Portal:The Gambia

Topics Culture Geography Health History Mathematics Nature People Philosophy Religion Society Technology The Gambia (officially the Republic of The Gambia), commonly known as Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, with a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Its borders roughly correspond to the path of the Gambia River, the nation's namesake, which flows through the country's center and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its size is almost 10,500 km² with an estimated population of 1,700,000. On 18 February 1965, Gambia was granted independence from the United Kingdom and joined The Commonwealth. Banjul is Gambia's capital, but the largest conurbation is Serekunda. The Gambia shares historical roots with many other west African nations in the slave trade, which was key to the establishment of a colony on the Gambia river, first by the Portuguese and later by the British. Since gaining independence in 1965, The Gambia has enjoyed relative stability, with the exception of a brief period of military rule in 1994. An agriculturally rich country, its economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and tourism. About a third of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day. Selected panorama James Island, an island off The Gambia. Selected article The balafon (bala, balaphone) is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone. Sound is produced by striking the tuned keys with two padded sticks. Believed to have been developed independently of the Southern African and South American instruments now called the marimba, oral histories of the balafon date it to at least the rise of the Mali Empire in the 12th century CE. Balafon is a Manding name, but variations exist across West Africa, including the Balangi in Sierra Leone and the Gyil of the Dagara, Lobi and Gurunsi from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. similar instruments are played in parts of Central Africa, with the ancient Kingdom of Kongo denoting the instrument as palaku. (Read more...) Selected picture Credit: Ferdinand Reus An elderly Gambian woman wearing a hijab. You are invited to participate in WikiProject The Gambia, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about The Gambia. WikiProject Gambia WikiProject Africa Selected biography C. Paschal Eze is a former Gambian daily newspaper and monthly business magazine editor in chief. In 2001, Eze resigned from his position as editor in chief of The Gambia's largest selling independent daily newspaper, The Daily Observer, in response to being told not to publish interviews or stories about United Democratic Party politician Lamin Waa Juwara. Ten other member of the editorial staff resigned along with Eze. Eze then expanded his career into tourism, where he was appointed in 2002 as the West Africa director of the Miss Tourism World Organisation, an international beauty pageant organizer that runs Miss Tourism World among other contests. Eze moved from The Gambia to Iowa, United States in 2003, where he works as certified training consultant, rebranding strategist, business coach and commentator. (Read more...) What are portals? List of portals Featured portals