THE ROLE OF HISTORY IN THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAMBIA

This article examines the role of history in the emergence and development of The Gambia. History plays an important role in the making of any nation. All the ethnic groups that make up The Gambia have emigrated from different parts of West Africa and converged in this region called The Gambia. This article joins the debate on the role of migration and settlements of people in The Gambia from a historical perspective. Concentrating on how political and economic factors in the pre-colonial period around the Sahel region and how colonialism was responsible for migration of people into the country. It proceeds to examine how factors such as unity in diversity and colonial experiences have helped in shaping the direction of economic development of immigrant people into the country before and after independence. In order to go into the distant past, a descriptive historical analysis method was adopted in the process of writing this treatise. Also, the methodology adopted for this study is qualitative in nature, using content analysis and secondary sources, the paper was analyzed. This paper shows how history as a tool for mobilization was utilized for the attainment of independence in The Gambia. The article's contribution to knowledge is in its ability to utilize historical, as well as secondary sources to shed more light on the migration, peopling and settlement on the Gambia over time perspective. The authors argue that history acts as referees in a nation's cause and that since people are the fruits of their history, most things are achieved by resorting to positive historical antecedents for citizenship, national consciousness, patriotism and for the overall general development of any given polity.