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91-626: Essau is a small town in north-western Gambia . It is located in Lower Niumi District in the North Bank Division . As of 2009, it has an estimated population of 6,670. Mustapha Marong(Former Attorney General). Alhaji Mafoday Sonko(Former MP,Member Of Parliament). Nfamara Bintou Sonko(Former Colonial Chief). Lang Sally Sonko(Former Colonial Chief). Burungai Sonko(King Of Barra/Niumi,Born in Essau(As Fakebba Sonko)fought

182-482: A , which is used for personal nouns; so, " a Pita " means "Peter". In Māori, when the personal nouns have the definite or indefinite article as an important part of it, both articles are present; for example, the phrase " a Te Rauparaha ", which contains both the proper article a and the definite article Te refers to the person name Te Rauparaha . The definite article is sometimes also used with proper names, which are already specified by definition (there

273-518: A British Crown colony called British Gambia , divided for administrative purposes into the colony (city of Banjul and the surrounding area) and the protectorate (remainder of the territory). The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901, and it gradually progressed toward self-government. Slavery was abolished in 1906 and following a brief conflict between the British colonial forces and indigenous Gambians, British colonial authority

364-554: A Republic within the Commonwealth , following a second referendum . Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara assumed the office of President , an Executive Post , combining the offices of head of state and head of government which he held since 1962. President Sir Dawda Jawara was re-elected five times. An attempted coup on 29 July 1981 followed a weakening of the economy and allegations of corruption against leading politicians. The coup attempt occurred while President Jawara

455-455: A 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.56/10, ranking it 120th globally out of 172 countries. The Gambia has a tropical savannah climate . A short rainy season normally lasts from June until September, but from then until May, lower temperatures predominate, with less precipitation . The climate in The Gambia closely resembles that of neighboring Senegal, of Mali , and of

546-504: A Serer elder dies). Upon independence in 1965, the country used the name The Gambia . Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the long-form name of the country became Republic of The Gambia . The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the long-form name to Islamic Republic of The Gambia in December 2015. On 29 January 2017 newly elected President Adama Barrow changed the name back to Republic of The Gambia . The Gambia

637-546: A class of determiner ; they are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite articles. (In Finnish and Estonian , the partitive is indicated by inflection.) The nearest equivalent in English is some , although it is classified as a determiner , and English uses it less than French uses de . Haida has a partitive article (suffixed -gyaa ) referring to "part of something or... to one or more objects of

728-690: A coalition of opposition parties. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy Indices The Gambia is ranked 68th of 179 nations worldwide and the 11th of 56 in Africa . During the Jawara era, there were initially four political parties, the PPP, the United Party (UP), the Democratic Party (DP), and I.M. Garba-Jahumpa 's Muslim Congress Party (MCP). The 1960 constitution had established a House of Representatives , and in

819-674: A coalition with the Democratic Congress Alliance (DCA; a merger of the DP and MCP). They invited the UP to the coalition in 1963, but it left in 1965. The UP was seen as the main opposition party, but it lost power from 1965 to 1970. In 1975, the National Convention Party (NCP) was formed by Sheriff Mustapha Dibba , and became the new main opposition party to the PPP's dominance. Both the PPP and NCP were ideologically similar, so in

910-434: A colony in 1765. In 1965, 200 years later, The Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara . Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless 1994 coup . Adama Barrow was elected as The Gambia's third president in the December 2016, he defeated Yahya Jammeh with the help of a coalition of other opposition political parties. Jammeh initially accepted the results, but then refused to leave office claiming he

1001-674: A definite article (which has survived into Modern Greek and which bears strong functional resemblance to the German definite article, which it is related to), the earlier Homeric Greek used this article largely as a pronoun or demonstrative, whereas the earliest known form of Greek known as Mycenaean Greek did not have any articles. Articles developed independently in several language families. Not all languages have both definite and indefinite articles, and some languages have different types of definite and indefinite articles to distinguish finer shades of meaning: for example, French and Italian have

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1092-624: A determiner. In English, the zero article rather than the indefinite is used with plurals and mass nouns , although the word "some" can be used as an indefinite plural article. Articles are found in many Indo-European languages , Semitic languages (only the definite article) , and Polynesian languages ; however, they are formally absent from many of the world's major languages including Chinese , Japanese , Korean , Mongolian , many Turkic languages (including Tatar , Bashkir , Tuvan and Chuvash ), many Uralic languages (incl. Finnic and Saami languages ), Hindi-Urdu , Punjabi , Tamil ,

1183-426: A dusk-to-dawn curfew on the populace. A transition back to democracy occurred in 1996, and a new constitution was written, though the process was manipulated to benefit Jammeh. In a 1996 referendum, 70% of voters approved the constitution, and in December 1996, Jammeh was elected as president. All but PDOIS of the pre-coup parties were banned, and former ministers were barred from public office. During Jammeh's rule,

1274-487: A full cycle of presidential , legislative , and local elections, which foreign observers deemed free, fair, and transparent. President Yahya Jammeh, who was elected to continue in the position he had assumed during the coup, took the oath of office again on 21 December 2001. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly, particularly after

1365-408: A given group or category," e.g., tluugyaa uu hal tlaahlaang "he is making a boat (a member of the category of boats)." A negative article specifies none of its noun, and can thus be regarded as neither definite nor indefinite. On the other hand, some consider such a word to be a simple determiner rather than an article. In English, this function is fulfilled by no , which can appear before

1456-453: A move in the other direction occurred with The Gambia . In certain languages, such as French and Italian, definite articles are used with all or most names of countries: la France , le Canada , l'Allemagne ; l'Italia , la Spagna , il Brasile . If a name [has] a definite article, e.g. the Kremlin , it cannot idiomatically be used without it: we cannot say Boris Yeltsin

1547-476: A particular man. The word he , which is the indefinite article in Tokelauan, is used to describe ‘any such item’, and is encountered most often with negatives and interrogatives. An example of the use of he as an indefinite article is “ Vili ake oi k'aumai he toki ”, where ‘ he toki ’ mean ‘ an axe ’. The use of he and te in Tokelauan are reserved for when describing a singular noun. However, when describing

1638-447: A partitive article used for indefinite mass nouns , whereas Colognian has two distinct sets of definite articles indicating focus and uniqueness, and Macedonian uses definite articles in a demonstrative sense, with a tripartite distinction (proximal, medial, distal) based on distance from the speaker or interlocutor. The words this and that (and their plurals, these and those ) can be understood in English as, ultimately, forms of

1729-401: A party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism". On 11 December 2015, President Jammeh (without any legal authority) unilaterally declared The Gambia an Islamic Republic , calling it a break from the country's colonial past, although the constitution remains secular constitution. The months leading up to the 2016 presidential election were tense. The youth leader of

1820-406: A plural noun, different articles are used. For plural definite nouns, rather than te , the article nā is used. ‘ Vili ake oi k'aumai nā nofoa ’ in Tokelauan would translate to “ Do run and bring me the chairs ” in English. There are some special cases in which instead of using nā , plural definite nouns have no article before them. The absence of an article is represented by 0 . One way that it

1911-537: A referendum on a revised Constitution, the elections for President and the National Assembly by early January 1997. In 1997 the Independent Electoral Commission - IEC- The Gambia was established to replace the PIEC, responsible for the registration of voters and for the conduct of elections and referendums. The IEC organized the next 5-year elections for late 2001 and early 2002, and The Gambia completed

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2002-529: A singular or plural noun: In German , the negative article is, among other variations, kein , in opposition to the indefinite article ein . The equivalent in Dutch is geen : The zero article is the absence of an article. In languages having a definite article, the lack of an article specifically indicates that the noun is indefinite. Linguists interested in X-bar theory causally link zero articles to nouns lacking

2093-718: A tiny enclave at Albreda on the river's north bank. This was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856. As many as three million people may have been taken as slaves from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many people were taken as slaves by intertribal wars before the transatlantic slave trade began. Most of those taken were sold by other Africans to Europeans: some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were victims sold because of unpaid debts, and many others were simply victims of kidnapping. Traders initially sent people to Europe to work as servants until

2184-631: A women's rights activist was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in combating female genital mutilation . On 4 December 2021, Adama Barrow won re-election in the presidential election . On 20 December 2022, a supposed coup attempt by the Gambian army was foiled , with four soldiers arrested. The Gambian Armed Forces have denied that any attempt at a coup was made. Barrow's use of foreign troops for his security and for protection of some infrastructure has hurt his popularity. The Gambia

2275-627: Is just one of them). For example: the Amazon, the Hebrides . In these cases, the definite article may be considered superfluous. Its presence can be accounted for by the assumption that they are shorthand for a longer phrase in which the name is a specifier, i.e. the Amazon River , the Hebridean Islands . Where the nouns in such longer phrases cannot be omitted, the definite article is universally kept:

2366-499: Is stalas , the white table. Languages in the above table written in italics are constructed languages and are not natural, that is to say that they have been purposefully invented by an individual (or group of individuals) with some purpose in mind. When using a definite article in Tokelauan language , unlike in some languages like English, if the speaker is speaking of an item, they need not have referred to it previously as long as

2457-532: Is a 2.30% population increase from 2013. The capital city is Banjul , which has the most extensive metropolitan area in the country. The second and third-largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama . Arab Muslim merchants traded with native West Africans in The Gambia throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1455, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter The Gambia, although they never established significant trade there. The British Empire established

2548-622: Is a founding member of the ECOWAS. It rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2018 after previously withdrawing in 2013. English is the country's sole official language; it became widely used during British rule. The name "Gambia" is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra / Kambaa , meaning the Gambia River . (It may be derived from the sacred Serer Gamba , a special type of calabash beaten when

2639-407: Is a very small and narrow country whose borders mirror the meandering Gambia River . It lies between latitudes 13 and 14°N , and longitudes 13 and 17°W . The Gambia is less than 50 kilometres (31 miles) wide at its widest point, with a total area of 11,295 km (4,361  sq mi ). About 1,300 square kilometres (500 square miles) (11.5%) of The Gambia's area are covered by water. It

2730-443: Is an article that marks a definite noun phrase . Definite articles, such as the English the , are used to refer to a particular member of a group. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be otherwise something uniquely specified. For example, Sentence 1 uses the definite article and thus, expresses a request for a particular book. In contrast, Sentence 2 uses an indefinite article and thus, conveys that

2821-599: Is considered to be a Germanism . The definite article sometimes appears in American English nicknames such as "the Donald", referring to former president Donald Trump , and "the Gipper", referring to former president Ronald Reagan . A partitive article is a type of article, sometimes viewed as a type of indefinite article, used with a mass noun such as water , to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are

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2912-565: Is in Kremlin . Some languages use definite articles with personal names , as in Portuguese ( a Maria , literally: "the Maria"), Greek ( η Μαρία , ο Γιώργος , ο Δούναβης , η Παρασκευή ), and Catalan ( la Núria , el / en Oriol ). Such usage also occurs colloquially or dialectally in Spanish , German , French , Italian and other languages. In Hungarian , the colloquial use of definite articles with personal names, though widespread,

3003-542: Is one of a small number of countries for which the definite article is commonly used in its English-language name and where the name is neither plural nor descriptive (e.g., "the Philippines " or "the United Kingdom "). The article is also officially used by the country's government and by international bodies. The article was originally used because the region was named after "The Gambia [River]". In 1964, shortly prior to

3094-511: Is the smallest country on the African mainland. In comparative terms, The Gambia has a total area slightly more than that of the island of Jamaica . Senegal surrounds The Gambia on three sides, with 80 km (50 mi) of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean marking its western extremity. The present boundaries were defined in 1889 after an agreement between the United Kingdom and France. During

3185-414: Is unknown or unimportant. Indefinites also have predicative uses: Indefinite noun phrases are widely studied within linguistics, in particular because of their ability to take exceptional scope . A proper article indicates that its noun is proper , and refers to a unique entity. It may be the name of a person, the name of a place, the name of a planet, etc. The Māori language has the proper article

3276-412: Is usually used is if a large amount or a specific class of things are being described. Occasionally, such as if one was describing an entire class of things in a nonspecific fashion, the singular definite noun te would is used. In English, ‘ Ko te povi e kai mutia ’ means “ Cows eat grass ”. Because this is a general statement about cows, te is used instead of nā . The ko serves as a preposition to

3367-461: The 1960 election no party won a majority of seats. However, in 1961, the British Governor chose UP leader Pierre Sarr N'Jie to serve as the country's first head of government, in the form of a Chief Minister. This was an unpopular decision, and the 1962 election was notable as parties were able to appeal to ethnic and religious differences across The Gambia. The PPP won a majority, and formed

3458-606: The Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) deposed the Jawara government and banned opposition political activity. Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh , chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. Jammeh was just 29 years old at the time of the coup. The AFPRC announced a transition plan to return to a democratic civilian government. The Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) was established in December 1995 to conduct national elections and it supervised

3549-567: The Baltic languages , the majority of Slavic languages , the Bantu languages (incl. Swahili ). In some languages that do have articles, such as some North Caucasian languages , the use of articles is optional; however, in others like English and German it is mandatory in all cases. Linguists believe the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages , Proto-Indo-European , did not have articles. Most of

3640-681: The British Empire and the French Empire struggled continually for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal River and the Gambia River. The British Empire occupied The Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there following the capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River, but the French retained

3731-482: The Governor-General . Shortly thereafter, the national government held a referendum proposing that the country become a republic . This referendum failed to receive the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results won widespread attention abroad as testimony to The Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, civil rights, and liberties. On 24 April 1970, The Gambia became

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3822-492: The US Army Air Forces and a port of call for Allied naval convoys. After World War II, the pace of constitutional reform increased. Following general elections in 1962, the United Kingdom granted full internal self-governance in the following year. The Gambia achieved independence on 18 February 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth , with Elizabeth II as Queen of The Gambia , represented by

3913-427: The , or it could also translate to the English indefinite article a . An example of how the definite article te can be used as an interchangeable definite or indefinite article in the Tokelauan language would be the sentence “ Kua hau te tino ”. In the English language, this could be translated as “ A man has arrived ” or “ The man has arrived ” where using te as the article in this sentence can represent any man or

4004-572: The 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur (a monarchy centred on the Senegal River just to the north), ancient Ghana and Gao had converted to Islam. They had appointed to their courts Muslims who were literate in the Arabic language . At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called The Gambia was part of the Mali Empire . The Portuguese reached this area by sea in

4095-609: The 1831 war against King George IV). Mansa Maranta Sonko(last King of Niumi,died in Essau Sukoto July 1910). This Gambian location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . The Gambia The Gambia , officially the Republic of The Gambia , is a country in West Africa . Geographically, The Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for

4186-419: The 1980s a new opposition party emerged, in the form of the radical socialist People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS). However, between the 1966 and 1992 elections, the PPP was "overwhelmingly dominant", winning between 55% and 70% of the vote in each election and a large majority of seats continually. In principle, competitive politics existed during the Jawara era, however, it

4277-442: The 2016 election before declaring the results void and calling for a new vote, sparking a constitutional crisis and leading to an invasion by an ECOWAS coalition. On 20 January 2017, Jammeh announced that he had agreed to step down and would leave the country. In January 2017, President Barrow removed the "Islamic" title from The Gambia's name. On 14 February 2017, The Gambia began the process of returning to its membership of

4368-520: The Basque speakers"). Speakers of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic , a modern Aramaic language that lacks a definite article, may at times use demonstratives aha and aya (feminine) or awa (masculine) – which translate to "this" and " that ", respectively – to give the sense of "the". In Indonesian , the third person possessive suffix -nya could be also used as a definite article. Indefinite articles typically arise from adjectives meaning one . For example,

4459-459: The Commonwealth and formally presented its application to re-join to Secretary-General Patricia Scotland on 22 January 2018. Boris Johnson , who became the first British foreign secretary to visit The Gambia since the country gained independence in 1965, announced that the British government welcomed The Gambia's return to the Commonwealth. The Gambia officially rejoined the Commonwealth on 8 February 2018. On 28 February 2018, Jaha Dukureh ,

4550-452: The Gambia River, including Fort Jakob, and St. Mary Island (modern day Banjul) and Fort Jillifree – came under the rule of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , a vassal state of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in what is now Latvia , having been bought by Prince Jacob Kettler . The colonies were formally ceded to England in 1664. During the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century,

4641-571: The Gambia sentenced main opposition leader and human rights advocate Ousainou Darboe to 3 years in prison in July 2016, disqualifying him from running in the presidential election. This gave Adama Barrow to contest under the UDP ticket. Following the 1 December 2016 elections, the elections commission declared Adama Barrow the winner. Jammeh, who had ruled for 22 years, first announced he would step down after losing

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4732-461: The Northumbrian dialect), or þæt (neuter). The neuter form þæt also gave rise to the modern demonstrative that . The ye occasionally seen in pseudo-archaic usage such as " Ye Olde Englishe Tea Shoppe" is actually a form of þe , where the letter thorn ( þ ) came to be written as a y . Multiple demonstratives can give rise to multiple definite articles. Macedonian , for example, in which

4823-681: The United States , the People's Republic of China . This distinction can sometimes become a political matter: the former usage the Ukraine stressed the word's Russian meaning of "borderlands"; as Ukraine became a fully independent state following the collapse of the Soviet Union , it requested that formal mentions of its name omit the article. Similar shifts in usage have occurred in the names of Sudan and both Congo (Brazzaville) and Congo (Kinshasa) ;

4914-651: The article. Some languages (such as the continental North Germanic languages , Bulgarian or Romanian ) have definite articles only as suffixes . An indefinite article is an article that marks an indefinite noun phrase . Indefinite articles are those such as English " a " or "an", which do not refer to a specific identifiable entity. Indefinites are commonly used to introduce a new discourse referent which can be referred back to in subsequent discussion: Indefinites can also be used to generalize over entities who have some property in common: Indefinites can also be used to refer to specific entities whose precise identity

5005-486: The articles are suffixed, has столот ( stolot ), the chair; столов ( stolov ), this chair; and столон ( stolon ), that chair. These derive from the Proto-Slavic demonstratives *tъ "this, that", *ovъ "this here" and *onъ "that over there, yonder" respectively. Colognian prepositions articles such as in dat Auto , or et Auto , the car; the first being specifically selected, focused, newly introduced, while

5096-459: The challenges facing Barrow as needing to restore "citizen's trust and confidence in the public sector". They describe a "fragile peace" with tensions in rural areas between farmers and the larger communities. They also reported on tensions between ethnic groups developing. An example is that in February 2017, 51 supporters of Jammeh were arrested for harassing supporters of Barrow. Although his election

5187-508: The country's independence, Prime Minister Dawda Jawara wrote to the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use requesting that the name The Gambia retain the definite article, in part to reduce confusion with Zambia which had also recently become independent. The Gambia is also one of only two countries whose official name feature the article "the", with the other being The Bahamas . Arab traders provided

5278-439: The default definite article, whereas the proximal form (with infix -o- , derived from the proximal demonstrative hau-/hon- ) is marked and indicates some kind of (spatial or otherwise) close relationship between the speaker and the referent (e.g., it may imply that the speaker is included in the referent): etxeak ("the houses") vs. etxeok ("these houses [of ours]"), euskaldunak ("the Basque speakers") vs. euskaldunok ("we,

5369-773: The definite article the (whose declension in Old English included thaes , an ancestral form of this/that and these/those). In many languages, the form of the article may vary according to the gender , number , or case of its noun. In some languages the article may be the only indication of the case. Many languages do not use articles at all, and may use other ways of indicating old versus new information, such as topic–comment constructions. Plural: -ene, -ne (all suffixes) एउटा , एउटी , एक , अनेक , कुनै Plural: -ene, -a (all suffixes) Plural: -ane, -ene, -a (all suffixes) Plural: -na, -a, -en (all suffixes) The following examples show articles which are always suffixed to

5460-450: The definite article": Definite articles (Stage I) evolve from demonstratives, and in turn can become generic articles (Stage II) that may be used in both definite and indefinite contexts, and later merely noun markers (Stage III) that are part of nouns other than proper names and more recent borrowings. Eventually articles may evolve anew from demonstratives. Definite articles typically arise from demonstratives meaning that . For example,

5551-511: The definite articles in most Romance languages —e.g., el , il , le , la , lo, a, o — derive from the Latin demonstratives ille (masculine), illa (feminine) and illud (neuter). The English definite article the , written þe in Middle English , derives from an Old English demonstrative, which, according to gender , was written se (masculine), seo (feminine) ( þe and þeo in

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5642-471: The first written accounts of The Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes. They carried out a large export trade of local people taken captive in raids and sold as slaves . Gold and ivory were also exported, and the trade routes were used to import manufactured goods to these areas. By

5733-403: The grammatical definiteness of the noun phrase, but in many languages, they carry additional grammatical information such as gender , number , and case . Articles are part of a broader category called determiners , which also include demonstratives , possessive determiners , and quantifiers . In linguistic interlinear glossing , articles are abbreviated as ART . A definite article

5824-521: The indefinite articles in the Romance languages —e.g., un , una , une —derive from the Latin adjective unus . Partitive articles, however, derive from Vulgar Latin de illo , meaning (some) of the . The English indefinite article an is derived from the same root as one . The -n came to be dropped before consonants, giving rise to the shortened form a . The existence of both forms has led to many cases of juncture loss , for example transforming

5915-401: The item is specific. This is also true when it comes to the reference of a specific person. So, although the definite article used to describe a noun in the Tokelauan language is te , it can also translate to the indefinite article in languages that requires the item being spoken of to have been referenced prior. When translating to English, te could translate to the English definite article

6006-494: The languages in this family do not have definite or indefinite articles: there is no article in Latin or Sanskrit , nor in some modern Indo-European languages, such as the families of Slavic languages (except for Bulgarian and Macedonian , which are rather distinctive among the Slavic languages in their grammar, and some Northern Russian dialects ), Baltic languages and many Indo-Aryan languages . Although Classical Greek had

6097-407: The latter is not selected, unfocused, already known, general, or generic. Standard Basque distinguishes between proximal and distal definite articles in the plural (dialectally, a proximal singular and an additional medial grade may also be present). The Basque distal form (with infix -a- , etymologically a suffixed and phonetically reduced form of the distal demonstrative har-/hai- ) functions as

6188-505: The main opposition UDP , Solo Sandeng, died in detention at the notorious National Intelligence Agency . Ousainou Darboe , the leader of the UDP, and many senior members of his party were sent to jail for demanding the release of Solo Sandeng dead or alive. President Jammeh faced opposition leaders Adama Barrow from the Independent Coalition of parties and Mamma Kandeh from The Gambia Democratic Congress party. The high court of

6279-404: The main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections. On 2 October 2013, The Gambian Interior Minister announced that The Gambia would leave the Commonwealth with immediate effect, ending 48 years of membership of the organisation. The Gambian government said it had "decided that The Gambia will never be a member of any Neo-Colonial institution and will never be

6370-675: The market for labour expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century. In 1807, the United Kingdom abolished the slave trade throughout its empire. It also tried, unsuccessfully, to end the slave trade in The Gambia. Slave ships intercepted by the Royal Navy 's West Africa Squadron in the Atlantic were also returned to The Gambia, with people who had been slaves released on MacCarthy Island far up The Gambia River where they were expected to establish new lives. The British established

6461-534: The mid-15th century and began to dominate overseas trade. In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne , António, Prior of Crato , sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants. Letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with The Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana ). Between 1651 and 1661, some parts of The Gambia – St. Andrew's Island in

6552-585: The military post of Bathurst (now Banjul ) in 1816. In the ensuing years, Bathurst (now Banjul ) was at times under the jurisdiction of the British Governor-General in Sierra Leone . In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colony. An agreement between Britain and France in 1889 established the boundaries of the colony. In 1891, a joint Anglo-French Boundary Commission faced resistance from local leaders whose lands would be divided. The Gambia became

6643-475: The murder of journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004, a student massacre at a protest in 2000, public threats to kill human rights defenders in 2009, and public threats towards homosexuals in 2013. Furthermore, Jammeh made threats to the religious freedom of non-Muslims, used 'mercenary judges' to weaken the judiciary, and faced numerous accusations of election rigging. In the December 2016 presidential election , Jammeh

6734-663: The negotiations between the French and the British in Paris, the French initially gave the British around 320 kilometres (200 mi) of The Gambia River to control. Starting with the placement of boundary markers in 1891, it took nearly 15 years after the Paris meetings to determine the final borders of The Gambia. The resulting series of straight lines and arcs gave the British control of areas about 16 kilometres (10 mi) north and south of The Gambia River. The Gambia contains three terrestrial ecoregions: Guinean forest-savanna mosaic , West Sudanian savanna , and Guinean mangroves . It had

6825-399: The northern part of Guinea . The Gambia gained independence from the United Kingdom on 18 February 1965. From 1965 to 1994, the country was ostensibly a multi-party liberal democracy . It was ruled by Sir Dawda Jawara and his People's Progressive Party (PPP). However, the country never experienced political turnover during this period and its commitment to succession by the ballot box

6916-414: The noun: Examples of prefixed definite articles: A different way, limited to the definite article, is used by Latvian and Lithuanian . The noun does not change but the adjective can be defined or undefined. In Latvian: galds , a table / the table; balt s galds , a white table; balt ais galds , the white table. In Lithuanian: stalas , a table / the table; balt as stalas , a white table; baltas

7007-602: The opposition was again fragmented. An example was the infighting between members of the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD) that was formed in 2005. Jammeh used the police forces to harass opposition members and parties. Jammeh was also accused of human rights abuses, especially towards human rights activists, civil society organisations, political opponents, and the media. Their fates included being sent into exile, harassment, arbitrary imprisonment, murder, and forced disappearance . Particular examples include

7098-550: The preparation of the electoral register . A 1991 court challenge by the PDOIS against irregularities on the electoral register in Banjul was dismissed on a technicality. In July 1994, a bloodless military coup d'état brought an end to the Jawara era. The Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC), led by Yahya Jammeh , ruled dictatorially for two years. The council suspended the constitution, banned all political parties, and imposed

7189-415: The rebel force. Between 500 and 800 people were killed during the coup and the ensuing violence. In 1982, in the aftermath of the 1981 attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed a treaty of confederation. The Senegambia Confederation aimed to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. The Gambia permanently withdrew from the confederation in 1989. In 1994,

7280-425: The speaker would be satisfied with any book. The definite article can also be used in English to indicate a specific class among other classes: However, recent developments show that definite articles are morphological elements linked to certain noun types due to lexicalization . Under this point of view, definiteness does not play a role in the selection of a definite article more than the lexical entry attached to

7371-467: The western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean . Its territory is on both sides of the lower reaches of the Gambia River , which flows through the centre of the country and empties into the Atlantic. The national namesake river demarcates the elongated shape of the country, which has an area of 11,300 square kilometres (4,400 sq mi) and a population of 2,769,075 people in 2024 which

7462-557: The “ te ” The article ni is used for describing a plural indefinite noun. ‘ E i ei ni tuhi? ’ translates to “ Are there any books? ” Articles often develop by specialization of adjectives or determiners . Their development is often a sign of languages becoming more analytic instead of synthetic , perhaps combined with the loss of inflection as in English, Romance languages, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Torlakian. Joseph Greenberg in Universals of Human Language describes "the cycle of

7553-711: Was attending the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in London and was carried out by the rogues group of leftist calling themself National Revolutionary Council, composed of Kukoi Samba Sanyang 's Socialist and Revolutionary Labour Party (SRLP) and elements of the Field Force, a paramilitary force which constituted the bulk of the country's armed forces. President Jawara requested military aid from Senegal , which deployed 400 troops to The Gambia on 31 July. By 6 August, some 2,700 Senegalese troops had been deployed, defeating

7644-455: Was beaten by Adama Barrow , who was backed by a coalition of opposition parties . Jammeh's initial agreement to step down followed by a change of mind induced a constitutional crisis that culminated in a military intervention by ECOWAS forces in January 2017. Barrow pledged to serve at the head of a three-year transitional government. The Nigerian Centre for Democracy and Development describe

7735-446: Was cheated, triggering a constitutional crisis . The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) conducted a military intervention and achieved Jammeh's removal two days after his term was initially scheduled to end. The Gambia's economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism. In 2022, 17.2% of the population lived in extreme poverty , defined as living on less than US$ 2.15 (2017 PPP ) per day. The Gambia

7826-586: Was firmly established. In 1919, an inter-racial relationship between Travelling Commissioner J. K. McCallum and Wolof woman Fatou Khan scandalized the administration. During World War II, some soldiers fought with the Allies of World War II . Though these soldiers fought mostly in Burma , some died closer to home and a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery is in Fajara (close to Banjul). Banjul contained an airstrip for

7917-501: Was initially met with enthusiasm, the Centre notes that this has been dampened by Barrow's initial constitutional faux pas with his vice president, the challenge of inclusion, and high expectations post-Jammeh. On 5 December 2021, Incumbent President Adama Barrow was declared the winner of The Gambia's presidential election by the electoral commission. The 4 December 2021 election, the first since former dictator Yahya Jammeh fled into exile,

8008-521: Was made to term limits, indicating Jammeh's preference to stay in power for an extended period of time. According to the 1996 constitution, the President is the head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Jammeh and Barrow have also both taken on the role of Minister of Defence. Definite article In English , both "the" and "a(n)" are articles, which combine with nouns to form noun phrases. Articles typically specify

8099-411: Was never tested. In 1994, a military coup propelled a commission of military officers to power, known as the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC). After two years of direct rule, a new constitution was written and in 1996, the leader of the AFPRC, Yahya Jammeh , was elected as president. He ruled in an authoritarian style until the 2016 election , which was won by Adama Barrow , backed by

8190-426: Was seen as crucial for the young democracy. The Gambia has had a number of constitutions in its history. The two most significant are the 1970 constitution, which established The Gambia as a presidential republic, and the 1996 constitution, which served as a basis for Jammeh's rule and was kept following Barrow's victory in 2016. Jammeh manipulated the 1996 constitutional reform process to benefit himself. No reference

8281-528: Was stated that there was in reality a "one-party monopoly of state power centred around the dominant personality of Sir Dawda Jawara". Civil society was limited post-independence, and opposition parties were weak and at the risk of being declared subversive. The opposition did not have equal access to resources, as the business class refused to finance them. The government had control over when they could make public announcements and press briefings, and there were also allegations of vote-buying and improprieties in

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