A Study On The Political Development Of Gambia

The Gambia is the smallest country in the African continent which is located in the West Africa. Throughout its history from pre-independent till now, building and political development of Gambia is complex. Before independent, The Gambia’s kingdom system combined with British old colonial system, and became a unique system. After independent, the first president Jawara adhere to multi-party democracy, during this period, the opposition and People’s Progressive Party had play an import role in the political history. However, the coup in 1994 had destroyed this regime which is the most longevity democratic regime in Africa. Jammeh, who is the leader of the coup in 1994, had become the new president in the president election after two years’military government. Till 2016, Jammeh had rule the country as long as twenty years, and he is facing many problems now. Because of kinds of reasons, nether the national reconciliation nor the building of democracy are completed, so the political development is lag behind.Throughout the case study of the origin of The Gambia, and the evolution of its political process, this article aims to achieve two basic purposes. On the one hand, there are many small and weak countries in Africa. Confronted with the complex and complicated regional situation, the survival and development of these small countries is one of the important issues of African studies. As a typical representative of African small countries, the modern Gambia have experienced a lot of difficulties and adversities in its process of national building. In this paper, the author analyzes the foundation, development and evolution of modern Gambia to show how a small African country successfully set up and developed under the challenges of international community. Also, it gives an insight on the national building of African small countries. On the other hand, through the description and summarize the hard course of the state building and political development of Gambia, such as their efforts, difficulties and setbacks, achievements and the challenges they are facing, we can get a better understanding of the African country’s development and their political evolution, make a contribution to the African national political history research of our country, thus, try to make more Chinese people to understand the political and the people in Africa.The thesis has five parts, including introduction, body, conclusion, appendix, references.Introduction part explains the reason and significance of the topic selection; combs the present research situation of domestic and foreign scholars; and give a short introduction of the thinking, importance and difficulties, theories and methods about the article’s writing.Body part contains five chapters. Chapter 1 describes the political development process before independence, including the kingdom system of Gambia, the competition between Anglo and France and British colonial rule. Chapter 2 describes the political activities during the period of First Republic and the ruling crisis of Jawara. Chapter 3 describes the reason of the coup in 1994 and Jammeh’s govern in this period. Chapter 4 describes the political process from 1996, diplomacy of pragmatism and some new trends of the political process in Gambia.Chaper 5 is Conclusion part, it reviews the political process of Gambia, summarize the experiences and disadvantages, and indicates the challenges under the wave of globalization.Appendix part includes the results of the president elections and parliamentary elections after 1996.References part lists Chinese and English references about this article writing systematically.