Yearbook 2002

The Gambia. According to Countryaah website, national day of Gambia is every February 18. The APRC government party received 45 out of 48 seats in the parliamentary elections in January. There were no counter-candidates in 33 constituencies. Most parties boycotted the election, which they felt was settled in advance.

Despite protests from, among other things, Reporters Without Borders, Parliament passed a media law that requires media companies and journalists to be approved by the state for one year at a time. Journalists can, according to the law, be ordered to reveal their sources.

Former President Dawda K. Jawara returned to the Gambia eight years after being overthrown in a coup. He promised to work with President Yahya Jammeh who deposed him.

History

The territory was known in the West after J) and the discoveries of the Portuguese, although the Genoese Vivaldi, who left in 1291, undoubtedly passed in front of the mouth of the river. In 1446, under the auspices of Henry the Navigator, Tristano Nuño explored the mouth of the river, but it was rejected by the natives. A short distance away Alvise da Ca ‘da Mosto, united with Antoniotto Usodimare (1455-56), went up the course for a good distance, and left us a very interesting description of the town he called Gambra, of its residents, with whom he had endure fierce fighting, before you can peacefully explore and trade. Since then the Portuguese always frequented that region, attracted by the search for gold, which was brought to the coast by populations from the interior, and also from the slave trade. But in 1588 the English began to compete with the Portuguese and Queen Elizabeth gave licenses to some London merchants to set up a trading and exploitation company in the region. Other licenses were granted by Giacomo I Stuart to a company, which built a fort at the mouth of the river, intended to protect the merchants from the frequent uprisings of the natives, perhaps stirred up by the Portuguese. When the war with the Dutch arose, another fort was built on a coastal island, which took the name of Fort James in honor of the heir to the throne (1664). Continuous were the inland expeditions in search of gold, often in competition with the French, who advanced from the contiguous region of Senegal towards the E. and S. At the end of the war of ‘ American independence (1783), among many other colonial conventions between France and England, an agreement was also signed for the limitation of the respective spheres of trade to Senegal and Gambia. An English colony, in the true sense of the word, did not yet exist; but only establishments under the protection of the forts. When the abolition of the slave trade, the main source of profit, was decreed and applied in all English factories, the Gambia also suffered considerable damage, from which England counted on making up by keeping Senegal, taken from the French. But the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 returned Senegal to France, and then many Englishmen established there (1816) founded a real colony on the island of Santa Maria, which took the name of Bathurst, in honor of the minister of the colonies of that time. Henry Earl of Bathurst. Since 1857 England has had full and effective dominion over the river. It should be noted that the French have often tried to have the Gambia, which constitutes a enclave in their dominion of West Africa: but, although with various agreements of 1889 and 1904 the localities on the middle course of the river were ceded to France, England never wanted to renounce its possession and the protectorates that depend on it.

Climate

The climate is tropical with a distinct rainy season and dry season. The dry season lasts from November to May. It is influenced by the dry northeast wind from the Sahara, called Harmattan. The average temperatures rise to values ​​between 21 and 27 degrees Celsius, with peak values ​​of over 40 ° C being reached. The relative humidity remains in the range between 30 and 60 percent.