The Gambia News, The Gambia Weather and Links

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The New York Times, November 1, 1885, p.12:

THE GAMBIA'S FEVER SWAMP.

    BATHURST [Banjul], River Gambia, Aug. 11.—This will probably be our last sight of Africa till we steam past Cape Verde [Cap-Vert] toward the Congo next May. For the present, what with shipwrecks, fevers, short provisions, ants, ulcers, bad water, and other "local industries," we have had almost enough of it, and the dismal series is appropriately closed by our visit to the pretty little island metropolis whose painted houses and clustering palm trees stretch along the water's edge on our starboard bow, beautiful and picturesque to all outward appearances, but in reality one of the deadliest spots in the whole of this fatal continent.

    The first sight of this little capital of England's settlements on the Gambia suggests the sudden transportation of Coney Island by some magical power to the west coast of Africa. True, the resemblence is somewhat marred by a stray clump of tropical vegetation every here and there. But the trim white houses, with their green "Venetians" and smart red roofs, the tall trees that start up among them, the constant flutter of gay-colored flags, the long wooden pier jutting out into the greenish-gray water, the flat, sandy beach, the big, many-windowed, whitewashed buildings midway along it, the strip of level ground on which they stand, and the dark mass of wooding that closes in the picture exactly reproduce the figures of the American Margate, although the latter happily falls short of its African prototype, both in malaria and mosquitos.

    Malaria indeed, is the one thing that never fails at any West African port. However the supplies of life may run short, the supply of death is inexhaustible. I still hope that when once we get clear of this fatal coast and come fairly out into the pure air of the breezy Atlantic our plague-stricken ship may at length shake off the taint that has clung to her so long. But just at present it seems only too probably that the fever may finish with more than one of us what the shipwreck began.
    Only this morning one of our sick men on the forecastle came running aft in a fit of delirium with nothing on but his shirt, and was just going to jump overboard, when two or three of us seized and held him back.

    Of the three fever patients on the after deck one is so weak that he can scarcely lift his hand to his mouth, while another seems to be literally on fire, the temperature of his skin being at 105° Fahrenheit when I saw him yesterday afternoon. Our third officer is still in a very bad way, and even our first, who has borne up manfully till now, is "on his back" at last.
    Poor Capt. Porter is still suffering terribly from the ulcerated limb which has tormented him unceasingly while he was caring for our shipwrecked company, and giving himself no chance of the rest which he so greviously needed. In a word, our present muster is on a par with that of the Irish officer whose company was reduced to "twelve effective men, five of whom were in hospital with typhus fever."

    To return to Bathurst, one may notice other points of resemblence to Coney Island in the size and shape of the islet on which it stands, and its separation from the mainland by the narrow, muddy winding length of Oyster Creek. Its dignity as capital is amply sustained by its venerable antiquity (having been founded as long ago as 1816) and its vast population, which, when the fever season is over, occasionally rises as high as 9,000 souls.
    Its spacious piers, 30 feet in length, thronged with crowds of two or three people, and piled high with two biscuit boxes and a sardine tin, bear witness to its flourishing commerce, while its possession of an actual hotel, two flagpoles, and a battery of real cannon—which, however, the prudent inhabitants never attempt to fire—naturally makes it one of the brightest second-hand jewels in the crown of England.
    An official "Blue Book" would probably sum it up as follows: "Principal exports, fever and dysentery; principal imports, quinine and rum; internal communication, chiefly by wading or jumping; manners, none; customs, extremely hard to pass with baggage; religion, not yet ascertained; inhabitants, frogs, crocodiles, mosquitoes, and 'chigoes,' (burrowing fleas); chief local artistry, thieving; revenue, varying according the the success of overcharges; language, unprintable; government, a limited monarchy, extending about two miles on either side of Government House."

    The approach to this charming place is in every way worthy of it, and would have exactly suited that delightful moralist who spoke of having witnessed "every popular English amusement, from the quiet, sociable cheerfulness of a funeral to the boisterous gayety of a hanging." Even he, however, could scarcely have evolved much cheerfulness from the seaward aspect of Cape St. Mary.
    The first sign of its presence is a kind of "rash" of tree tops all along the surface of the sea, which is fast changing from its usual deep blue to the foul greenish-gray borrowed from the thick, soup-like current poured into it by the Gambia. Presently another vegetable eruption breaks out on the opposite side, and we find ourselves sailing between two long slanting bands of drowned forest, which seem outstretched like the jaws of some mighty monster gaping to devour us.
    And now there arises before us in tall its terrible monotony one of the gloomiest spectacles in existence, viz., a genuine seaboard forest on the low-lying coast of West Africa. What an untamed African jungle really is no one who has not actually seen it can easily imagine. The nearest approach that I can make to describing it must be given in better words than my own, the words of one of us who has had as his playmates for years past the worst perils and hardships and diseases of the Dark Continent:

    "We, accustomed to rapid marching, had to stand in our places for minutes at a time, waiting patiently for an advance of a few yards, after which would come another halt and then another short advance, only to again be halted. And all this time the trees kept shredding their dew upon us like rain in great, round drops. Every leaf seemed weeping. Down the boles and branches, the creepers and vegetable cords the moisture trickled and fell on us.

    "Overhead the wide-spreading boughs, in many interlaced strata, (each bough heavy with broad, thick leaves,) absolutely shut out the daylight. We knew not whether it was a sunshiny day or a dull, foggy, gloomy one, for we marched in a solemn twilight, such as you may experience in temperate climes an hour after sunset. The path soon became a stiff clayey paste, and at every step we splashed water over the legs of those in front and on either side of us. To our right and left, to the height of about 20 feet, towered the undergrowth, the lower world of vegetation. The soil on which this thrives is a dark brown vegetable humus, the debris of ages of rotting leaves and fallen branches—a very forcing house of vegetable life, which, constantly fed with moisture, illustrates us in an astonishing degree the prolific power of the warm, moist shades of the tropics.

    "This terrible undergrowth, which here engrossed all the space under the shade of the pillared bombax and the mast-like 'mvulé,' was a miracle of vegetation. It consisted of ferns, spear grass, water-cane, and orchidaceous plants mixed with wild vines, cable thicknesses of the [illegible], and a sprinkling of mimosas, acaclas, tamarinds, lhanes, palms of various species—the wild date, the oil palm, the Raphia vinitera, the fan, rattans, and a hundred other varieties—all struggling for every inch of space and swarming upward with a rank luxuriance and density that only this extraordinary hothouse atmosphere could nourish. We had certainly seen forests before, but this scene was an epoch in our lives, ever to be remembered for its bitterness. The gloom enhanced the dismal misery of our life. The slopping moisture, the unhealthy, reeking atmosphere, the monotony of the scenes—nothing but the eternal interlaced branches and the tall, aspiring stems, rising from a tangle through which we had to burrow and crawl like wild animals on our hands and feet."

    This is what both banks of the Gambia are like for several miles above it actual mouth, the three or four mighty trees that tower above the dead level of the surrounding jungle intensifying instead of relieving its grim and gloomy sameness. The one redeeming feature in the whole of this dismal landscape is the headland of St. Mary itself, the red cliffs of which, rising 50 feet above the sullen waters, and crested with feathery cocoa palms, give to the lifeless panorama a gleam of color which it sorely needs, while the broad white front of the Convalescent Home, standing boldly out from among the trees, offers a satisfactory assurance that civilization has penetrated even here.
    Other evidences of the white man's presence appear in the form of the buoys that mark the channel and the "light-ship" that sentinels its entrance. But these are soon left behind, and as we sweep onward up the river, the town of Bathurst begins to define itself in jaunty white and red against the dark green background of clustering leaves. A few small houses, scattered like torn paper along the low, flat shore of St. Mary Island, are dimly visible under the shadow of the trees.

    Further on, the white walls and scarlet roof of the hospital stand boldly out in the foreground, with a sturdy "I'm not ashamed of myself" air that contrasts very favorably with the shrinking attitude of Government House, half buried in overhanging boughs whose shadows symbolize aptly enough the cloud of official mystery in which all do-nothing Governments prudently envelop their weakness, while the tall, bare flagpole overhead seems to typify their customary barrenness in point of results.
    A second flagpole sentinels the low, brown seam of the battery, just opposite which, as if in order to invite a comparison that cannot be otherwise than favorable to herself, lies the Alecto gunboat, with her two pale yellow smokestacks, her sturdy "dam" bow, and her low, white solid business-like hull.

    And now, gliding past the end of the wooden pier, we come right upon the main town itself. I have already compared it to Coney Island; but any one who has been upon the Isthmus of Panama and has seen the quaint half-Spanish houses of Aspinwall [Colón] clustering along the low, flat, thickly wooded shore of Manzanilla Island, can easily suggest another and perhaps a better parallel.
    More than a dozen craft are settled like flies upon the water in front of the town, but we look in vain for the trading steamer which goes up and down the river at stated intervals, ascending the stream from as far as Macarthy Island [MacCarthy Island], 150 miles from the sea. In fact, light vessels with a draught of not more than 10 feet can penetrate as far as Yahlahlenda, 70 miles further up.
see also: Mauritania News - Mali News - Senegal News - Guinea News

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  The Gambia News



    In the 10th century, Muslim merchants established some of The Gambia’s earliest large settlements as trans-Saharan trade hubs. These settlements eventually grew into major export centers sending slaves, gold, and ivory across the Sahara.

    Between the 16th and 17th centuries, European colonial powers began establishing trade with The Gambia. In 1664, the United Kingdom established a colony in The Gambia focused on exporting enslaved people across the Atlantic. During the roughly 300 years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the UK and other European powers may have exported as many as 3 million people from The Gambia.

    The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in 1965. Geographically surrounded by Senegal, it formed the short-lived confederation of Senegambia between 1982 and 1989.

    In 1994, Yahya JAMMEH led a military coup overthrowing the president and banning political activity. He subsequently won every presidential election until 2016, when he lost to Adama BARROW, who headed an opposition coalition during free and fair elections. BARROW won reelection in December 2021.

    The Gambia is the only member of the Economic Community of West African States that does not have presidential term limits. Since the 2016 election, The Gambia and the US have enjoyed improved relations. US assistance to the country has supported military education and training programs, capacity building, and democracy-strengthening activities.

    CIA World Factbook: The Gambia


Area of The Gambia: 11,300 sq km
slightly less than twice the size of Delaware

Population of The Gambia: 2,468,569 (2023) | 1,778,081 (2009)

Languages of The Gambia:
English official
Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, other vernaculars

The Gambia Capital: Banjul


BANJUL WEATHER

  Free Books on The Gambia (.pdfs)

The Expiring Continent Mitchinson 1881
...In Sierra Leone & The Gambia v1 Poole 1850
...In Sierra Leone & The Gambia v2 Poole 1850
Voyage to Senegal... & the River Gambia Adanson 1759

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  The Gambia Reference Articles and Links

Wikipedia: The Gambia - History of The Gambia
BBC Country Profile: The Gambia
BBC Timeline: The Gambia
US State Department: The Gambia Profile

Maps of The Gambia
Historic Maps of Africa
1885 Map of Africa

The Gambia Embassy, Washington D.C.

WikiTravel: The Gambia

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The Point

ABYZ: The Gambia News Links
    But it is at Macarthy Island that England's supremacy on the Gambia is supposed to reach its limit, although in this part of the world every frontier, whether British, French, or German, appears to be elastic.

    We have scarcely cast our anchor when our deck swarms with enterprising natives eager to sell us striped cloths, ornaments, powder horns, belts, knives, and last, but certainly not least, the very "fetiches"" that they pretend to worship.
    Among these miscellaneous wares I catch sight of one relic upon which Jules Verne, were he here, might found a very effective romance. It is a short, straight-bladed sword of fine European make in a lantern sheath profusely ornamented with strips of colored cloth. Along either side of the keen, narrow blade is engraved in Spanish the fine old motto, "Draw me not without cause, sheathe me not without honor." A strange experience indeed, to find words which might have suited the Cid himself, figuring on a weapon handled by a bare-limbed savage in one of the most barbarous regions of Central Africa.

    How can such a relic have come hither? It may have been brought from the Canary Islands with other Spanish goods. It may have been left behind by some passing traveler who had bought it as a curiosity and did not care to carry it any further. It may, for all we can tell, have belonged to some gallant Andalusian cavalier who perished centuries ago in a wild attempt to reach those "golden lands of promise" which were then believed to exist far away in the interior of the unknown continent...
    But all this is mere guesswork, for it is worse than useless to seek any reliable information from men who, like Tom Bracy's London errand boy, only tell the truth when they cannot think of anything better.

    In chaffering with these worthies for the wares which they offer, like true Africans, at six or seven times their real value, you will have a chance of learning something of that curious jargon [pichinglis] which is to West Africa what "pigeon English" [pidgin] is to Eastern China, and of which I have already given a few specimens in my report of our conversations with King Oko Jumbo and King Davis.
    In this singular dialect "once" is "one time," and "just like" is "all same." "Chop" is the generic term for all kinds of food, like "bread" in Hebrew or "rice" in Chinese. If you wish to ask whether there is any water to be had you say, "Water live here, eh?" "Sabbee" does duty both for "to know" and "to be able." "Juju," the native word for "magic," is applied indiscriminately to everything which the worthy savages cannot understand, like the Asiatic "heathens" whom Robinson Crusoe described with such sly humor: "They sacrifice to everything that they do not comprehend, and hence their sacrifices are exceeding numerous."

    But the most important word of this noble language is undeniably "palaver," itself a corruption of the Portuguese and Spanish term "palabra," (word). Like the trenchant monosyllable wherewith the ordinary Englishman expresses varied emotion of joy or sorrow, this valuable word is applied indifferently to every event, whether good or bad. A man who has important business in hand speaks of himself as having "got big palaver." A dispute among the natives is brought before the head man of the district as "palaver to settle." Our shipwreck was pronounced by the Kroo pilot who guided our boats ashore to be "one bad palaver." Sunday is spoken of as "God palaver day" by the colored gentlemen on many parts of the coast, and when the latter get drunk and have a fight in which one or two men are killed—which happened more than once during our detention at Cestos Bay after the wreck—this also is mildly called a palaver. In short, "palaver" is as hard pressed a servant of all work on the West African coast as "ki" in Siam [Thailand], which has so many meanings that by changing the inflection of the voice each time, "ki ki ki ki," may be made to imply, "Who sells boiled eggs?"

    But the crowning charm of this admirable dialect is its accent, which can only be heard in perfection from the natives themselves, for no white man—except perhaps with the death rattle in his throat—could possibly produce such an atrocious combination of outlandish sounds. I have heard the name of a Polish noble rendered by sneezing thrice and saying "whiskey." I have heard the Zulu "Q" pronounced by clearing the throat with a loud noise under the right ear. But anything like the genuine "Kroo boy" accent I have never set ears on (as a countryman of mine used to say) even in South Africa or Central Asia.

    Indeed, if Charles V. [1500-1558, Holy Roman Emperor 1519-1558] was right in saying that a man should speak French to his friends and German to his enemies, Italian to the ladies, Spanish to God, English to horses, Dutch to frogs, and Hungarian to the devil, it is rather difficult to say for whose benefit the West African patiois should be reserved.
DAVID KER.

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