COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL No. 1572 ANNUAL REPORT ON THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE GAMBIA, 1931 (For Report for 1929 see No. 1506 (Price is.) and for Report for IQ$O see No. rjtj (Price is.)) Crown Copyright Reserved FfttNTlD IN THE GAMBIA LONDON i'UBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses Ad&ttral House, Kingiway, London, W.C.t; tao, George Street, Edinburgh York Street, Manchester; t, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardift t|, Donegal! Square We it, Belfast or through any Boonscllcr 1932 Price as. od. Net Reports, etc., of Imperial and Colonial Interest COLONIAL OFFICE CONFERENCE, 1930. Summary of Proceedings- [Cmd. 3628.1 2s. (2s. 2dX Appendices to the Summary of Proceedings. [Cmd. 3629.J 3s. (3s. 3d.). COLONIAL OFFICE CONFERENCE, 1927. Summary of Proceedings. [Cmd. 2883.1 Is. 3d. (Is. id.). Appendices to the Sumninry of Proceedings. [Cmd. 2884.J 4s. 6d. (4s. lOd.). 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All prices are net, and those in parentheses include postage. Obtainable from the Sale Offices of HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, At Addressee shown on the Front Cover, or through any Bookseller. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGB. Chapter I. History, Geography and (Tunat* ... I. do. II. Government ... ... ... 0. do. Ill* Population ... ... ... 7. do. IV. Health ... ... ... ... 9. do. V, Housing ... ... ... ... 10. do. VI. Production ... ... ... ... IK do. VII, Commurctf ... ... ... ... 13, do. VIII. \Vugo> Mini (NISI of Living ... ... 17. do. IX. Education mid Welfare Institution* ... 19. do. X. Commiuiioatiou* and Transport ... .. 22. do. XI. Ranking, Currency. Weights and Mea«§ur«* 25. do. XII. Public-. Work, ... ... ... 26. do. XIII. •Ititfticc ami Pulitv ... ... ... 30. do, XIV. Legislation ... ... ... ... 35. do. XV. Public. Fiir.niw, mid Tnxation ... 37. do. XVI. Land and Survf\ ... ... 40. Appendix ... ... 42. Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Gamfcia 1931. Cihptkk I. lhsioKY. (! i:<m.i; \i-iiv am Cm*:*. In iin» .(Hit, I llli, 12th and rciiiures the A:\MU a'-ipund n.ai rccoi ded a good deal if illfofma• ft*p ah,a. tlie inlci 1 >r of \Ye*t A frica. l;ut I ho cartography of Senegambia remained >ii|l a Maid' s* ni;h « i ! e (ic/.ola or (ie data Tuareg of the Scguiei-el-i lam/a ( Wadi Tiwga j \s\\'\\ the (ienoese (iiovunni di Caringnano made h.V p!ani>pl in 1 in ill' I2i!i tvu\ Kith centuries, however, the mimerou* fb ••vish t nullity communities which Ira led mainly in gold from MIC'I cut ITS as Tuat and Nul I^amta (Wadi I/iaa) south to Melli ( Uambuk > and beyond, had acjiiird so much information about tin* Western Sudan and Sahara 111:if tin- map* of the cartographer* of Majorca ns, lor instauee. the pl;ui'«pliikiv of Angclino Duleert ( Majorca) l:\VJ and that of the converted Jew Mccia d<* Viladc<tcs 1413 A.!>. show a eon>ider- able advance in recorded knowledge. The latter shows Tagha/.za or Taodcni of ihe salt cones (the T t ok of the 1A U kri) as Tetega, and also Tacrine the cuiiiilrv "f 111 - * Twolor. and for the lirst time the (iatnhia liivcr I- shown under t: e nana1 •* N'gviaka \ To the North of ihe N'gclaka is a name I'd** or Wude, aUo a country and rape called A ha el i as well as 1 h^n^ar (the Senega! River). In ih valley of the riser N'g'laka, a plje*.. called Tegerui is shown, the name being probably akin to : 1 name XVelakaf hoth being derived from the Berber N'^ !, N'jfsir, or X'gir with Berber ending ~ek or -ik. Angrlico Duleert .^hows5 to the south of the coast region called A ba"h, a people called Felle who arc probubly identical with the Cde of Yilade>tes, i.e.. Fnlbo. Though IMionedaii sndors from (iadeira (('adiz; are said to h:ive traded down the West .Coast of Africa, the lirst recorded Kuropean exploratory expedition to the (iambia by sea was liia* of the (tcnooM* Anionic Uso liniaie, who, on tin* 1 2th December, 1 wrote to his relative;; that he had " gone 8(H) leagues further than any otln r Christian" and had navigated his 4 caravel* as far as the (ir.mba (Gambia). Csodimare had left Genoa about tin* time of tin* death of the King of Spain, John II of Castile in 1434* at a time when the Spaniards we're BUM' protesting to 1 lie* Pope against the 1'ortiigm^r. expeditions to tape Hogador and beyond, but U^odimaro's im civets or *ymputhtes led him to take back to Lisbon an envov from a (fambian el.ief, and agree to make1 a *ee?md voyage to the (tambia an an vtivuy of the King of PortngaK Alphon^o \\ ml In the letter above quoted, he remarks that he is to sail again in ten days from Lisbon. Ho also say8 that the envoy from the Gambian chief was a descendant of a Portuguese sailor who had been •uved from one of the ships of the Vivaldi Expedition whieh had been lo-? about 1 70 years before, i.e.. in 12*.**. {'sodiumre related his adventures "in the land of Badomcl " < i.e.. liii- land of the BMI* Dumeh to the Venetian CaMa Mosto. The latter, on the 22nd March, set out on board a Portuguese •caravel \ supplied by Prince Henry the Navigator, to make further explorations in Senegambia. (Vda Mosto records that the King of the tlolofs at this time %% was called Zuclioliii *\ CaMa Mosto disembarked at Cayor, ••the palm beach of Bur Dinner'. At the town of the * Bishoror\ the nephew of the king. CaMa Mosto was entertained. The Bur Dumel was a professing Muhanimedan at this time. The dolof kingdom is said by (Vda Mosto to have extended east as far as the country of the Fulbe and the Tueolor. South of the Kingdom of doal and north of the Gambia was the country of the Barbasines. Their King lived in the interior in a fortitied town called dagaon (Jago) in place of the former capital MM>is>el in Sine west of Kaolaek. CaMa Mosto also disembarked on an island in the estuary of the Gambia which he ••ailed the Me of St. Andrew* after the christian name of a sailor who was buried there. (hi proceeding further CaMa Mosto was told that tin* country belonged to King Furisangal ( Bur Senegal) a vassal of the Bur Melli. Twenty leagues south of the Gambia ( U>0 miles) CaMa Mosto met the Casa Mansa. but before1 making this journey he records that he went <>0 leagues (240 miles) *• to the south M in the kingdom of the •Battimansa\ The word •youth* however, here does not mean ••directly south*, but south east. The Batthnansa was the King of the •'Baddi-bff\ between the Bintang (reck and Kantora. Almost at 'ho same time as CaMa Mosto's visit to the Gambia, it was visited by Diago (bane/ who also mentions the k Farisangul ' (Bur Senegal). Guided by a certain Backer (BUIT) Gomez visited Kantora. It was believed by these travellers that the Senegal and Gambia were two months of one river enclosing the ••delta of the Nile of GaiV\ The two rivers are so shown on a Venetian map of that period. According to Paeheo Pereira, the chief commercial centre of Kantora at this time was called Sutuku. The whole of the right bank of the Cpper Hiver was subject to the King of Mellc (Bur Mclle;, tiie left bank presumably being the Kingdom of the Batti Mansa.