Music of the Gambia Music of the Gambia The music of the Gambia is closely linked musically with that of its neighbor, Senegal, which surrounds its inland frontiers completely. Among its prominent musicians is Foday Musa Suso. "Mbalax" is a widely known popular dance music of the Gambia and neighbouring Senegal. It fuses popular Western music and dance, with "sabar", the traditional drumming and dance music of the Wolof and Serer people. "For The Gambia Our Homeland", the national anthem of the Gambia, was composed by Jeremy Frederic Howe, based on the traditional Mandinka song ""Foday Kaba Dumbuya"", with words by Virginia Julia Howe,
History of the Gambia Gambia. The colony assumed an importance to the French as a possible trade route, proposed cession of the Gambia for some other part of West Africa was first mooted in 1861. It was seriously discussed again during 1865 and 1866. In 1870 and 1876, negotiations were entered into between the French and British government over the proposed cession of the Gambia in exchange for other territories in West Africa. However, the proposal aroused such opposition in Parliament and among various mercantile bodies in England, as well as among the native inhabitants of the Gambia, that the British government was unable