Chiefs and the Management of Urbanization in Colonial Bathurst, Gambia 1939–1960

Abstract

The colonial administration in British Gambia was concerned with the growth of the major urban centre of Bathurst, now Banjul, and with managing the negative impact of urbanization such as overcrowding, unemployment, homelessness and food security. This is especially clear in the government policy of reclamation of a large portion of Bathurst in the early 1930s to create room for the burgeoning population. The initial lack of restriction on new arrivals into the town from the Protectorate was motivated by the need for cheap labour by Bathurst-based European firms, and exemplifies the tolerance of the British colonial administration of immigration into the colony. This study seeks to assess the impact of urbanization in Bathurst during war and its immediate aftermath (1939 to 1960) and especially how colonial officials used chiefs in an effort to remedy some of the negative effects of the influx of people into Bathurst. The study ends by proposing that urbanization and the challenges it posed in Bathurst, had by the late 1950s, become so pronounced that it became a political weapon which the People's Progressive Party (PPP) used to wrest power from the colonial rulers (Editorial Committee, The Story of the PPP, 1992:7). Another conclusion is that by their active involvement in remedying the negative impact of urbanization, chiefs were able to strengthen their roles in colonial society and gain more weight in the pre-independence political negotiations. The relevance of this study for today's Gambia lies in the fact that the country is grappling with various measures to foster food security amidst a burgeoning urban and peri-urban population engaged in little or no agriculture, a trend which dates to the period under study.