The Gambia President Adama Barrow changed the name back to "Republic of The Gambia". Arab traders provided the first written accounts of the Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to a large export trade of local people as slaves, also gold and ivory, as well as imports of manufactured goods. By the 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur, a monarchy centred on the Senegal River just to the north, ancient Ghana and
History of the Gambia the following years, ordinances were passed to bring these places under the control of the Protectorate. Finally, a Protectorate Ordinance passed in 1902 brought the whole of the Gambia besides St Mary's Island under the Protectorate system. the Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901 and gradually progressed toward self-government. Also in 1901, the Gambia Company, the first colonial military unit of the Gambia, was founded. It was formed as part of the Sierra Leone Battalion of the new West African Frontier Force (late Royal West African Frontier Force). A 1906 ordinance abolished slavery. During World War