Gambia: Cherishing What God Has Given Gambians
The River Gambia is one of the nature's great creations: navigable, fresh, unpolluted, rich in fish and other resources. It is this river which gave our dear country its name, which is also one more reason why this great potential must be so dear to us.
The Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to notice the beauty, splendour and potential of the river, which is why as early as 1445, there explorers were regularly crisscrossing this great stretch of water trade in the riches that the hinterland offered.
Soon, the British, Germans, Colourlanders, French followed. The river therefore helped to put our country firmly into the maps of the world earlier than many other climes in Africa. Sadly, it boosted the internal slave trade also. But as that is better forgotten, we will not say much on it.
The river is also a symbol, a potent one for that matter, of sub-regional integration. It flows through Senegal and Guinea, whence it rises. The river is therefore one major symbol of the cultural and social continuum historians wish to call Greater Senegambia.
Fisheries are another great potential of this mighty flow called River Gambia. A high percentage of Gambians living along the banks of the river, from Kartong to Koina, depends on its fish for food. It waters another major crop-rice-which is our staple diet.
Until the drought of the 1960s and 1970s which accentuated brackishness in the river, it was most suitable for rice cultivation all year round.
The river is Africa's most navigable. It is free from rapids, cataracts, sand banks and other riverine hurdles. This is why ships with medium draught can reach its most upper parts all year round with little problems. The transportation potential of our river is therefore beyond reasonable doubt. Before we had roads, the boats sailing from Bathurst to Basse such as the Lady Wright were the lifeline of trade and communication between the urban and rural areas. It offered a less expensive and relatively quick means of taking goods and people for one part of the country to another.
This is why from the 1920s onwards, settlements found along the river, called Wharf Towns, such as Kaur, Kuntaur, Carrols Wharf, were booming trade and social centres.
They attracted even people from Bathurst, the traitents, or groundnut buyers during the trade season. Then it was the urban folks rushing to Kaur and Georgetown and other provincial towns. The river indeed boosted life in rural Gambia in the early to the mid 20th century.
These and other not mentioned reasons explained why Gambians should give the river utmost attention. We should do more to exploit its riches to develop our country and self.
History tells us that it is the river that is the building block for our Gambia; it is our great asset which must be cherished, exploited and protected.
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