Flag of Gambia

National Anthem of Gambia

Neighbours of Gambia

• Senegal

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Gambia description

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, commonly known as Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. It is the smallest country on the African continental mainland and is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Flowing through the centre of the country and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean is the Gambia River. On 18 February 1965, The Gambia was granted independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and joined The Commonwealth. Banjul is its capital but the largest conurbation is Serekunda. The Gambia is a very small and narrow country whose borders mirror the meandering Gambia River. The country is less than 48 km wide, with a total area of 11,300 km². Its present boundaries were defined in 1889 after an agreement between the United Kingdom and France. It is almost an enclave of Senegal, and is the smallest country on the continent of Africa. # The Gambia was the first and last British colony in West Africa. # In his 1977 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley traced his family back to Kunta Kinte, enslaved from the village of Juffure on the north bank of The Gambia. # En route to Casablanca for a conference and then to Liberia, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first serving U.S. president to visit the African continent when he stopped in Banjul in 1943. # In the 1930s, The Gambia was a transit point for the German airline Lufthansa's transatlantic mail service. Three aircraft were lost during this period. # Yundum Airport was an emergency landing site for NASA space shuttles. # "The" was inserted into the country's official name to further distinguish it from Zambia