Hi!
    This is another forward from Musa Ngum's homepage. Get your African news from: 

http://w1.853.telia.com/~u85309812/africannews.htm

Hope you'll find it interesting. Thanks.
                                                                                                            Buharry.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Early Days of Banjul What Is in a Name?



The Point (Banjul)

COLUMN
September 18, 2000 

Banjul 

"Banjul, Banjul, eh Bathurst, aiwa capital"! shouted the 'aparantes." They would swing with one hand as they joyously persuaded passengers to their bush taxis. But what is in a name? Where did it come from? Who gave the name Banjul?

A student researcher pestered us with these question. He asked and asked and we seemed to find no answers to his question. Finally my co worker asked him, "Who name the Dalasi - the Gambian currency?" The student went dumb. "There is no assumption in history," we told him, but you can make deductions just like in any scientific study.

Foundation: Oral history has it that the name Banjul came from the bambo sticks the people of Niumi and Kombo collect from the Island. "Bang" - bambo-Julo" - rope. The first Portuguese who arrived there referred to it as Capo de St. Maria - Cape St. Marys. It was East Bathurst who instructed Sir Charles Maccarthy to find a more suitable spot inorder to suppress the slave trade and Maccarthy ordered captain Alexander Grant to proceed from Goree with detachment of the African corps. Grant sailed from Goree on 19 March 1816, with Ensign Adamson, an assistant surgeon, fifty men of the African corps, and twenty four artisans (Gray, 1966). The party landed on Banjul Island but according to reports of 1783 some indigenous people were there on the Island. Some reports indicated that these were people from Niumi who fled to the Island for shelter. Other reports had it that they were people from the Kombos.

However, on Grants arrival, he approached the King of Kombo if he would cede the Island to the British. Ironically, six weeks before Grants arrival, on 4th February, a Spanish slaver ship had kidnapped ten men, two women, and eight children, who were close relations of the king. The king was therefore found only too willing to cede the Island in exchange for British protection from such predators.

In pursuance of their efforts, a Colonel Brereton from Goree proceeded to the Gambia with thirty men. Brereton and Grant on 23rd April met with the king of Kombo and Grant with the approval of Brereton entered into a treaty with the king, whereby the king agreed to allow the British government to occupy Banjul with liberty to elect such buildings and fortifications as might be though expedient and further to surrender all his right and title to the Island in exchange for an annual payment of 103 bars to himself, his wife, and his principal retainers. It is history for how long payment was effected. In any case formal possession of the Island was taken on the same day in accordance with the terms of the treaty (see C.O. 26 7/42,).

It seemed all probable that the Island was largely unoccupied by humans. It was home for seasonal birds and place to collect bambo for construction purposes. Oral informations vary as to who originally own the Island. Both Kombo and Niumi claiming original ownership, though evidences on the Niumi claim hold more water. In fact, it was the King of Niumi who used to collect taxes from any ship entering the river.

None-the-less, construction began at once by Grant on Barracks to house the African corps and a gun battery of six twenty four pounders and two field pieces ere elected (in fact now there are six gun batteries). The barracks was the present Quadrangle where the Clock Tower is located. The king of Barra allowed stones to be taken from Dog Island for building purposes. More people and merchants from Goree were encouraged to Banjul and were offered free lots upon condition they would elect stone or brick houses with good good airy conditions. Today some of the earlier buildings can be found in Banjul Central and long Liberation Avenue (Wellington Street).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------