West African shaggy rat long as the head-and-body length; it is ringed by small scales and clad with sparse short bristles. The head-and-body length of this rat averages and the weight averages . The West African shaggy rat is native to tropical West Africa; its rangeincludes Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. It inhabits wetlands and swampy areas, streams, riverbanks, lakesides, young oil-palm plantations and rice fields. The West African shaggy rat is a terrestrial species. It is nocturnal and a good swimmer. It lives in a shallow burrow, the entrance often hidden under a
Ahmadiyya in the Gambia independence, in Farafenni, in 1969. The first Ahmadi Muslim caliph to visit the Gambia was Caliph III, Mirza Nasir Ahmad, whose visit in 1970 was instrumental in the launch of the Nusrat Jahan Scheme which has been responsible for the establishment of a number of schools in the country. On May 1, 1970 the Caliph arrived in Banjul, for a five-day visit, as part of his tour of West Africa. As part of his visit the Gambia, the caliph met Dawda Jawara, the then President of the Gambia, and a number of other public figures. Before the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community