Gambia Independence Day

People all across GAMBIA (The Gambia) are celebrating their country's Independence Day today. Gambia achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. Happy Independence Day!

Gambia is Known for...

●    A sacred crocodile pool called Kachikally
●    Atlantic beaches
●    Exotic birds
●    The Gambia River
●    The Kunta Kinteh family, made famous through Alex Haley’s book Roots
●    Warm smiles from citizens

Most items were listed in The Africa Book; the MLA citation is below. What are other "trademarks" of this African country? Feel free to share your thoughts with a comment!

Phillips et al. The Africa Book: A Journey through Every
          Country in the Continent. Lonely Planet, 2007.

— #AfricaWeek —

Gambia Exports

The following items are major exports of The GAMBIA: animal hides, beverages, cassava, clay, clothing and textiles, corn (maize), cotton lint, millet, palm kernels, peanuts, peanut products, rice, seafood, sesame, silicon sand, sorghum, tin, titanium, and zircon. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports (February 2017 statistics) include Mali (top importer), Guinea, Senegal, China, Guinea-Bissau, India, Vietnam, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom, Federated States of Micronesia, Niger, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, the Maldives, Myanmar, Italy, Portugal, Israel, and South Korea.

Gambia Endangered Species

As of August 1st, 2015, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for GAMBIA in western Africa lists four critically endangered species and thirteen endangered species. Fortunately, Gambia does not have any extinct species on the IUCN Red List. Gambia's four critically endangered species are the Atlantic Goliath Grouper, Largetooth Sawfish, Smalltooth Sawfish, and Slender-snouted Crocodile. Some endangered species include the African Wild Dog, Blackchin Guitarfish, Chimpanzee, Dusky Grouper, Scalloped Hammerhead shark, Undulate Skate and White Skate, and West African (Western) Red Colobus monkey. Gambia's endangered vulture species are the Hooded Vulture, Rüppell's Vulture, and White-backed Vulture.

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Basics About Gambia

GAMBIA is a thin country in West Africa that is surrounded on three sides (north, south, and east) by Senegal. Gambia's west coast borders the Atlantic Ocean. Located at the junction of the Atlantic coastline and the Gambia River, Banjul is the capital and by far the largest city in Gambia. English is the official language and used mainly by people in government. However, other languages - including Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof - are more widely spoken amongst Gambians.

Africa's Thin Countries

If you looked at a map of Africa, you may or may not have noticed that there are several small, very thin countries. While countries such as Lesotho and Sierra Leone are rather round, Africa is home to five extremely skinny countries. The West Africa region boasts the most with three: they are BENIN, GAMBIA*, and TOGO. East Africa has one country that is diagonally skinny: ERITREA, bordering the Red Sea and located north of Ethiopia. Located in Southern Africa, MALAWI is the remaining skinny country. It straddles the vertically oriented Lake Malawi and the Great Rift Valley.

* Gambia's north and south borders are on both sides of the horizontally flowing Gambia River

Former Names of Capitals

Quite a few capitals previously had different names. The following is a list of many, definitely not all, of the capitals that had different names in the past — they are categorized by continent.

AFRICA
Bujumbura, BURUNDI's former capital (Gitega is the new capital since 2019), was called Usumbura until 1962.
N'Djamena, CHAD's capital, was called Fort Lamy until 1973.
Kinshasa, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO's capital, was called Léopoldville until 1966.
Banjul, the capital of GAMBIA, was named Bathurst until 1973.
Antananarivo, MADAGASCAR's capital, was named Tananarive until 1975.
Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE's capital, was named Lourenço Marques until Mozambique's independence in 1976.
Harare, ZIMBABWE's capital, was named Salisbury until 1982.

ASIA
Tbilisi, GEORGIA's capital, was known as Tpilisi (Georgian) or Tiflis (Russian) until 1936.
Jakarta, INDONESIA's highly-populated capital, was known as Sunda Kelapa, then Jayakata, then Batavia, then Djakarta from 1949 to 1972.
Tokyo, JAPAN's capital located on the island of Honshu, was previously named Edo until 1868.
Astana, KAZAKHSTAN's capital, was known as Tselinograd, then Aqmola.
Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN's capital, was named Pishpek until 1926 and Frunze until 1991, the fall of the Soviet Union.
Ulaanbaatar, MONGOLIA's capital, was known as Ugra until 1924.
Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN's capital, was called Dyushambe until 1929 and received the name Stalinagrad until 1961.
Ankara, TURKEY's capital, was called Angora until 1930.
Ashgabat, TURKMENISTAN's capital, was called Poltoratsk from 1919 until 1927.

EUROPE
Belgrade, SERBIA's capital, was known as Singidunum in ancient times.
Podgorica, MONTENEGRO's capital, was known as Birziminium before the 11th century, Ribnica during the Middle Ages, and Titograd from 1946 to 1992. The capital possessed the name Podgorica in 1326 until 1946, resuming in 1992.

SOUTH AMERICA
Sucre, one of two capitals of BOLIVIA and named in honor of Antonio José de Sucre, was called Chuquisaca until 1825.

Credit goes to the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition, which conveniently listed former capital names.

Gambia

GAMBIA is a relatively tiny, horizontally-skinny country located in West Africa. Senegal is the only bordering country, surrounding Gambia on three sides. The western coast of Gambia borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital city is Banjul, which is not the most-populated city. While Banjul's metropolitan area exceeds 300,000 residents, the city limits has a population of about 34,500. Serre Kunda boasts over 300,000 residents, followed by Brikama (~78,000) and Bakau (~43,000). Gambia's currency is the Gambian Dalasi, and its ISO 4217 currency code is GMD.