I find it surprising that this country is now a beach hotspot, but as I’m not interested in catching the sun I entertain myself with writing murderously hard questions about it instead.
Questions
Mice, rats, voles, hamsters and gerbils are in which superfamily that includes the Gambian or African giant pouched rat? This rodent was responsible for the 2003 monkeypox outbreak in the US, with a nicer claim to fame being that they can detect land mines and tuberculosis.
MUROIDEA
In which African country is the headquarters of APOPO, a non-governmental organisation created by two Belgians that uses HeroRATS such as the Gambian pouched rat to detect landmines and tuberculosis?
TANZANIA
Formed of nine villages and located over 10km south-west of Banjul, what is the largest urban centre in The Gambia? Part of the Greater Banjul Area, it is much larger than the capital.
SEREKUNDA
Its football team becoming champions of the Gambian League in 2011, the first time a club from outside of the Greater Banjul Area had done so, which Gambian city located south-west of Banjul is known for its wood carving and was previously a capital of the Kasa kingdom?
BRIKAMA
Initially forced to flee the country after winning the presidential election in 2016, who became the third president of The Gambia after the long time holder of the office Yahya Jammeh was exiled and granted refuge in Equatorial Guinea?
ADAMA BARROW
Who was Prime Minister of The Gambia at independence in 1965, becoming president when the country switched to being a republic in 1970? He ruled until Yahya Jammeh seized power in a 1994 bloodless coup.
DAWDA JAWARA
Although it is thought that the name Gambia is derived from a Mandinka word for the Gambia river, an alternate explanation is from a special type of calabash beaten when an elder from which group of people dies, traditionally a matrilineal society? They make up about 3% of the country’s population.
SERER
Starting an initiative called ‘One Plastic Bag’ to try and solve an environmental problem in her community, Gambian activist Isatou Ceesay has been called the ‘Queen of’ what?
RECYCLING
Having its capital at Morfil, an island between the Senegal and Doué rivers near the border with Mauritania, which empire flourished at a similar time to the Ghana Empire from the 9th to 13th centuries, becoming one of the first states to convert to Islam in the West African region?
TAKRUR
Selling the English trade rights to The Gambia in the late 16th century, what was the given name of the Prior of Crato, a claimant to the throne of Portugal during that country’s 1580 succession crisis? There is some dispute over whether he was king for a short period, possibly being the last monarch from the House of Aviz.
ANTONIO
Settlements became established around the Gambia river during a 17th century colonisation initiated by Jacob Kettler. In which modern day country could his Duchy be found, with its tentacles also reaching Tobago?
LATVIA (It was the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia)
Some of the things named for this Royal Navy officer include an unpopulated Falkland Island, a ‘Great’ island and bay in Queensland, and a column near Rotherham. Who led the capture of Gorée and occupied The Gambia during the Seven Years’ War, later receiving a court-martial during the American War of Independence alongside Hugh Palliser over a dispute they had at the 1778 Battle of Ushant?
AUGUSTUS KEPPEL
An MP for Stockbridge, Richard Worge became the governor of which colony after the British captured its capital of Port-Louis from the French during the Seven Years’ War? It was returned back following the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American War of Independence.
SENEGAL
When the British were given possession of the Gambia river during the series of treaties that made up the 1783 Peace of Paris, the French retained what enclave on the river’s north bank, control of it finally being transferred to the British in 1856?
ALBREDA
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