Advertise

   HERE!

Contact

US!

James Island, 30km from the river mouth and near Juffureh in the country of The Gambia. It contains a fort known as Fort James. It is less than two miles from Albreda on the river's northern bank that served a similar purpose for the French.

James island and his fort in Gambia  /  L'île James et son fort en Gambie

The fort is situated in the middle of this low island, and is vulnerable to flooding by the tidal waters. It is roughly square in plan, with polygonal bastions at the four corners, chamfered at their apexes to reduce the overall spread of the building and to avoidhaving to build on the shore below high-water mark.

There were formerly curtain walls between the north and east bastions rising to the same height; a large stone cistern for collecting rainwater was built up against the outside face of the curtain wall. Traces of ancillary fortifications and service buildings survive at each end of the island, and on the southern shore.

The first written accounts of the region come from records of Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.

In medieval times the area was dominated by the trans-Saharan trade.

The reign of the Mali Empire, most renowned for the Mandinka ruler Mansa Kankan Musa,

brought world wide recognition to the region due to its enormous wealth, scholarship, and civility.

The North African scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta visited the area in 1352AD and said this about its inhabitants:

"The negroes possess some admirable qualities. 

They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice 
than any other people. 

There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has 
anything to fear from robbers or men of violence" 

(Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354  pg323-335).