The Road to Independence

Emergence of Trade Unions and Political Parties

Until 1960, politics in The Gambia was dominated by the Akus and Wollofs of Bathurst. The first quasi-political organisation in The Gambia was formed or led by Edward Francis Small who, we mentioned earlier on, is regarded as the father of modern Gambian politics

Edward Francis Small

Edward Francis Small was born in Bathurst in January 1891. He completed his education at the Methodist Boys High School in Freetown and started work there, in the Freetown Post Office in 1910. He then held a series of clerical jobs in both Freetown and Bathurst before finally becoming a teacher in Bathurst in 1915.

Whilst a teacher, Small decided to become a clergyman in the Methodist Mission. In 1917, he was sent to Ballanghar to serve a probationary period as agent of the Methodist Mission, but within eighteen months he was dismissed from mission employment.

Small’s dismissal followed what has been referred to as the "Ballanghar incident". On New Years Eve 1918 Small ordered the bell of the mission chapel at Ballanghar to be tolled heralding the annual watch night service.

The sound disturbed James Walker, a European trader living in the town; an argument developed between Small and Walker and the two men came to blows. This "Ballanghar incident" was to serve as the starting point for the political career of Edward Francis Small.

The incident assumed a more serious dimension when Small first complained to the travelling Commissioner, Mr J.L. McCallum, and then, after McCallum had held him responsible for the incident, denounced the commissioner’s conduct.

The commissioner insisted on the removal of Small from Ballanghar. Under pressure from The Gambia colonial government, Rev PS Toys, the chairman of The Gambia District of the Wesleyan Methodist church, withdrew Small to Sukuta. Small resented the treatment he received from the church and proceeded to criticise Rev. Toys openly and was consequently dismissed from Mission employment.

The National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA)

In early 1917, Small together with other discontented members of the Aku community, founded the Gambia Native Defensive Union (GNDU). Membership of the GNDU included clerks and agents of trading firms, who attacked what they called "the blatant flaws in the administration of the central Government".

Meanwhile, in the other British West African colonies preparations were being finalised for a conference of educated West Africans to take place in the former Gold Coast. Since the organisers of the conference wished all four British West African colonies to be-represented, support was sought for in the Gambia. Small was able to convert the GNDU into the conference’s fund raising committee in Bathurst. Enough money was raised for one Gambian delegate to attend and Small, as the secretary of the fund raising committee was selected to represent The Gambia.

At the conference held in Accra in March 1920 Small, who was one of the eleven principal speakers, delivered a paper on the right of West Africans to self determination. The Accra conference resolved itself as the National Congress of British West Africa - NCBWA. Small arrived back in bathurst in May 1920 and within a short time had established The Gambia section of the NCBWA and become its secretary.

Edward Small was also a pioneer Gambian journalist. In the 1920’s he published and edited "The Gambia outlook and Senegambian Reporter" producing the first edition in Dakar. He would later found the Gambia Outlook. As a journalist Small established a tradition of critical and independent political journalism in the country. He always took up issues of concern to the people of Bathurst in the pages of the Gambia Outlook and was also quite prepared to criticise government policy.

The Bathurst Trade Union (BTU)

In 1929 Edward Small founded the first Gambian Trade Union, the Bathurst Trade Union (BTU). Although the activities of the Union did not extend beyond the colony area, it was ‘strong enough to organise the first labour strike in Gambian history in 1929, making one of the most successful strikes in Africa before the Second World War.

The Rate Payers’ Association

By the early 1930’s, Small was again in the thick of politics as the leader of Rate Payers’ Association (RPA). The RPA was the first quasi-political party in The Gambia. The RPA was said to be founded by R.S. Rendall, a retired Aku civil servant in July 1932, but was led and controlled by Edward Small through an informal political organisation he had founded in 1931, the Committee of Citizens

The Rate Payers’ Association was designed to serve as a liaison between the people of the colony and the Colonial Government and to provide a pool of interested men to stand election for the Bathurst Urban District Council (BUDC) established in 1930. The BUDC was reconstituted as the Bathurst Advisory Town Council (BATC) in 1935. In the first BATC election in 1936, the RPA won all six seats open to Africans. This marked the beginning of the RPA’s dominance of Bathurst politics.

Even though the RPA became the leading political organisation in Bathurst in the mid 1930’s, its influence, even over municipal affairs, was limited. This was mainly because the BATC had a purely advisory role. Despite limited functions, however, the BATC served as the training ground for the Gambia’s first political leaders. The council gained one important achievement when it secured Small’s appointment to the legislative council in January 1942.

Edward Small went on to represent the Municipal Council in the Legislative Council between 1942 and 1947. When the elective principal was first introduced for the Legislative Council in 1947, Small became the first Gambian to win a popular vote. Sponsored by his Labour Union, Small defeated Sheikh Omar Faye and I.M. Garba Jahumpa and became the elected representative for Banjul and the Kombo area in the Legislative Council.

Edward Francis Small will be remembered as the founder of the Gambia branch of the National Congress of British West Africa, the first Gambian to be directly elected to the Legislative Council and the first to be appointed to the Executive Council. He was also the driving force behind the Bathurst Rate Payers’ Association which dominated the politics of Bathurst in the 1930’s. He founded the first Gambia Trade Union and created the modern Gambian press.

Small continued to play an important role as a political activist, trade unionist and journalist for Gambian and non-Gambian movements until his death in January 1958.

The Gambia Workers’ Union

Trade unionism in the Gambia reached its high point with the formation of the Gambia Workers Union in 1959. The union was the handiwork of M.E. Jallow: Popularly known as "Jallow-Jallow’. Jallow’s Union was to organise a strike in 1960 that was successful not only in the colony, but throughout the country, marking the most serious labour unrest in the country’s history.

Coming as it does just before the 1960 constitutional crisis, to be discussed later, the 1960 strike contributed in the Colonial Government’s decision to grant The Gambia internal self government. In deed Jallow Jallow served as a delegate to the Banjul and London Constitutional Conferences of 1961 which led to the adoption of the 1962 constitution.

Political Parties

Political parties, in the formal sense came into being in the Gambia only after the Second World War. The first political parties in The Gambia came into being to meet specific challenges created by the colonial government’s decisions for the Gambia to follow the political advances made in the other British colonies of West Africa. Before 1960 none of the Gambian political groups attempted to force the rate of political advance, but merely reacted to changed situations dictated largely by non-Gambian events.

The Democratic Party

The first Gambian political party to be formed was the Democratic Party founded by the Reverend J.C. Faye. The formation of the Democratic Party in February 1951 was a reaction to the revised constitution of that year which provided for two elected members to represent the Bathurst and Kombo area in the legislative Council.

The formation of the party was also the logical culmination of the public and personal roles of the Rev. J.C. Faye. Faye had been a member of the Bathurst Town Council and had had long association with the Colonial Government as a nominated member of the Legislative Council since 1947. Faye was elected as the first member for Bathurst in the 1951 elections.

The Muslim Congress

In January 1952, a second party, the Muslim Congress was formed under the leadership of I.M. Garba Jahumpa. The Muslim Congress came into being as a fusion of the Bathurst Young Muslim society with a number of similar muslim organisations in the Kombos and the protectorate.

The Muslim congress was designed to link religious affiliation with political activity. Garba-Jahumpa as leader of the new party had also been a member of the Bathurst Town Council since 1942 and was elected to the Legislative Council as the second member for Bathurst in the 1951 elections.

The United Party (UP)

The third political party, the United Party, was also formed as an outgrowth of the 1951 elections. The leader of the party, Mr P.S. Njie, returned to the Gambia only in 1948 after his law studies in Britain. Sponsored by prominent Bathurst elders, he contested the 1951 elections and lost them to Faye and Jahumpa on a individual basis. The formation of the United Party in 1952 paved the way for the party’s victory at the elections to the legislative council in 1954 at the head of the poll.

The Gambia People’s Party (GPP)

Another colony based party that emerged before the 1954 elections was the Gambia People’s Party founded by St. Clair Joof. The part was short-lived, for Joof lost the 1954 elections and died soon after.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP)

The last of the major Gambian political parties to be created was the Protectorate Peoples Party later renamed the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). The PPP was formed in 1959 by people of protectorate origins, residing in the colony, in response to the extension of the franchise to the protectorate by the 1960 constitution. It was the 1960 constitution, we have seen, that extended the franchise to the protectorate.

The 1960 constitution for the first time divided the protectorate into electoral districts and twelve representatives were to be chosen from these on the basis of universal suffrage as members of the new House of Representatives.

Leadership for the newly formed PPP soon passed to Dawda Kairaba Jawara, an Edinburgh trained veterinarian, who resigned his post as head of department in the colonial administration.

In the elections held under the 1960 Constitution, the main contest was between the United Party and the newly formed PPP. The results of the elections saw the PPP winning seven seats. The Democratic Party and the Muslim Congress which formed the "Democratic Congress" Alliance won only seat in the elections. In deed the 1960 elections marked the end of both the Democratic Party and the Muslim Congress as political forces in The Gambia.

Although the new government that was appointed after the 1960 elections contained six Gambian Ministers, four with portfolios, the elections created a situation of political conflict in the country.

As was pointed out earlier on, the 1960 constitution that served as the basis for that years elections were already overtaken by political events both inside and outside the country as 1960 became marked as Africa’s year of independence.

The 1960 constitution and its elections results created a political conflict in the country because, in the first place, none of the parties that contested the elections won a clear cut majority in the new House of Representatives. The 1960 constitution also failed to provide provisions for a "Chief Minister" to coordinate the work of the new ministries that were created. When Governor Edward Windley decided to appoint a Chief Minister, the protectorate chiefs gave their support to P.S. Njie who became appointed Chief Minister in March 1961.

The appointment of P.S. Njie as Chief Minister led to the resignation of the PPP leader Dawda Kairaba Jawara as Education Minister. The PPP would particularly condemn the power of thirty-five chiefs to select eight members to the House of Representatives.

Coming so soon after the 1960 Gambia Workers Union strike, the political crisis precipitated by the PPP marked a definite advance towards self government with the party emerging as the most militant advocates of rapid decolonisation.

The colonial government responded to the labour and political crisis by convening the Bathurst and London constitutional conferences of 1961. The results of the talks, we have seen, was the introduction of the 1962 constitution that paved the way for The Gambia’s full internal self government.

The constitution of 1962, we have also seen, drastically reduced ‘the seats reserved for the chiefs. But as to the PPP demand for independence in 1962, the new British Colonial Secretary, Mr Ian Macleod, was sceptical. While accepting the principle of self rule for The Gambia, the British government was anxious that the new Gambian government should negotiate a form of relationship with the Senegalese Government before talking of independence.

In the general elections held in May 1962 the PPP defeated its main political rivals, the United Party, and it now devolved on Jawara who became the new premier, to negotiate the final stages of decolonisation with Britain. Perhaps faced with the ‘stark economic realities of the Gambian situation, the PPP in power were less insistent that independence from Britain must come at once.

Meanwhile, once the march to independence got under way, the issue of association with Senegal became an important political one. When P.S. Njie was Chief Minister, a joint Senegalo-Gambian Ministerial Committee was set up which asked the United nations to study Senegambian association.

In 1964, the United Nations Commission rejected integration between the two countries as unrealistic and recommended closer association in stages. By 1964, however, when the United Nations Commission submitted its report, it was Jawara’s PPP government that was in power in Banjul. The PPP government before independence sent ministers to negotiate closer Union with Senegal and United Nations legal and financial experts were brought to advise but little progress was made.

There was agreement that the two countries can coordinate the development of the Gambia River Basin, sign a defence pact and share diplomatic missions abroad.

Whilst the Government of Senegal welcomed an eventual merger of both countries, it was the political leaders of small Gambia who feared that they would be economically, culturally and politically submerged as second class citizens in a French speaking Senegambia.

The PPP government and their supporters were united in the view that the interest of the Gambia in self rule and economic development, not the British anxiety to rid itself of a liability, should determine the future of the country. They opted for independence.

In July 1964 a constitutional conference was held in London on the Gambia’s political future. At this conference it was agreed that the Gambia, while continuing to cooperate with Senegal, should become an independent sovereign state on February 18th 1965.

On that date the Gambia attained independence under the leadership of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara who in April 24th 1970 became the first President of the Republic of The Gambia.

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara and his Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) were to remain in power for a generation after independence.

However, on 22nd July 1994 the PPP regime was overthrown in a bloodless military coup and an Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) established under the leadership of Lieutenant, then later Captain Yahya A.J.J Jammeh.

The AFPRC, who initially announced a four year transition period to return the country to civilian rule, finally accepted a two year period after consultations with the people throughout the country.

Meanwhile to contest the elections that were to be held in 1996, the AFPRC was transformed into a political party, the Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction APRC. In the presidential elections held on 26th September 1996, to return the country to civilian rule and multiparty democracy, the APRC candidate, now Retired Colonel Yahya A.J.J Jammeh,

won handsomely and became the first President of the Second Republic of The Gambia.

By Dawda Faal,

Teacher Muslim Senior Secondary School