A large part of why the Gambian government and army do not want to have a customs union or free trade with Senegal is that they charge high tolls to cross the ferries over the Gambia river. Any Senegalese truck driver, car or foot passenger has to pay the tolls, (often with heafty bribes included), to cross over the Gambia territory. The govt and border guards make a lot of money from corruption this way. It prevents trade and business from being conducted efficiently and only makes trucks, traders and travellers lose money, but it is how corruption works there. This is why trade or travel is still so low and expensive, even though the countries are next to each other.
As as Gambian I understand the economic benefit but you are right that it’s too expensive and corrupt. Even us Gambian are complaining about this hefty prices levied on us. The sad thing is the money collected is not invested back to the people. Stays with the elites in government. In fact the bridge is now under Africa50’s management.
@@SC-uv5le Yes, if the money from the tolls was invested back into the economy it could do some good, and be used to pay for improved infrastructure, like a railway bridge. As you say however, it gets stolen through corruption. There is much scope for economic growth and development in Gambia, if only this corruption can be overcome.
In the 1650s The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia - a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth located in modern-day Latvia (and with mostly German ruling class, including the Duke Jakob Kettler) tried to establish a colony in the Gambia.
@@GhostCountriesare you gonna talk about the 2016 “coup” by former president Yahya Jammeh which caused ECOWAS to intervene and invade, then Jammeh resigned
@@undertaker9587think they worded it like that because it isn't considered a success. As in they tried to establish a colony but had to abandon the project only a little more then a decade later.
Good one! I learned about some of our history I never knew about but when all is said and done, Gambia and Senegal should be one country, because it is, literally!
Glad to see ghost geography made a comeback on the channel! I think your last one was about the Sarra Triangle, which was really interesting and there's so many other stories like that all over the world. I mean, I know the main focus of the channel is ghost countries, but I think these kind of episodes are great as well! Also, The Gambia has to get credit for a pretty cool flag design. 🇬🇲
Sarra Triangle was a personal favorite of mine and yeah, we've got plenty more planned for ghost geography going forward. I'm not exactly sure how regular they'll be in terms of content scheduling, but we'll figure something out.
Great content. Gambia and Senegal where all provice of the ancient Mali Empire of the manding or mandinka people and was the access source of the ocean for them.
just like how Indonesia Malaysia Singapore Brunei Philippines should unite as one country, or.. how haiti and dominica need to be one country, or... Iran Iraq as one nation, or... China Hongkong Macau should be just one and give that taiwan island to the native austronesian to be austronesian nation, etc. so many family that broken because of the European powers...
@@DBT1007 people should name specific countries instead of saying "European powers colonised everybody". because I am European but we never colonized nobody 😂 anyway, I heard that Haiti and Dominican RP are pretty different in economics and crime rate and everything. Spanish was running the colony more wise and they created more equal society. Dominican RP is actually pretty decent economy. best in Caribbean and C.America and like 8th in Latin American countries. I mean, if you would give people to vote for unification, prbly they would vote no in Dom RP 🤷
Fake !! Only the south of Senegal was in the mali empire, the south of Senegal IS populated in majority la mandenka people.. there were a kingdom and empire indépendant in the centre and the North : Jolof Empire, Tekruur etc ..
Hmm. The reason why The Gambia is surrounded, which was not the case at first, is because Portugal gave up its Casamance region in exchange for some territory further inland, nowadays part of Guiné-Bissau.
Great video! I have an idea for the next video. What about the history of Heligoland, a small German island that was once controlled by the British. Would be great to see that. And please keep making great vids.
I could've sworn I responded to this, but Heligoland actually makes a brief appearance in our latest video. I definitely think we'll do a more detailed video on the island in the future though!
In 1816 the British founded what is now Banjul and built a battery of guns to stop the slave ships using the river . A few years later fort Bullen was built at Barra because the guns at Banjul didn't have the reach to control the full width of the river . These are the only structures in the world built to stop the slave trade .
The real strange thing is not that THE Gambia is a separate country, but how come Casamance (that area to its south) became part of Senegal, rather than any other country, even though that made Senegal a strange shape.
@@bubacarrjallow8061 Cassamance was a colony of the Portuguese, it was handed over to by French, when Senegal got independence, the region was given too .
2:14 The Gambia region was never controlled by the Songhai Empire, that's just a commonly repeated mistake among online amateur mapmakers, who have a habit of treating Songhai as a bigger version of Mali when their territories didn't actually perfectly overlap.
@@JJ-si4qh I don't see how this is remotely "meanly worded," it's just a straightforward correction of a common mistake and an explanation of where the mistake comes from.
You are absolutely correct. It has nothing to do with Songhai. In fact, parts of modern-day Gambia were tributary states to the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. Upper Saluum lies in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum was in modern day Gambia - who paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone, the capital of ancient Saluum, now in present day Senegal. Previously to that, it was briefly part of the Jolof Empire, and before that, part of the Mali Empire, and before that, part of the Ghana Empire.
@@Njoofene The Ghana Empire? I've covered the Ghana Empire on my channel before, as far as I'm aware that one was also much further to the northeast of the Gambia, like Songhai.
@SomasAcademy Modern day Gambia and Senegal were all part of the Ghana Empire in ancient times. These modern-day countries did not exist at the time. Our ancestors lived in kingdoms, including the ancient Kingdom of Tekrur, which lies in the north of modern Senegal. I know my history very well. I come from here. In fact, the old Wagadou Dynasty (Bagadadou in the Seereer language, the language of my tribe) was the reigning Dynasty of many Senegambian old kingdoms. In fact, in Soninke mythology of the sacred serpent Bidda and in the foundation of the Ghana Empire, it mentions the blood ties between the Soninke and Seereer people.
The territory of The Gambia PROPER extends far beyond the current boundaries crafted by Britain and France. The subject of territorial boundaries is not much of a subject of discussion, because both countries share a common faith and human brotherhood.
We ultra traditional and conservative Senegambians (especially the Seereer, to which I am) with a strong knowledge of our history, do not refer to ourselves as "Senegalese" or "Gambian" , but "Senegambian" because we believe in the unification of the two modern nations. These two modern nations were brought on by colonialism without regard for the inhabitants. Previously, our ancestors used to live in kingdoms, and I, for one, and many conservative Seereers, do not believe in the modern nations of Senegal or Gambia. Since the old Kingdoms are no more (with the Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum being the last to fall (1969), although the Seereers have recently brought back their royal dynasty), we traditionalists are more content referring to ourselves as Senegambians than Gambian or Senegalese. The late Senegambian artist Musa Ngum (of Seereer heritage) was one of the pioneers of this movement. Every Gambian has an ancestor from what we now refer to as modern-day Senegal and vice versa. Even parts of Gambia were tributary of the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. The ancient Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum now lie in present-day Senegal. However, what was Upper Saluum is now in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum in modern day Gambia, who in ancient times paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone (now in modern day Senegal). There is no such thing as Senegal or Gambia as far as we are concerned. Since our ancient Kingdoms have collapsed due to France, Britain, and Islamism, we are more willing to accept the notion of a Senegambian nation.
It is up to the Senegambian people to make it happen. It sounds like the people running The Gambia want to keep this control over this valley and the commerce through it
Yes! I can't say exactly when, but Katanga is definitely on our list. It's kind of an interesting one, since it fits the criteria both for a regular ghost countries' (State of Katanga) and ghost geography (Katanga Province) episode; either way, we'll be covering it.
I thought the country named itself The Gambia in order to distinguish the state from the river with the same name. Nevertheless, this is such an interesting video! One of the few times I actually learned something new
I really don't mean to be offensive, but I'm genuinely curious. In my country, most of all Heroin trade is done by people from Gambia. I used to be a heroin addict so I'm not just making things up, but I admit it's anecdotal evidence, own experiences and not some serious study. Is it common for criminals to be exiled or something?
As i was in Gambia the ferries crossing the river Gambia a usually very congested you can wait for hours with proper bribes in place. Avoiding crossing the river may be worth it not only because of not wanting to cross the border.
Your history of The Gambia omits an important fact: in1651 the Duchy of Courland under Duke Jakob Kettler established its first colony in Africa, St. Andrews Island on the Gambia River, and founded Fort Jakob there. The Duchy also gained control of additional land, which happened to include St. Mary Island (modern-day Banjul) and Fort Jillifree. Courlanders also had a colony in Tobago. The Duchy's colonies exported ivory, gold, furs, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, ginger, indigo, rum, cocoa, tortoise shells, as well as tropical birds and their much sought after feathers. In the end, the Duchy would manage to retain control of these lands for less than a decade and the colonies were formally ceded to England in 1664. The Duchy of Courland was the only European power which treated the locals as equals and taught them to be merchants. It was the British who took over the Duchy's colonies who began the brutal slave trade in indigenous peoples.
A confederation was tried and it did not work. I bet 5000$ if the population were consulted for a vote , the No would win. And as a senegalese I will vote No. Whatever happened happened
Random fact about languages. In portuguese, most country names must have articles in front of them. The article could be masculine, feminine, singular or plural. There are 5 grammar grups of countries therefore: A Argentina - feminine singular O Brasil - masculine singular As Filipinas - feminine plural Os Estados Unidos - masculine plural Portugal - no article
Fancy a dip in River🐊Gambia❓If you were in 1970's Banjul,then you likely heard(:"Gambia,River Gambia /: you know sabi 🏊♂ swim,water dey carry you go‼"
Haven’t you missed something out there? At the beginning of the video, the French territory of Senegal is north of the Gambia. Later on, the Gambia is completely surrounded by Senegal.
I got an ad on FB for a home there and I could watch it being built on a webcam. I live in Scotland and sweat a lot due to a medical condition and could never live there.
I always thought it was strange, everytime I saw it on a map or in a game that features it. I mean, I had presumed that it was just another 'wacky wild border gore adventures with colonialism.
Fun fact: The reason the name was changed to the "Islamic" Republic of the Gambia is because Gambia was ruled by an insane neocolonial dictator named Yahya Jammeh. HE was president for over 20 years but lost the 2016 election to Adama Barrow. But he refused to step down, stating " I will rule Gambia for one billion years if I have to." ECOWAS issued an injunction against Jammeh demanding him to peacefully hand over power to Barrow but he refused. In January 2017 they issued an ultimatum that ECOWAS will militarily intervene in Gambia if he didn't step down. After the ultimatum expired and Jammeh failed to meet the demands, an ECOWAS coalition lead by Nigeria invaded to depose Jammeh and transfer power to Barrow. From what I read it the time, it was said to be a relatively bloodless invasion, as I'm guessing Jammeh was pretty unpopular in the general population and the rank and file of the Gambian military. But there were said to be minor skirmishes between ECOWAS forces and Jammeh loyalists. Within the next 48 hours ECOWAS had captured the capital Banjul, Jammah fled exile, and Barrow was restored to power. That year was when the removed the "Islamic Republic" from their official name.
Very informative video but you missed out probably the most importaint factor. That is the 'Berlin conference' which took place from the 17th November 1884. All of the major European powers of the day were present by invitation of the then German Chancellor 'Otto Von Bismarck'. The main purpose of the conference, today known as the 'Scramble for Africa' was for the said European powers to reach amicable agreement on the division of the African continent by peaceful negotiation rather than by conflict & war. Over the next 107 days, the whole of the African continent was carved up into the seperate countries with most of the borders that we now know today including the Gambia/Senegal. As if the whole continent was a tasty cake being carved up for European consumption & not a single African leader of the day was either present nor invited. In fact King Leopold II of Belgium, who also was not invited. Turned up anyway stating that "I've come to get a piece of this magnificent African cake". He was rewarded by having his claim for the Begium Congo granted which he then proceeded to use as his own personal play ground. Over the next generation or so he literally halved the then 20 million population by killing over 10 million African men, women & children as a consequence of the worst colonial exploitation imaginable. At the Berlin conference, the French had laid a claim to the territory which became French Senegal but the British had insisted on maintaining access to the river Gambia in order to transport their plundered goods from the African interior to the Atlantic ocean then back to Brtain. Hence the Gambia was created in the middle of French Senegal to appease the British & allow them to have the access route they requred. This is also the reason for Gambia's unusual cigar shape being roughly 300 miles long but no wider the 15 miles either side of the river. The rest of Europeans powers then spent the next 30 years all claiming their own slice of 'the magnificant African cake' by persuasion, conquest or by whatever other means they could muster against the Africans. Secure in the knowledge that they would have no interference from any of the other European powers as it had all been agreed before hand at the Bertlin conference in 1884.
@@mddi1420 is call confederation have you ever hear about ecowas, west African block, it unit all west African countries. The nord, east and south also have there unification now we need to bring all this four together via Africa intracontinental free tariff zone.step by step u till we get what we want... United States of Africa
Ilove gambla from knowing many friends and colleagues in ghana and lesotho l hope to communicate with them if they read this message . Hamid . . Sudan .
Short answer, this is because the land which is now part of Senegal was under the French while the tiny strip of land which is now The Gambia was under British colonialism.
I speak on behalf of senegalese, we are not as barbaric as american or british who think that every problem is solved by invading and killing people. A benelux format was already tried and it did not pan out very well. In the state Senegal is currently (injustice, murdered officers without any investigation , corruption) I woul suggest gambian to move away from us.
Guerilla language lesson of the day: when using the past tense of a verb like "gather" it's the past participle. In this case the person you're asking has performed an action(like a verb). They're "doing" research, so your correct line of questioning is missing the past tense of the verb "do", which is "did". Small nuances like this make English a hassle to learn. The sentence has more direct question if you ask it as "where did you gather all this information?" - with love, A random native English speaker. (P.s. if I ever learn Hindi I'd hope you'd help to correct my language usage as to help further my understanding too)
In other languages such as German, there are many countries that get "the" placed in front of them, such as Turkiye (die Türkei) and the USA (die Vereinigten Staaten).
Want to know the story behind another strange border in Africa 🌍: ua-cam.com/video/N9LKOaNl7FQ/v-deo.html
Fun fact: Gambling is prohibited in Gambia.
That’s no fun
Good to know that Gambia is a quitter nation
Gamblia
@@alessandrocomastri For Gamblia gambling is the economical basis. That is why its capital is Monte Casino.
Gammeln geht immer in Gambia.
A large part of why the Gambian government and army do not want to have a customs union or free trade with Senegal is that they charge high tolls to cross the ferries over the Gambia river. Any Senegalese truck driver, car or foot passenger has to pay the tolls, (often with heafty bribes included), to cross over the Gambia territory. The govt and border guards make a lot of money from corruption this way. It prevents trade and business from being conducted efficiently and only makes trucks, traders and travellers lose money, but it is how corruption works there. This is why trade or travel is still so low and expensive, even though the countries are next to each other.
Unfortunately that was bad experience you had, but The Gambia is far better than that.
As as Gambian I understand the economic benefit but you are right that it’s too expensive and corrupt. Even us Gambian are complaining about this hefty prices levied on us. The sad thing is the money collected is not invested back to the people. Stays with the elites in government. In fact the bridge is now under Africa50’s management.
@@SC-uv5le Yes, if the money from the tolls was invested back into the economy it could do some good, and be used to pay for improved infrastructure, like a railway bridge. As you say however, it gets stolen through corruption. There is much scope for economic growth and development in Gambia, if only this corruption can be overcome.
Corruption in the Gambia is like a cancer of the heart. Take it from a Gambian.
@@ousman997bro they are whites trying to teach us 😅 he is lying all he knows about the gambia he knows it on this video's
In the 1650s The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia - a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth located in modern-day Latvia (and with mostly German ruling class, including the Duke Jakob Kettler) tried to establish a colony in the Gambia.
They actually established
they DID establish a colony
A video dedicated to Curonian colonialism definitely will happen at some point on the channel!
@@GhostCountriesare you gonna talk about the 2016 “coup” by former president Yahya Jammeh which caused ECOWAS to intervene and invade, then Jammeh resigned
@@undertaker9587think they worded it like that because it isn't considered a success. As in they tried to establish a colony but had to abandon the project only a little more then a decade later.
Love from a Gambian 🇬🇲
Love from uk. my first african friends are from Gambia. Lige long vriends with people crom your country. ❤
Don’t you mean love from a The Gambian?
@@___gg421 love Gambia 💪❤✌🙏
@@___gg421 and Gambian
Haaland
Good one! I learned about some of our history I never knew about but when all is said and done, Gambia and Senegal should be one country, because it is, literally!
The Gambia 🇬🇲 the smiling coast of Africa !
Africa is so unique man.
Glad to see ghost geography made a comeback on the channel! I think your last one was about the Sarra Triangle, which was really interesting and there's so many other stories like that all over the world. I mean, I know the main focus of the channel is ghost countries, but I think these kind of episodes are great as well! Also, The Gambia has to get credit for a pretty cool flag design. 🇬🇲
Sarra Triangle was a personal favorite of mine and yeah, we've got plenty more planned for ghost geography going forward. I'm not exactly sure how regular they'll be in terms of content scheduling, but we'll figure something out.
Personally, I do like The Gambia's flag too! The continent honestly has more than a few nicely designed flags.
Yea.. we got the best flag in Africa..😉
Great content. Gambia and Senegal where all provice of the ancient Mali Empire of the manding or mandinka people and was the access source of the ocean for them.
just like how Indonesia Malaysia Singapore Brunei Philippines should unite as one country, or..
how haiti and dominica need to be one country, or...
Iran Iraq as one nation, or...
China Hongkong Macau should be just one and give that taiwan island to the native austronesian to be austronesian nation,
etc.
so many family that broken because of the European powers...
@@DBT1007 people should name specific countries instead of saying "European powers colonised everybody".
because I am European but we never colonized nobody 😂
anyway, I heard that Haiti and Dominican RP are pretty different in economics and crime rate and everything.
Spanish was running the colony more wise and they created more equal society.
Dominican RP is actually pretty decent economy. best in Caribbean and C.America and like 8th in Latin American countries.
I mean, if you would give people to vote for unification, prbly they would vote no in Dom RP 🤷
very well rounded comment ! excellent . division in progress ! let’s unit back and create the Mali empire back .
@@tidianediallo6860no
Fake !! Only the south of Senegal was in the mali empire, the south of Senegal IS populated in majority la mandenka people.. there were a kingdom and empire indépendant in the centre and the North : Jolof Empire, Tekruur etc ..
Also, my country ZAMBIA 🇿🇲 got it's name from the ZAMBEZI River 😝☺️
That came full circle! 😅
@@GhostCountries 😂 yessir
Nigeria also got its name from the River Niger.
And the Niger from the Niger !
I was always curious about Gambia's history when I explored the map. Thank you for making this video.
The
Hmm. The reason why The Gambia is surrounded, which was not the case at first, is because Portugal gave up its Casamance region in exchange for some territory further inland, nowadays part of Guiné-Bissau.
Great video! I have an idea for the next video. What about the history of Heligoland, a small German island that was once controlled by the British. Would be great to see that. And please keep making great vids.
I could've sworn I responded to this, but Heligoland actually makes a brief appearance in our latest video. I definitely think we'll do a more detailed video on the island in the future though!
Great video about this African country, Africa generally is so underrated.
Thanks man; yeah, there’s plenty more to explore and I can say we’ve got a few other ghost geography episodes set in Africa coming out soon-ish!
@@GhostCountries will look forward to it!
Did you just call a continent underrated 🤦♂️
@@Alphoric Yes I did, as African history often is very overlooked in Europe and in America.
@@caspar9794he obviously knew. it’s just used as a slang and as you can see he did elaborate on it using the word.
In 1816 the British founded what is now Banjul and built a battery of guns to stop the slave ships using the river . A few years later fort Bullen was built at Barra because the guns at Banjul didn't have the reach to control the full width of the river . These are the only structures in the world built to stop the slave trade .
Great video! I'd personally be interested in hearing about Spain's few remaining outposts in Africa: Ceuta and Melilla.
That may be happening soon than you think! 😉
Why are you interested.? Don't even know why anyone would want to to be there.
The real strange thing is not that THE Gambia is a separate country, but how come Casamance (that area to its south) became part of Senegal, rather than any other country, even though that made Senegal a strange shape.
Oh, we'll definitely be further exploring Casamance's story in a future video!
Casamass is Senegal
The truth is Cassamance is a stolen land by Senegal and eastern Cassamance which is Tambacounda was in effect detached and renamed Senegal orièntale
@@bubacarrjallow8061 Cassamance was a colony of the Portuguese, it was handed over to by French, when Senegal got independence, the region was given too .
Casamance, The Gambia and the rest of Senegal is all one country regardless of the name you give it. We were divided and conquered.
I hope Senegal and Gambia will be one country again.🇸🇳+🇬🇲
Nicely done. Complicated history made understandable
Glad you liked it!
2:14 The Gambia region was never controlled by the Songhai Empire, that's just a commonly repeated mistake among online amateur mapmakers, who have a habit of treating Songhai as a bigger version of Mali when their territories didn't actually perfectly overlap.
Kind of meanly worded. I still appreciate the general knowledge being disseminated that wouldn't have happened otherwise
@@JJ-si4qh I don't see how this is remotely "meanly worded," it's just a straightforward correction of a common mistake and an explanation of where the mistake comes from.
You are absolutely correct. It has nothing to do with Songhai. In fact, parts of modern-day Gambia were tributary states to the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. Upper Saluum lies in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum was in modern day Gambia - who paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone, the capital of ancient Saluum, now in present day Senegal. Previously to that, it was briefly part of the Jolof Empire, and before that, part of the Mali Empire, and before that, part of the Ghana Empire.
@@Njoofene The Ghana Empire? I've covered the Ghana Empire on my channel before, as far as I'm aware that one was also much further to the northeast of the Gambia, like Songhai.
@SomasAcademy Modern day Gambia and Senegal were all part of the Ghana Empire in ancient times. These modern-day countries did not exist at the time. Our ancestors lived in kingdoms, including the ancient Kingdom of Tekrur, which lies in the north of modern Senegal. I know my history very well. I come from here. In fact, the old Wagadou Dynasty (Bagadadou in the Seereer language, the language of my tribe) was the reigning Dynasty of many Senegambian old kingdoms. In fact, in Soninke mythology of the sacred serpent Bidda and in the foundation of the Ghana Empire, it mentions the blood ties between the Soninke and Seereer people.
The territory of The Gambia PROPER extends far beyond the current boundaries crafted by Britain and France. The subject of territorial boundaries is not much of a subject of discussion, because both countries share a common faith and human brotherhood.
Great video coming from a Gambian here 🇬🇲🙌
Thank you so much; it’s always great hearing from someone from a place cover in a video of ours!
Pleasure is all yours 🙌 Hi from Gambia 🇬🇲
Good video as always!
We ultra traditional and conservative Senegambians (especially the Seereer, to which I am) with a strong knowledge of our history, do not refer to ourselves as "Senegalese" or "Gambian" , but "Senegambian" because we believe in the unification of the two modern nations. These two modern nations were brought on by colonialism without regard for the inhabitants. Previously, our ancestors used to live in kingdoms, and I, for one, and many conservative Seereers, do not believe in the modern nations of Senegal or Gambia. Since the old Kingdoms are no more (with the Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum being the last to fall (1969), although the Seereers have recently brought back their royal dynasty), we traditionalists are more content referring to ourselves as Senegambians than Gambian or Senegalese. The late Senegambian artist Musa Ngum (of Seereer heritage) was one of the pioneers of this movement. Every Gambian has an ancestor from what we now refer to as modern-day Senegal and vice versa. Even parts of Gambia were tributary of the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. The ancient Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum now lie in present-day Senegal. However, what was Upper Saluum is now in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum in modern day Gambia, who in ancient times paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone (now in modern day Senegal). There is no such thing as Senegal or Gambia as far as we are concerned. Since our ancient Kingdoms have collapsed due to France, Britain, and Islamism, we are more willing to accept the notion of a Senegambian nation.
Divide and Conquer
A British and France Strategy
to control Africa
It is up to the Senegambian people to make it happen. It sounds like the people running The Gambia want to keep this control over this valley and the commerce through it
Gambia was part of Mali empire not what you saying
Really good ! I would have liked more detailled history after independance. Oh well, I'll search for myself.
Thx for the video
I.d like to know more about Gâmbia. Is this a good country to expats?
@@lilomouradenilsonkaiowa5195 For what I know you would prefer Sénégal
could you do katanga next
Yes! I can't say exactly when, but Katanga is definitely on our list. It's kind of an interesting one, since it fits the criteria both for a regular ghost countries' (State of Katanga) and ghost geography (Katanga Province) episode; either way, we'll be covering it.
I like waffles, js
Nice,thanks.Please make a doc on (: the Aku speakers of The Gambia.
I thought the country named itself The Gambia in order to distinguish the state from the river with the same name. Nevertheless, this is such an interesting video! One of the few times I actually learned something new
Very interesting country!!
Thank you for sharing us!
Gambia is Totally independent, Since 1965 unlike our noisy neighbour's who are still under there French masters😢.
That's because when the UK gives freedom it really does
all Africa has be under european rule
I hope The Gambia reconsiders its foreign policy decision regarding an important Asian nation. 😢
@@miahconnell23Taiwan?
Both are independent lmao
Yooo I'm early so I guess I'll leave a comment to the algorithm for now 👍
First! 🥇
Wow..fascinating history!😮
I really don't mean to be offensive, but I'm genuinely curious. In my country, most of all Heroin trade is done by people from Gambia. I used to be a heroin addict so I'm not just making things up, but I admit it's anecdotal evidence, own experiences and not some serious study. Is it common for criminals to be exiled or something?
Senegal: please give me some river
Gambia: nuh uh
As i was in Gambia the ferries crossing the river Gambia a usually very congested you can wait for hours with proper bribes in place. Avoiding crossing the river may be worth it not only because of not wanting to cross the border.
Your history of The Gambia omits an important fact: in1651 the Duchy of Courland under Duke Jakob Kettler established its first colony in Africa, St. Andrews Island on the Gambia River, and founded Fort Jakob there. The Duchy also gained control of additional land, which happened to include St. Mary Island (modern-day Banjul) and Fort Jillifree. Courlanders also had a colony in Tobago. The Duchy's colonies exported ivory, gold, furs, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, ginger, indigo, rum, cocoa, tortoise shells, as well as tropical birds and their much sought after feathers. In the end, the Duchy would manage to retain control of these lands for less than a decade and the colonies were formally ceded to England in 1664. The Duchy of Courland was the only European power which treated the locals as equals and taught them to be merchants. It was the British who took over the Duchy's colonies who began the brutal slave trade in indigenous peoples.
I had to google what Courland was - it was a vassal state of Lithuania. We never hear about Baltic colonies!
No mention or curonian colonisation? I thought that would be a strange fact that would work well in this video.
Honestly, I should’ve mentioned it, but am thinking of just doing a stand alone Curonian colonization at some point now.
Nice Video! Time goes fast while watching you!
It's a great video, but can we learn more about the society and culture of the Gambia?
I like the Portal like sound effects for the arrows 😁
The Gambia smiling coast of Africa 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲my homeland my proud. Greetings from Angola 🇦🇴 22/8/2023
Senegal and Gambia should be one country.
no
@@yankiefrenz1367 Yes. These countries and borders are French and British creation
A confederation was tried and it did not work.
I bet 5000$ if the population were consulted for a vote , the No would win.
And as a senegalese I will vote No.
Whatever happened happened
Love ma country Gambia 🇬🇲 ❤️
and so, this is such a great video
As a Korean, it is great to be the best ally with Gambia ❤
Your name is Taiwan no.1 and you are a Korean?😂
Actually i’m a Gambia and currently living in Taiwan. I love Taiwan
I would like to visit the Gambia soon
Learned a lot from this video!
One small correction: Newfoundland is pronounced like "Nu-fin-len"
Wonderfully explained grateful for that 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲
Thats my homeland 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲
Other countries: look there's a river here, this is mine and thats your ok?
Gambia: I AM THE RIVER
Random fact about languages. In portuguese, most country names must have articles in front of them. The article could be masculine, feminine, singular or plural. There are 5 grammar grups of countries therefore:
A Argentina - feminine singular
O Brasil - masculine singular
As Filipinas - feminine plural
Os Estados Unidos - masculine plural
Portugal - no article
Fancy a dip in River🐊Gambia❓If you were in 1970's Banjul,then you likely heard(:"Gambia,River Gambia /: you know sabi 🏊♂ swim,water dey carry you go‼"
Love from The Gambia 🇬🇲
My homeland proud to be from the smiling coast of Africa.
Why does the reference to Portugal show an image of a Spanish standard bearer
Well, that "The" only applies to English or other languages that use prefixes like that, so most people will not use it anyway.
But English is the official language of The Gambia.
Hold up. Did you say Kunta Kinte Island? Is Toby The Gambian?
I think he was Mandika.. large group of pipo from west Africa
An avid follow from the video showcasing West Africa as a whole, only to be separated by the Europeans 🙄 love from 🇬🇲!
The Gambia 🇬🇲 mama land
Haven’t you missed something out there? At the beginning of the video, the French territory of Senegal is north of the Gambia. Later on, the Gambia is completely surrounded by Senegal.
Great video. Same old modus of operandei of Europe and the west are applied today. Divide and conquer.
The whole country on one river. Like Egypt
So true 😁
And South Sudan
2:30 isn't that a Spanish banner, not Portuguese?
This guy sounds like Nate from the office. Great video though. Good facts
I got an ad on FB for a home there and I could watch it being built on a webcam. I live in Scotland and sweat a lot due to a medical condition and could never live there.
It’s all to keep us divided. That’s all there is to it. Unite. Make it a town in the state of sinegal in the country of Africa
The answer to most of these questions is almost always European Imperialism and/or Colonialism.
I always thought it was strange, everytime I saw it on a map or in a game that features it.
I mean, I had presumed that it was just another 'wacky wild border gore adventures with colonialism.
Fun fact: The reason the name was changed to the "Islamic" Republic of the Gambia is because Gambia was ruled by an insane neocolonial dictator named Yahya Jammeh. HE was president for over 20 years but lost the 2016 election to Adama Barrow. But he refused to step down, stating " I will rule Gambia for one billion years if I have to." ECOWAS issued an injunction against Jammeh demanding him to peacefully hand over power to Barrow but he refused. In January 2017 they issued an ultimatum that ECOWAS will militarily intervene in Gambia if he didn't step down. After the ultimatum expired and Jammeh failed to meet the demands, an ECOWAS coalition lead by Nigeria invaded to depose Jammeh and transfer power to Barrow. From what I read it the time, it was said to be a relatively bloodless invasion, as I'm guessing Jammeh was pretty unpopular in the general population and the rank and file of the Gambian military. But there were said to be minor skirmishes between ECOWAS forces and Jammeh loyalists. Within the next 48 hours ECOWAS had captured the capital Banjul, Jammah fled exile, and Barrow was restored to power. That year was when the removed the "Islamic Republic" from their official name.
I appreciated the Newfoundland connection
Very informative video but you missed out probably the most importaint factor. That is the 'Berlin conference' which took place from the 17th November 1884. All of the major European powers of the day were present by invitation of the then German Chancellor 'Otto Von Bismarck'.
The main purpose of the conference, today known as the 'Scramble for Africa' was for the said European powers to reach amicable agreement on the division of the African continent by peaceful negotiation rather than by conflict & war. Over the next 107 days, the whole of the African continent was carved up into the seperate countries with most of the borders that we now know today including the Gambia/Senegal. As if the whole continent was a tasty cake being carved up for European consumption & not a single African leader of the day was either present nor invited. In fact King Leopold II of Belgium, who also was not invited. Turned up anyway stating that "I've come to get a piece of this magnificent African cake". He was rewarded by having his claim for the Begium Congo granted which he then proceeded to use as his own personal play ground. Over the next generation or so he literally halved the then 20 million population by killing over 10 million African men, women & children as a consequence of the worst colonial exploitation imaginable.
At the Berlin conference, the French had laid a claim to the territory which became French Senegal but the British had insisted on maintaining access to the river Gambia in order to transport their plundered goods from the African interior to the Atlantic ocean then back to Brtain. Hence the Gambia was created in the middle of French Senegal to appease the British & allow them to have the access route they requred. This is also the reason for Gambia's unusual cigar shape being roughly 300 miles long but no wider the 15 miles either side of the river.
The rest of Europeans powers then spent the next 30 years all claiming their own slice of 'the magnificant African cake' by persuasion, conquest or by whatever other means they could muster against the Africans. Secure in the knowledge that they would have no interference from any of the other European powers as it had all been agreed before hand at the Bertlin conference in 1884.
Fun fact : the Gambia has a similar size as Lebanon, Qatar, Kosovo, Jamaica
Also poorer than the rest
@@lemonade_ib how ignorant!!!
@@lemonade_ib maybe are they richer in the soul, isn't that the most important thing ?
@@lemonade_ibWhat relevance does that have to the topic at hand?
@@lemonade_ib km from Gambia, n you're not lying though
1:08 i have closed captions on and I haven’t found anything unusual
Now we just need Nambia to perfect the trio.
Hmm
As an American, i support Senegambian unification
To late we now taking it to a higher level unitification of the hold continent of Africa
@@NjieZiphougarth that cannot succeed
@@mroof523 they plan Allah plans surely Allah is the best of planner's
@@NjieZiphougarthif it is difficult to unify 2 country, why would you go on a higher level with 52 more ?
@@mddi1420 is call confederation have you ever hear about ecowas, west African block, it unit all west African countries. The nord, east and south also have there unification now we need to bring all this four together via Africa intracontinental free tariff zone.step by step u till we get what we want... United States of Africa
Like how you used the flag of Great Britain and not the present flag until later in your video
Ilove gambla from knowing many friends and colleagues in ghana and lesotho l hope to communicate with them if they read this message . Hamid . . Sudan .
Crazy stuff!
Yes, that's my country!
And why do you call it 'the Gambia' instead of just 'Gambia'?
The name of the country is The Gambia
@@lemonade_ib not where I live
Short answer, this is because the land which is now part of Senegal was under the French while the tiny strip of land which is now The Gambia was under British colonialism.
I always wondered why Senegal never just invaded to make transportation easier
Lives have value and conflict has consequences in reality, unlike in movies and games
Ah who needs wisdom when we can just rely on such awe-inspiring brilliance?
I speak on behalf of senegalese, we are not as barbaric as american or british who think that every problem is solved by invading and killing people.
A benelux format was already tried and it did not pan out very well.
In the state Senegal is currently (injustice, murdered officers without any investigation , corruption)
I woul suggest gambian to move away from us.
You can take the lead! Fool 🙄🙄🙄
Hey friend, from where you gathered so much information. Love from India.
Guerilla language lesson of the day: when using the past tense of a verb like "gather" it's the past participle. In this case the person you're asking has performed an action(like a verb). They're "doing" research, so your correct line of questioning is missing the past tense of the verb "do", which is "did". Small nuances like this make English a hassle to learn.
The sentence has more direct question if you ask it as "where did you gather all this information?"
- with love,
A random native English speaker. (P.s. if I ever learn Hindi I'd hope you'd help to correct my language usage as to help further my understanding too)
My mama land bless country...
How wide's the river?
The width of the river varies considerably along its course, but, at its widest, the Gambia is about 6.2 miles or 10 kilometers.
You're pronouncing Songhay wrong, it's [SONG] + [GY]
Thanks a lot
1:45 me watching from a country called Zambia
I'm from Gambia 🇬🇲
Thank you. That worm doesn't look good to me.
Btw all the explanations for the name are incorrect.
aint no way im the only one who cannot unsee a face when the senegal's flag is put in the middle at the beginning of the video
dunno if anyone ever told you but all I see looking at your Avatar is three japanese Katakana "e" and I can't unsee it エエエ
えー！？ Honestly, now that you pointed it out, I can’t unsee it. 😅
Greetings cousin 🎉❤
0:06 what is that pixelated pokemon?
Senegal kind of looks like Lotad on it's side.
FACT: Cap Skirring is in the Casamance area.
In other languages such as German, there are many countries that get "the" placed in front of them, such as Turkiye (die Türkei) and the USA (die Vereinigten Staaten).
Oh and also Switzerland (die Schweiz).
Is it really the smallest when a bit of the ocean also belongs to it?
Within 4 days!