A Journey, Everybody Has One: Kingdoms to domination

As promised, I will post at least once weekly information on Gambia’s History/Culture. Today is the day for this week!

I want you to notice that when I start giving information about Gambia and African History that I do not start with the slave trade and no one should! Africa existed with its rich history and civilizations long before slavery. Only in books written by others are marginalized so, but that’s a whole different post. Last week I started with the peoples of The Gambia.

Let’s continue……

In the 14^th century, the (Manding) of Mali, Mali Empire-established by a Mandinka, Sundiata Keita, leader of the Malinke` people encompassed the areas from the edge of the Sahara to the forests of the south in is what now Liberia & Sierra Leone. From east to west it covered all regionsbetween Takedda beyond the Niger Buckle covering the Senegambia to the Atlantic Ocean. This vast empire controlled nearly all the trans-Saharan trade, and contact with rulers of Arab states.

Though the rise of the Mali Empire was swift its decline was slow. By the beginning of the century the empire had last its hegemony over the affairs of Western Sudan and had been reduced into the small area of Kangaba where it had 1st originated. By the mid 15th century a group of Mandingos drifted into the area of the Gambia River Basin.

The 1st Europeans to reach te river were the Portuguese in 1455. Captains Luiz de Cadamosto and Antoniotti Usodimare traveled a few kilometers upstream before being repulsed by angry local inhabitants. In 1456 the same group returned and this time managed to travel 20 miles up river and came across what we now know as Kunta Kente Island (formerly known as James Island).

In the early 15th century Prince Henry of Portugal began instructing navigators to sail long the West Coast of Africa in order to circumvent the Arab and Muslim domination of the trans-Saharan gold trade, which was by that time the centerpiece of Portugal's public finances. portugal continued to monopolize the slave trade along the West African Coast throughout the 16th century in their trading of salt, ostrich feathers, pots.pans and gunpowder that was exchanged for ivory, ebony, beeswax, gold and slaves. It is suggested that the Gambia River's name originated from the Portuguese word "cambio", meaning exchange or trade.

By the 16th century the large agricultural and commercial estates owned by the Portuguese in Brazil needed more labor an they began to transport even more slaves. The Portuguese developed the slave trade on a large scale and had a virtual monopoly on it until the mid 16th century when Britain joined the slave trade. The Portuguese were eventually ousted by the British and the French.

The Baltic Germans built a fort on James Island in 1651. Ten years later they were ousted by the British who were themselves under threat from French ships, pirates and the mainland African Kings. Fort James lost lost its strategic appeal with the construction of new forts at Barra and Bathurst (now Banjul) at the mouth of the Gambia River which were better placed to control the movement of ships with their cargo. Fort James continued to serve as a slave collection point until the slave trade was abolished.

Companies such as, Companies of Merchant Trading in West Africa, The Royal Adventurers, and the Royal African Company traded and controlled the area. By the mid 17^th century the slave trade had over-shadowed all other trade. The British and French competed fiercely for the control of the slave trade in the area.

The name of James Island was forever changed during the 2011 Roots Homecoming Festival by the president of The Gambia, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Dr. Yahya A J J Jammeh to Kunta Kente Island.

Add caption Kunta Kente Island, only a mere fraction of its original size. it is slowly, but surely being taken by the sea even thought it sits in The River Gambia the Atlantic Ocean's waters and currents control the environment.