The Gambia

Continuation of the Atlantic Theory of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey (part 1: Atlantic Troy; part 2:  Atlantic Ismaros-Kikones). Odysseus' wanderings after his departure from Troy: Route Brittany-Senegal. Study of Atlantic authors De Grave, Cailleux, Gideon, Wilkens, Vinci. Identification of his first stop as North of Spain (Ulla, A Coruña), Kuthera as El Araich (Maroc) and Lotophagia as Senegambia.

This article highlights narratives of enslavement held in the
Church Missionary Society and Methodist Missionary Society
archives for the Sierra Leone, Yoruba, and Gambia missions
in the nineteenth century. Its particular focus is on
testimonies of Africans who experienced enslavement in
Africa and were subsequently sold to Europeans on the
coast and embarked on trans-Atlantic slave vessels. These
documents form part of the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council (SSHRC)-funded SHADD: Studies in the
History of the African Diaspora – Documents project, a
digital publication of the Harriet Tubman Institute for
Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York University
(http://tubman.info.yorku.ca/publications/shadd/). This article
catalogues both the narratives uncovered to date – among
the longest unpublished accounts of enslavement in Africa –
and research strategies for uncovering more. It concludes
with an appendix indexing digitized and transcribed
documents available on the SHADD database as research
and teaching resources.

Like many countries in the developing world gender inequity remains a staggering problem in The Gambia, particularly at the secondary school level. In this study, we focus on the relationship between girls ’ education and heavy domestic workloads, herein referred to as girls ’ familial responsibilities. We explore this topic in relation not only to performance but also to the value that girls assign to schooling at the post-primary level through the use of a qualitative-inductive phenomenological-approach, mixed with descriptive survey. Findings from this study enabled us to gain a more nuanced snapshot of how, in practice, familial responsibilities can work against the goal of gender equality in and through formal education. More specifically, we find that although access to girls ’ schooling has improved in The Gambia, there is still a profound tension between the values parents assigned to female education and the gender socialization of the girl child in preparation for their so...

To introduce a wide range of ways in which government
should use the Internet and computer networks
for: improving collaboration and cooperation
between ministries; making government services
more transparent, efficient and effective for the
public by sharing accurate and up-to-date information
and improving people’s access to government
services; boosting public sector accountability,
transparency, efficiency and effectiveness. E-government
can also help streamline activities, cuts
costs and paperwork and help many parties make
more informed development decisions.

Both The Gambia and Tanzania have high rates of under-18 marriage for girls and both also raised the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 in 2016. This ethnographic study of the urban Muslim poor in Tanzania and The Gambia explores the causes behind and meanings of early marriage in these countries and discusses the likelihood of the recent legislative changes to have effect on actual practice among the poor in the towns and cities of these countries.

Executive Summary
The Gambia’s human rights record has been worsening in the last 20 years. Journalists and citizens critical of the government and its policies knew this all too well. They have been targeted with harassment, summary arrests, jail terms, enforced disappearances and even death and denied their right to freedom of expression.
Attaining a free press under an environment tolerant to citizens’ right to free expression on issues of government remains a very big challenge in The Gambia – more than 50 years after independence.
Multilateral diplomacy has proven to be a very useful and successful tool to restore freedoms and other rights where a government has the political will to ensure citizens enjoy greater freedoms and be able to positively contribute to their own development and that of their country. Some good practices adopted by some African countries have been highlighted in this paper to serve as a model for The Gambia.
It is unarguable that the right to free expression, from which all other rights are derived, is fundamental in the human, economic and political development of a country.
Thus, the government of The Gambia has to ensure it creates the space for people to be able to express their feelings and opinions on political, cultural, social and economical issues affecting them.
This cannot be realized in any situation where the media is not free to carry out its watchdog role – holding government and its officials accountable to the public – to promote democracy, good governance, and greater transparency.
This policy research takes account of the state of press freedom and free expression; Gambia’s international obligations; the role of multilateral diplomacy in advancing free expression with emphasis on good practices; and ends with recommendations intended to influence the formulation of positive policies on press freedom, free expression and access to information.

It is sometimes argued that women play a more important role in seed and diversity management than men, and that women have greater abilities in managing crop diversity. In The Gambia, men and women also have the belief that women are better in managing and identifying varieties than men. This article focuses on the role of gender in farmer management of crop diversity in two crops, rice which is cultivated by women and pearl millet which is cultivated by men. First a historical overview is given of the role of gender in farming. The management of crop diversity in rice and millet and gendered knowledge in The Gambia is described in detail. Lastly, a grouping experiment with rice panicles and millet spikes is described. The article shows that clear differences exist between the farming practices of men and women, and these are based on a complex interplay of socio-economic and agro-ecological factors. But the differences in seed selection practices of men and women are small, and those differences that exist can best be explained by a complex of agro-ecological factors and rice and millet characteristics. The grouping experiment showed no significant differences in the way men and women grouped rice panicles and millet spikes. Together these findings suggest that the supposedly better skills of women in crop variety management are related to their gender identity rather than to any biological differences. Instead of taking the supposedly strong skills of women in seed and variety management as a starting point for agricultural development, it is better to understand the underlying mechanism that keep women in disadvantaged positions in rural societies and to try to change these mechanisms for their benefit.

Il est parfois affirmé que les femmes jouent un rôle plus important dans la gestion de la diversité des semences que les hommes, et que les femmes ont une plus grande affinité dans la gestion de la diversité des cultures. En Gambie, les hommes ont aussi la croyance que les femmes sont mieux dans la gestion et l'identification des variétés que les hommes. Cet article se concentre sur le rôle du genre dans la gestion paysanne de la diversité des cultures dans deux cultures, le riz qui est cultivé par les femmes et le mil qui est cultivé par des hommes. D'abord un aperçu historique est donnée du rôle des femmes dans l'agriculture. La gestion de la diversité des cultures de riz et de mil est décrite. Enfin, une expérience de regroupement à panicules de riz et les pointes de mil est décrite. L'article montre que des différences notables existent entre les pratiques agricoles des hommes et des femmes, et celles-ci sont basées sur une interaction complexe de facteurs socio-économiques et agro-écologiques. Mais les différences dans les pratiques de sélection des semences, des hommes et des femmes sont petite, et ces différences qui existent peuvent être mieux expliquée par un ensemble de facteurs agro-écologiques et les caractéristiques du riz et du mil. L'expérience de regroupement (grouping experiment) n'a montré aucune différence significative dans la façon dont les hommes et les femmes regroupées en panicules de riz et les pointes de mil. Ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que les compétences prétendûment supérieure des femmes dans la gestion de la diversité des cultures sont liées à leur identité de genre plutôt qu'à des différences biologiques. Au lieu de prendre les compétences importantes des femmes comme point de départ pour le développement agricole, il est mieux de comprendre le mécanismes qui défavorisé les femmes en sociétés rurales et de tenter de modifier ces mécanismes à leur profit.

A veces se argumenta que las mujeres desempeñan un papel más importante que los hombres en la gestión de la diversidad de semillas, y además, la mujer tiene mayor afinidad en la gestión de la diversidad de cultivos. En Gambia, hombres y mujeres también tienen la creencia de que las mujeres son mejores en la gestión e identificación de las variedades que los hombres. Este artículo se centra en el papel que tiene cada género como agricultor en la gestión de la diversidad de cultivos en dos cultivos en particular: el arroz que se cultiva por las mujeres y el mijo perla cultivada por los hombres. En primer lugar, se entrega una visión histórica del papel del género en la agricultura. La gestión de la diversidad de los cultivos de arroz y el mijo y el conocimiento de cada género en Gambia se describe en detalle. Por último, se describe un experimento de agrupación con panículas de espigas de arroz y el mijo. El artículo muestra que existen claras diferencias entre las prácticas agrícolas de los hombres y mujeres, y éstas se basan en una compleja interacción de factores socio-económicos y agro-ecológicas. Pero las diferencias en las prácticas de la selección de semillas de hombres y mujeres son pequeños, y las diferencias que existen pueden explicarse más que nada por un conjunto de factores agro-ecológicos y por las características del arroz y del mijo. El experimento de la agrupación no mostró diferencias significativas en la forma en que hombres y mujeres agrupan panículas de arroz y los picos de mijo. En conjunto, estos resultados sugieren que las supuestas mejores habilidades de las mujeres en el manejo de cultivos diversos se explican por su identidad de género y no por las diferencias biológicas. En lugar de tomar las supuestas fuertes habilidades de las mujeres en las semillas y la variedad de gestión como punto de partida para el desarrollo agrícola, es mejor comprender el mecanismo subyacente que mantiene a las mujeres en posicion de desventaja en las sociedades rurales y tratar de cambiar estos mecanismos para su beneficio.

Drawing on ethnographic research with kanyeleng fertility society performers and health workers in The Gambia (2012-2013), this paper uses a social capital approach to analyze the relationship between musical performance and health communication. Health communication research has demonstrated the important role of social capital in mediating the impact of interventions. Music research has drawn attention to performance as a site in which social relationships and obligations are produced and negotiated. In this paper, I bring these two perspectives together in order to open up new ways of thinking about musical performance as a culturally appropriate strategy in health communication. Drawing on participant observation as well as individual and group interviews with performers and health workers (126 participants), I argue that kanyeleng performance facilitates health communication by building on existing social networks and forms of social capital. This research contributes to a paradigm shift in research on performance and health communication, moving away from individual- focused behaviour change communication, and toward a culture-centered approach that considers community participation in relation to broader social and structural issues. This research suggests that musical genres such as kanyeleng performance may help build trust between health professionals and target communities while also facilitating information dissemination and public debate on sensitive health topics.

Coastal erosion is a major challenge along the coast of The Gambia besides the increasing pressure from climate change. This poses tremendous influences on physical and the socioeconomic vulnerability of the coastal communities, in the form of negative impacts on lives and livelihoods. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the vulnerability of households to the impacts of coastal erosion. As a result, this study focused on the assessment and mapping of the social vulnerability of households to coastal erosion in Gunjur village. An interdisciplinary and mixed-method approaches were used in the study. The MOVE system-thinking framework was used to develop and select social vulnerability indicators. Geographic Information Systems technique was employed in data integration and mapping of the vulnerability of households. The outcome of the study revealed that 90% of the households were highly vulnerable to coastal erosion, however, women were perceived to be relatively more vulnerable. The study found high levels of exposure and susceptibility of the households to coastal erosion, given the limited adaptation capacity. It was found that 74% of the households do not have sustainable adaptation strategies to the impacts of coastal erosion. Integrating coastal protection measures into climate change adaptation and mitigation policy framework was a key recommendation towards reducing the impacts of human factors on coastal erosion. Alternative sources of livelihoods and mind building are required to build the resilience of households and enhance human security in the coastal communities of The Gambia.

Blant Wolof-talende folk i det rurale Gambia anses overføring av brystmelk for å konstituere spesielt nære sosiale bånd. Skepsis mot ekteskap mellom slekt forbundet gjennom kvinnelige ledd begrunnes også lokalt med referanse til at folk er forbundet «gjennom bryst», til tross for at mange av dem det er snakk om ikke har diet fra samme fysiske bryst. I regional litteratur har referanser til melk og bryst i slike sammenhenger primært vært tolket som symbolske uttrykk for underliggende sosial struktur, ofte avgrensede grupper definert matrilineært eller matrilateralt, eller som lokale symbolske elaboreringer av «melkeslektskap» slik dette er definert i muslimske lovtekster. I artikkelen tas det utgangspunkt – både teoretisk og empirisk – i sirkulasjon, og flyten av melk utforskes. Det spørres hvor, eller til hvem og hvordan, melken flyter, og hva som overføres ved eller «etterlates» av denne flyten, i konkret og ikke overført betydning. Formålet er å få frem hvordan melkerelasjoner blant Wolof er relevante i vurderinger av sosial nærhet og avstand, og hvordan overføringer av brystmelk fra kvinner til barn knytter an til relasjonelle aspekter ved person og sosialitet. På denne måten trekkes oppmerksomheten bort fra gruppemedlemskap. Det er signifikant i denne sammenhengen at melk kan blandes ut, og at arten av tilknytning gjennom brystet er gradvis, heller enn et spørsmål om art. Egenskaper ved flyten av brystmelk, og det sosiale feltet av nærhet og avstand som det er forbundet med, gjør moralske vurderinger av passende og upassende ekteskapspartnere grunnleggende fleksible og ikke kategoriske. Fokuset på sirkulasjonen av melk gir dermed et inntak til forstå trekk ved ekteskapsmønstre.
Key words: milk, kinship, marriage, morality, materiality

The purpose of this article therefore is, to throw light on the principle of default judgments delivered by courts and especially the plaintiff’s right over it. In this paper, the reader would understand whether or not the right to a default judgment is an automatic right. It also explains the meaning of a default judgment, the process of initiating a claim in court, how the defendant gets notified by the case against him, the effect of failure to notify him, how the court delivers a default judgment, the effect of such judgment on the defendant. In the end, I shall talk about what the Defendant can do when a default judgment has been entered and whether or not the court has the right to set aside its own judgment. The case study for this study is the Gambia.

Gambian irregular migration is a phenomenon that is well known and discussed within this small African nation, yet little is understood of the deep personal and socio-cultural motives to embark on the perilous journey across the Sahara towards Europe. This paper explores the ambitions and capabilities of Gambians who embark on irregular migration, or the so-called ‘backway’.

L'objectiu de l'estudi és analitzar els processos de socialització dels fills i filles de famílies d'origen senegalès i gambià a Catalunya per identificar quins són els seus components, variables, les seves dinàmiques i pautes, si és que existeixen.

Globally, immunization coverage dropped from 86% in 2019 to 83% in 2020. An estimated 23 million children under one year did not receive basic vaccines, which is the highest number since 2009. Thus, this study aimed at identifying factors influencing the knowledge and attitude of mothers of under-five children towards immunization in Farato, The Gambia. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the peri-urban community of Farato. A sample of 132 mothers were conveniently sampled and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, and proportions were used to present the results of this study. The study revealed a low level of knowledge of mothers towards immunization. About 25% of mothers cannot clearly explain immunization; 23% knew that the first vaccine dose should be administered to a child at birth or soon after, and 60% were found to be unaware if their children were immunized. This indicates that the concept of immunization is not even clear to mothers and also showcased inadequate knowledge. However, 70% highlighted that immunization prevents infections and enhances child survival. Inadequate knowledge about immunization, literacy and education level, occupation of mothers, inadequate information from health workers, and limited information among mothers were major influencing factors to drop-out of immunization uptake. The study suggests that mothers need to be taught what immunization is about and its importance to children. At health facilities and clinic sites, health workers need to continue communicating to mothers on the importance of immunization to enlighten them about immunization.

This paper examines the issues that led to political conflicts in Nigeria and Gambia. The paper further explains the role ECOWAS played in the past in sustaining peace and security in the West African regional community. ECOWAS has been able to conduct peacekeeping in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leon, and Coted’Ivoire. The methodology used is qualitative design. The work also used published works and internet sources for the purpose of data collection. The findings revealed that, the political conflict between the North and South led to increased security threats by the Boko Haram in Nigeria. In Gambia, the actions of President Jammeh who initially accepted election result, knowing that he was defeated and later rejected the outcome of the elections which led to apolitical conflict. Therefore, the paper recommends early warning mechanism to be employed in handling issues that may result into conflict.

This research paper analyses the role of the media in the transition to democracy within the 2016 Gambian presidential elections.
The methodology used is mainly quantitative and includes surveys as well as statistical analysis.
Interview conducted to a group of universitarian students shows that the media (especially social media) were able to actualize their watchdog role and inform about the vote.

Abdou Kadir Sankanu, the sitting Alkalo (ruler) of Sotuma Sere and patriarch of the 'Sankanu Kaggoro' dynasty in the Jimara district of the Upper River Region (URR) of The Gambia said that the recent detention of six (6) young people from his community by the police from Basse was a result of youth exuberance and disregard for customary dispute resolution mechanism and not caste dispute. The Alkalo who was speaking to both academic and popular audiences on Tuesday, 14 th March 2022 said he was surprised that these days every small misunderstanding among Sarahulleh people is exaggerated across various spheres as caste dispute. "There are about 54 Sarahulleh settlements in The Gambia. Though they share a common language, they have various forms of social stratifications and customary administrations. It is therefore wrong to penalize all Sarahulleh communities as backward slavery-promoting settlements. We at Sotuma Sere Sankanu are enlightened people of the books and law and order. In regulating our affairs, we rely on the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia especially section 7(e) on customary law, decisions of the Traditional Council of Elders of our 'House of Sankanura', relevant aspects of the Islamic Sharia, the 'Kurukan Fugan Mandeng Charter' of 1235-36 which was inscribed in 2009 by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and, the progressive opinions of our wise sons and daughters." Abdou Kadiri Sankanu explained.

Economic growth is a significant means of increasing a nation’s income and poverty reduction of a Nation Benach J, Muntaner C. (2010). The social well-being and the standard of living depend on the various government policies. Some specific types of policies are Domestic, Economic, Education, Energy, Environmental, Foreign, Social, Security and Public policy (P.A.Q) 2017. Each of the above-stated policies, when implemented will affect a nation in different ways. The outcome achieved can be a satisfactory solution, no effect at all or otherwise amplify the problems. These problems referred to as inflation present themselves in simple or complex form due to changes and effects as time goes on (Keefer, P. 2010). The economic policies are in two distinctive forms - Fiscal and Monetary. Fiscal policy is the influence of a government on a global scale market on spending and taxation, whilst monetary policy is the control, and power a government has over money. These policies can be influence by international establishments such as World Bank, World Trade Organisation, and United Nation. World powers like China, USA and Russia are also external forces that invest in countries to make other nations’ policies to be lucrative towards them. Internally, within a country, a nation’s political beliefs, climate change, and security instability can heavily influence a nation’s policy Alagidede, P. (2012).

The lifeworlds of young Gambians are highly affected by their interaction between the partly conflicting poles of social norms and the promises of a globalized world. These poles frame the elaboration of new concepts of modernity and lifecourse strategies on a local scale. Applying the concept of social navigation, the work focuses on the process of growing up among male youth who aim to position themselves in society and to generate new, sometimes imagined, spaces and ‘routes’. What is being outlined here is the impact of their peer group, the so-called Crew. The status of adolescents is set by society and is often linked to a discursive construction of a loss of moral values and the rejection of tradition. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that young Gambians are striving for a socially accepted and respected status of adulthood.

The Compagnie Royale Dictionaire manuscript is one of the first comprehensive historical lexicographic works on West African languages dating from an early period of European exploration of Africa around 1670. This manuscript written by an anonymous author, of which there is only one copy at the ‘Bibliothèque nationale de France’, is most remarkable in listing 997 lexical items for originally eleven African languages – though the documents for four languages have unfortunately been lost. This attempt at documentary exploration stems from a time long before the arrival of the more famous British explorers like Mungo Park on the West African coast. The manuscript was written later than the first dictionary of Eustache de la Fosse in 1479/80 (see Hair 1966, Tymowski 2002: 68), but at the same early period of exploration as the Barbot vocabularies (1678–1712) discussed by Hair & Barbot (1992). The manuscript was first published by d’Avezac (1845b), who however removed a lot of historical evidence, modifying the original structure, “correcting” the original pre-1694 French orthography and interpreting the original hands without consulting comparative data. The aim of this present article is to present a general overview of the original manuscript, of its dating, and to review hypotheses concerning its authorship and transfer from Senegambia to the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In addition, it explores some philological implications of the historical written data, focusing on Historical Soninke and Historical Mandinka, and to some extent Historical Bainouk and Wolof.

I.2: Project overall and specific objectives
In order to address some of the key transport and transit challenges highlighted above, the project’s TORs set the overall following objective:

"facilitate road transport and trade systems in the borders of The Gambia & the Trans-Gambia corridors and improve sustainability and security of regional transport road transport system".

The achievement of this overall objective is subject to the following specific activities/results :
• Activity/Result 1: Diagnostic of inefficiencies in the logistic chain and establishment of trade and transport facilitation mechanisms;
• Activity/Result 2: Review and update of the existing Motor Traffic Act;
• Activity/Result 3: Audit of Road Safety conditions of the Trans-Gambia corridors;
• Activity/Result 4: Establishment of time-framed Roadmap/Master Plan towards more sustainable Trans-Gambian corridors.
A specific attention should be paid to cross-cutting issues related to gender equality, persons with disability, the empowerment of women, climate change and the environment.
The present report is dealing with specific activity/result 1 and 4, while activities/results 2 and 3 are subject to separate reports.

As per the TORs, the main tasks related to the establishment of facilitation mechanisms reducing transit time of transport, goods and services on the trans-Gambia corridors and borders are the following:

a) Consult with key stakeholders, identify and assess stakeholders and their concerns: principally the Ministry of Transport, Works & Infrastructure, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the EU Delegation, the National Roads Authority, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Regional Integration, Ministry of Interior, and the Gambia Revenue Authority.

b) Identify official and non-official barriers and tolls with indication of which officials and non officials systems are present at the check points; current practices being applied, their implications and the definition/identification of international best practice that could be applied in the Gambia/Senegal borders.

c) Review of existing land use/transportation regulations

d) Assess how the existing legal framework for transit traffic is applied, in particular with regards to international road transit and transport regulation, customs procedures, vehicle technical characteristics, etc.

e) Update current status of trade and transport facilitation on the trans-Gambian corridors and formulate recommendations to improve the trade and transport facilitation including implementation.

f) Propose operational arrangements for border facilitation and improvement of traffic fluidity.

g) Assess the present trade and facilitation conditions in the trans-Gambia corridors and propose improvement measures.

h) Produce, and advocate for a clear and time-framed roadmap with recommendations and measures to be taken to improve trade and transport facilitation condition in the trans-Gambia corridors.

i) Develop an implementable roadmap, related to transport and trade facilitation between the Gambia and Senegal.

In order to meet the TORs overall and specific objectives, the present report is structured into the following chapters:
Chapter II: Regional Transport and transit institutional framework
Chapter III: Road maintenance challenges
Chapter IV: Banjul port costs, delays and performance
Chapter V:  Inland Transport along trans-Gambian Corridors
Chapter VI: Transport and Transit Facilitation Road Map.

""This paper is concerned with the linguistic landscape in urban Gambia. It reviews recent work done on linguistic landscapes and explores the relation between The Gambia’s social and ethnolinguistic diversity and visible linguistic phenomena in the public space from an ethnographic and social semiotic perspective. It is argued that the occasional use of local
languages in an otherwise English-only environment (as, e.g., in the publicity campaigns of the mobile phone operators Gamcel, Africell and Comium) serves a symbolic rather than communicative function and has more to do with corporate creativity than it reflects ethnolinguistic relations. The overall absence of local languages and the salience of images in the Gambian linguistic landscape should be understood in the context of an informal
English-only policy for visual communication and the relatively high rate of illiteracy that is typical for a postcolonial Third World country. Drawing on the theoretical notions of audience design and multimodality, it is shown how retailers in a major shopping street
Serrekunda (the country’s largest conurbation) use images more than multilingualism as a vernacular strategy to accommodate illiterates in their audiences. The paper concludes with an argument that ‘language’ may not be the most crucial analytic category in a descriptive linguistics of the linguistic landscape, and that ‘local languaging’ may be a more suitable term to capture what is going on linguistically in public spaces.""

This paper presents a comparative ethnographic analysis of two versions of a grassroots text in Mandinka language, one written by a non-formally educated man, the other a respelling by a formally educated urbanite. The analysis points at a crucial difference in spelling practices and inequality in literacy regimes, i.e., between established orthographic English literacy and the more creative, heterographic and emergent local language literacy. It is shown how English orthography affects local ideologies of literacy as well as Mandinka spelling practices itself, in greater or lesser extent, depending on the educational history of the speller.

Agriculture is a major source of livelihood and income in The Gambia. Despite its socioeconomic importance, the sector faces many institutional, technological, and biophysical challenges limiting its contribution to economic development. The situation is exacerbated by adverse effects of climate change, which is undermining national efforts, making The Gambia one of the most vulnerable to climate change. This report documents and synthesizes available climate-smart agriculture (CSA) options that can inform adaptation planning in The Gambian agriculture and food system. We analysed the relevance of the documented options in sustainably increasing productivity and income while building climate resilience and reducing GHGs emissions in food systems. Through a mixed approach integrating multiple sources, a total of 28 technologies and practices has been identified as relevant adaptation options for The Gambia agriculture and food system. These options are grouped into nine adaptation categories including Crop diversity use and management, Soil and nutrient management, Soil & Water Conservation and Irrigation, Agroforestry systems, Livestock-based systems, agro-climatic information services, Social network and institutional support, and Livelihood diversification. Except for post-failure coping strategies known to be ineffective and unsustainable, all the identified options have some potentials to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and income while adapting and building resilience to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This synthesis provides evidence of potential climate-smartness of the selected adaptation options and could be important to inform adaptation planning and prioritization.

Both The Gambia and Tanzania have high rates of under-18 marriage for girls and both also raised the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 in 2016. This ethnographic study of the urban Muslim poor in Tanzania and The Gambia explores the causes behind and meanings of early marriage in these countries and discusses the likelihood of the recent legislative changes to have effect on actual practice among the poor in the towns and cities of these countries.

This is a vivid and illuminating ethnographic account of an emerging force in contemporary Gambian social and religious life: the Tablīghī Jamā’at (TJ).  Through the prism of five detailed biographical narratives, Janson evokes the everyday lived experiences of TJ activists embedded in the socio-cultural matrix of the Gambia.  Her central objective is to dissect the ways in which youth, Islam and modernity – as distinct analytical concepts – intersect and coalesce in the lives of young Gambians seeking paths to piety through a contested arena in which tribal and reformist strands of Islam vie for primacy.  Sensitive yet scholarly, Janson’s presentation is laudable for the way in which her micro observations – the raw field data – are consistently sutured to broader theoretical frames and a comprehensive body of scholarship on the phenomenon of resurgent Islam in several international contexts.  What transpires is a multi-layered work of depth and texture that makes an important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which young women and men, inhabiting an ambivalent postcolonial space caught in the orbit of globalisation, appropriate and internalise religious experience.

This thesis investigated the extent to which documentary film can aid the process of attitude and behaviour change, specifically as part of the campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia. It involved the making of three versions of a factual documentary in collaboration with grassroots activists and the journalist Halimatou Cessay. I have evaluated the film using Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation and Research (PEER) methods in the Brikama region of The Gambia.  Two hundred million women worldwide have undergone Female Genital Mutilation where their clitoris and other parts of their genitalia are removed for no medical reason. In The Gambia, seventy five percent of girls and women have undergone FGM, most before the age of fifteen. The practice was made illegal in The Gambia in 2016 but FGM is still carried out and to date there have been no successful prosecutions. In this thesis I examined the potential for how factual documentary film could help change people’s minds about FGM. I examined what style should be used in making the film, who should be interviewed and what arguments should be put forward. I examined how a Western documentary maker (myself) could work collaboratively with grassroots NGOs and a Gambian presenter. The film sought to accurately reflect the current debates and practise of FGM in the country, with a view to encouraging and supporting the ending of the practice. The results of the research showed that factual documentary film could be an effective tool in campaigns such as this. The key finding was that the most effective film should be made in a collaborative style taking into account the experience of the local NGOs and the nuances of the local culture and traditions.

The Gambia, the smallest mainland country in Africa, is increasingly a transit point for illicit drug traffic between Latin America and Europe. As part of President Yayeh Jammeh's attempts to crack down on the drug trade, in October 2010, the Gambian legislature passed a mandatory sentence of death for persons possessing more than 250 grams of cocaine or heroin. The law was not constitutionally operable, however, because of Article 18(2) of the Gambian constitution, which forbids the death penalty for crimes other than aggravated or premeditated murder. Consequently, the death penalty for drug trafficking was abolished in April 2011.

Both The Gambia and Tanzania have high rates of under-18 marriage for girls and both also raised the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 in 2016. This ethnographic study of the urban Muslim poor in Tanzania and The Gambia explores the causes behind and meanings of early marriage in these countries and discusses the likelihood of the recent legislative changes to have effect on actual practice among the poor in the towns and cities of these countries.

After ruling The Gambia for twenty-two years with an iron-fist, Yahya Jammeh was defeated in the polls by a Coalition of seven of the eight opposition parties in December 2016. Since it gained independence from Britain in 1965, The Gambia had never experienced a transition through the ballot-box. How has the establishment of a new political settlement shaped the democratic transition in The Gambia? How does elite consensus or its lack thereof shape Gambia’s fragile democratic transition? Under which conditions can exclusive elite bargains affect and not affect political settlements?

Combining semi-structured interviews and internet sources, enriched with participant observation, this work is an explanatory single case study. It departs from an interpretivist epistemological standpoint. Using inclusive and exclusive elite bargains as analytical frameworks in relation to the theory of democratic transition, I found that exclusion per se does not affect transitions when the excluded elites lack the incentives to galvanise collective actions. Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, this paper found out that some inclusions can lead to instability.

This work contributes to the development of Dankwart Rustow’s theory of democratic transition.

This is the Accepted Manuscript (not the finalized published version). It is currently available digitally, and will be printed at a later date. Go to this link for information on accessing the article: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/aNmEax5mhWYi9trdmICK/full
It is also available for individuals and libraries that subscribe to the journal.

Consider what might tie these three postal history artifacts together:
• A first flight cover of the Wright Brothers
• A Latvian crash cover caused by events in 1561 and the founding of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
• Interrupted mail from a flight of the Star Ship Enterprise in the year 2286
The answer is that you must read my article in the November-December issue of Kelleher’s Collectors Connection to find out!

Because this article is written as a two-page spread in magazine format, I recommend downloading the PDF and viewing with two-page view turned on. Click View > Page Display > Two Page View

Le 23 janvier 2020, la Cour internationale de Justice rendait son ordonnance en indication de mesures conservatoires en l’affaire de l’Application de la convention pour la prévention et la répression du crime de génocide (Gambie c. Myanmar)  (ci-après : Gambie c. Myanmar). L'article examine la mesure dans laquelle il apporte des clarifications au droit des mesures conservatoires émergent.

This case study is divided in three sections, introduction, discussion and conclusion. The discussion section is again
broken down into 9 sub-topics to give a comprehensive understanding of the advantages, challenges and lessons
learnt from GEAPP. The ICR Report, ICR Review and ESMF document of the project were critically investigated to
provide missing clues (a corrupted M&E process, water was not accounted as an agricultural input) to encourage a
more holistic understanding of GEAPP, which these information were found nowhere else. Online news related to the
project were analysed and journal articles were used to support the arguments laid out in this study. The intention of
this study, with hope, will complement the ICR Report, ICR Review and ESMF document, providing a basis for stirring
further discussions on the legacies of GEAPP.