Religious Tolerance in The Gambia, 1965-2016: Lessons for Nigeria

The Gambia christened the “smiling coast of Africa” is home of hospitality and religious tolerance. Arising from decades of peace its ethnic and religious elements enjoyed the country has continued to attract foreigners as tourist state. The concern of this paper is not so much with aquatic status of The Gambia as a tourist state, but how its’ Christian and Muslim groups has been able to maintain peace. The emphasis of the paper is on Christianity and Islam, because African Traditional Religion poses no serious threat to national peace and security due to its nonmissionary focus. The question is what has The Gambia done differently from Nigeria? This is the core problematic

of the paper. The choice of Nigeria arises from its religious volatility, contrary to The Gambia which has a residual history of religious tolerance. The question of differences in geographical size in terms of land mass and population is inconsequential to the argument of the paper as both are countries accepted and recognized by the United Nations, African Union, Economic Community of West African States, among other international organizations. More so, both countries played crucial role in the trans-Saharan trade, Islamic Jihad reforms in West Africa and were both former colonies of Britain with similar foreign policy and linkages with States in the sub- region. The study notes that though 95 per cent of The Gambian populations are Muslims and about 10 per cent or so are Christians, since political independence in 1965, its successive leaders and the people have deliberately maintained peace across religious divides. The paper concludes that Nigeria with gory experience of religious violence should learn from The Gambia that has never experienced ethno-religious violence in its known history as it navigates through the bumpy road of religious extremism and insecurity in the twenty-first century.