Ethnic Diversity and Integration in The Gambia

Book excerpt: This work is a comprehensive look at The Gambia as a country and as a nation. Subjects covered include a general history of the country, its geography - regions and towns - and its people. It's also a profile of the country's demographic composition. The author looks at the different ethnic groups and their cultures and how they have been able to achieve unity in diversity in one of the most peaceful countries on the African continent. The work is also a study in regional integration with a focus on the Senegambia confederation. The author draws parallels between the short-lived Senegambia confederation and the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar shedding some light on some of the problems African countries face in their quest for unity. The collapse of the Senegambia confederation is in sharp contrast with the unity The Gambia has achieved within as nation. One of Gambia's most outstanding features is ethnic and cultural integration in spite of the cultural and historical differences among the country's different ethnic groups. People going to The Gambia for the first time may find this work to be useful. It's not a tourist guide but an introductory work covering a wide range of subjects on Africa's smallest country. Members of the general public who want to learn about The Gambia will also find this work to be helpful. The author has also taken a scholarly approach on a number of subjects using well-documented sources in an analytical context and has provided useful insights into the complexities of the country across the spectrum, addressing a wide range of subjects including ethnicity, cultural fusion, and national integration. He also contends that understanding ethnicity as a phenomenon and as an analytical tool and a conceptual framework is critical to any study of African countries most of which are multi-ethnic societies; and that the spatial theory of ethnicity is not applicable in all contexts including Gambia where the opposite - of what the theory says - is true. The work may therefore be useful to students and scholars who are interested in The Gambia. But it should be seen as a general work on The Gambia in spite of the academic approach the author has taken in his analysis of a number of subjects on this country which is also known as a gateway to West Africa.