebels calling themselves the National Revolutionary Council struck.

Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda spent nine years, from 2012 to 2021, as chief prosecutor of which body?

International Criminal Court prosecutor was a promotion for Bensouda, who had been its deputy prosecutor since 2004 and earlier served as Gambian justice minister.

Gambian musician Sona Jobarteh plays which 21-string instrument, traditionally handed down from father to son?

Kora playing was a male preserve until Jobarteh became the first woman from one of West Africa's five principal kora families to play it professionally.

Which nickname belongs to The Gambia's national football team, quarter-finalists at their first Africa Cup of Nations?

The Scorpions arrived as the lowest-ranked side at the 2021 tournament, yet beat Tunisia in the group stage and went out only to hosts Cameroon.

Which animals stand on either side of the shield, holding an axe and a hoe, on The Gambia's coat of arms?

Lions recall The Gambia's years under the British crown, while the axe and hoe stand for the farming that feeds the country.

On The Gambia's flag the blue band stands for the river and the green for forest; what does the red band evoke?

The sun is what the red band evokes, a nod to how close The Gambia lies to the Equator, and the same colour also stands for the savanna.

Since 1979, rescued animals of which species have been returned to the wild on the Gambia River's Baboon Islands?

Chimpanzees seized from the illegal animal trade are released on the islands, which lie inside a national park that is closed to the public.

Which hobby draws specialist tourists to The Gambia, whose river system is home to more than 560 recorded species?

Birdwatching tours head for reserves such as Abuko near the shore and Kiang West further inland, where migrants join the resident flocks.

The Gambia's tourist industry began in 1965 with the arrival of about 300 holidaymakers from which country?

Sweden supplied the pioneers because tour organiser Bertil Harding saw The Gambia as an escape from the harsh Scandinavian winter.

The Gambia has never used daylight saving and keeps which standard on its clocks all year round?

Greenwich Mean Time applies all year, so Gambian clocks match London's in winter and fall an hour behind when British Summer Time begins.

The Gambia River rises on the Fouta Djallon plateau in which country before flowing west to the Atlantic?

Guinea is where the 1,120-kilometre river begins, and only about half of that length can be navigated by boat.

Which medieval West African power, famed for the gold of Mansa Musa, ruled most of what is now The Gambia?

Mali Empire rule reached the river by the early 14th century, and European visitors in the 1450s found the peoples along it still subject to its ruler.

An expedition sent by which European kingdom carried the first Europeans to enter the Gambia River, in 1455?

Portugal's ships arrived first but never built up much trade, and in 1588 a claimant to its throne sold English merchants exclusive rights on the river.

In Gambian folklore, which dragon-like creature is said to haunt the swamps and creeks of the lower river?

Ninki Nanka stories kept many people away from fertile swamps, and some tellings give it mirror-like scales, a giraffe's long neck and a horse's head with three horns.

Benachin, a Gambian favourite whose Wolof name means 'one pot', is better known across West Africa by which name?

Jollof rice takes its common name from the Wolof people, in whose language the Gambian version is named for the single pot it is cooked in.

Tapalapa, a wood-fired loaf often eaten for breakfast in The Gambia, is modelled on which European bread?

Baguette-shaped but slightly smaller, tapalapa is baked in big mud-brick ovens and eaten with beans, fish or eggs.

Which shellfish do Gambian women gather from the mangroves near the capital, then roast and sell?

Oysters grow among the mangroves of the Tanbi wetlands, and the harvesters cook them over firewood gathered on the same trips.

Which hereditary storytellers and praise singers, known as jali in Mandinka, keep The Gambia's oral history alive?

Griots serve as historians, genealogists and musicians in one, passing their knowledge down within families.

Fort Bullen, raised by the British at the mouth of the Gambia River in 1826, was built for which unusual purpose?

Stopping the slave trade became British policy after the 1807 Slave Trade Act, and the fort faces an 1816 gun battery built across the river mouth for the same job.

At its widest point, The Gambia measures only about how many miles from north to south?

30 miles, or just under 50 kilometres, is the most that separates the two borders, because the frontier was drawn to shadow the river at a short distance from each bank.

Which regional bloc sent troops into The Gambia in January 2017 after a defeated president refused to hand over power?

ECOWAS forces crossed the border on the day the election winner was sworn in abroad, and the loser agreed to go within two days.

Which kind of transport link is entirely absent from The Gambia, where the river is crossed by ferry or bridge?

A railway is the one thing missing: The Gambia gets by on roads, about 390 kilometres of waterways and a single international airport.

Which British rapper, known for the hit single Did You See, was born in London to Gambian parents?

J Hus grew up in the Stratford district, and his debut album Common Sense was named the best UK album of 2017 by Complex.

In December 2015 The Gambia's president declared the country to be which kind of state, a label dropped in 2017?

An Islamic republic existed in name only, since the constitution stayed secular, and the next president removed the word from the country's title within days of returning home.

The Gambia, at about 11,300 square kilometres, is only slightly bigger than which Caribbean island?

Jamaica is a close match in size, though about a ninth of The Gambia's surface is covered by water.

Janjanbureh, an island town in the Gambia River founded in 1823 for freed slaves, was known by which name until 1995?

Georgetown was once the second-largest town in the country, and the island it stands on, long called MacCarthy Island, took the same new name in 1995.