After more than a century as a British colony and protectorate, The Gambia achieved independence on January 26, 1965, with Dawda Jawara becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The narrow strip of land following the Gambia River, surrounded almost entirely by Senegal, had been a British trading post since the 17th century, valued first for gold and ivory and later, tragically, as a hub of the transatlantic slave trade.
The Gambia's borders trace the meandering path of the Gambia River, a geographic oddity created by 19th-century colonial horse-trading between Britain and France, who divided West Africa with little regard for the ethnic groups living there. The result was one of Africa's smallest and strangest nations: a slender ribbon of territory almost entirely enveloped by Senegal, its economy and identity shaped by the river that gave it purpose.
Dawda Jawara, a British-trained veterinarian who had entered politics through the People's Progressive Party, led the peaceful transition to independence. Unlike many African nations that gained independence amid upheaval, The Gambia's transition was notably calm, and Jawara would go on to lead the country for nearly three decades as one of Africa's longer-serving, if imperfect, democratic leaders.
The island of James Island (later renamed Kunta Kinteh Island) in the Gambia River had been a key node in the slave trade, and the country's independence carried particular symbolic weight as a former hub of that horror reclaiming self-rule. The Gambia remained a monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II for a few more years before becoming a republic in 1970.