BANJUL (GAMNA) 18/02/24 To ascertain and appreciate the role of the press in The Gambia’s attainment of independence in 1965 and its contribution to nation-building thereafter, we engaged Dr. Samba Faal, lecturer at the University of The Gambia’s School of Journalism and Digital Media. In response to the question, here is Dr. Faal’s submission:
It is a truism that, as in other African countries, the press in The Gambia was born out of the desire for greater enlightenment among African people in their struggle against colonialism. Colonialism in Africa created nations and shaped their political, economic, and cultural development. This legacy continues to influence the history of the continent and the press.
During the fight for independence, African theatre and cultural forms became elements of resistance and the struggle for independence. Songs, dances, and ritual dramas mobilised people to understand and reject their colonial situation. The establishment of the mass media was a political necessity, an international demonstration of African sovereignty, and a way of consolidating national unity.
It is important to note that the press played an important part in the colonial history of Africa. Whereas the major newspapers of Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) were organs of protest and political agitation, those of East Africa were vehicles for the culture and concepts of the rulers with the considerable resources of ‘colonial’ capital at their command. Hence, as Dennis Wilcox noted, “the nature of the press and government relationship in Africa today is in large part due to the legacy left by colonial administration.”
The colonial press, particularly that of British West Africa, was largely owned by influential and highly educated Africans who had returned from overseas studies. They played an important watchdog role in exposing the excesses of the colonial administration. This saw the emergence of a lively, vibrant, and outspoken press in all Anglophone West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Gambia), where leading journalists like Nnamdi Azikwe, the first President of Nigeria, and other intellectuals like Kwame Nkrumah (the first President of Ghana) and Edward Francis Small (a veteran journalist, trade unionist, and politician) of The Gambia established very radical newspapers that constantly engaged the colonial administration during the struggle for independence. They did so with the conviction that they needed to intensify the struggle against colonialism through other art forms and set the African intelligentsia, who seemed to be alienated from their people, free to see reality on the ground.
The functions of the West African press were to educate, entertain, and raise awareness (political consciousness-raising). The media would serve as a medium of resistance, agitation, mobilisation, and organisation, thereby contributing significantly to the independence of all countries. The press thus became very militant, playing more or less a critical watchdog role in dealing with the colonial administration. This witnessed a fundamental departure from what has been seen as the predominantly ‘praise-singing’ role of pre-colonial Greeks, poets, musicians, and dancers.
The newspapers in colonial Gambia played a central role; they were a veritable factor in the struggle for independence.
According to the discourse of the various historical analyses, it is said that Gambia’s struggle for independence first took the form of the citizens’ fight for participation in the economic front. Business, then, was mainly dominated by European and British firms, with Thomas Brown at the helm. Thomas Brown was a young Englishman and owner of a prosperous business in the Gambia in 1849, having arrived in the country in his teens in the mid-1820s. He was a powerful man and had ‘combined authority’ as a leading merchant, member of the Legislative Council, and acting Chief Magistrate of the colony. To serve his business interests and those of other British businesses, he established the first newspaper in The Gambia, The Bathurst Times, in 1871. This was seen as an extension of the colonial hegemony.
Other newspapers that also followed The Bathurst Times, such as The Bathurst Observer and West African Gazette (1883) and The Gambian Intelligencer (1893), were mainly run by people with business concerns who felt that they needed a medium to defend their mercantile interests against colonial highhandedness and imperial desires.
The most impactful and landmark event with regards to newspapers contribution to Gambia’s independence started in 1922 when Edward Francis Small, a former clerk at one of the European firms, established The Gambia Outlook and Senegambia Reporter.
