Banjul, Gambia 6

Anne-Marie Javouhey, SJC (November 10, 1779 – July 15, 1851) was a French nun who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She is known as the Liberator of the Slaves in the New World.

In September 1823, at the request of the British government, she left for St. Mary's in Gambia, a holding place for about 400 slaves taken from Moorish vessels. (Gambia's capital, Banjul, was then known as St. Mary's. This name was later changed to Bathurst, and, during my lifetime, changed again to Banjul). Here she worked tirelessly to help the victims of an epidemic in the area. The governor then asked her to go to Sierra Leone. Again she focused her efforts on tending to the sick and injured. After three months, there was an outbreak of yellow fever; again Javouhey recovered, but was so very weak that she returned to France.

This building in the photos is the remains of the hospital where she worked when she was at Banjul (St. Mary's). The building stands in a corner within the premises of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital and the largest in the country originally founded by the British colonialists in 1853.

The street that runs alongside this modern hospital is named after this French nun who nursed sick slaves.

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Banjul Central Mosque, Banjul, The Gambia

King Fahad Masjid is the most prominent masjid in Banjul, the capital city of Gambia. The two minarets of the masjid grace the skyline of the city and the architecture of the masjid represents the variation in the Islamic architecture in Banjul.

The modern architecture of the masjid has given the traditional style a new meaning. The entrance is hemmed by an open round arch and the minarets are octagonal. The bright colours of the masjid offer a pleasant feel. The masjid was built in 1988 and replaced the 1930 masjid as the main masjid of the city. It can easily accommodate up to 6,000 worshippers.

Article 7 of the Gambia constitution identifies Sharia as a source of law in matters of personal status and inheritance among members of communities to which it applies.

Islam entered the country in the fourteenth century AD, because the Arab merchants and Berbers who came from Northwest Africa through the Sahara to market their goods were originally Muslims. They were able to spread the Islamic religion among the indigenous populations.

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The Catholic Cathedral in Banjul

Christianity came to stay in The Gambia with the establishment of a British garrison and settlement in the island of Banjul in 1816. Different church societies were invited to provide the spiritual needs of this growing settlement.

Hagan Street 1900

Anne Marie Javouhey (1779 - 1851), foundress of the sister of St Joseph of Cluny, was the first Catholic Missionary to come in modern time to the Gambia - she came with two sisters with a laywoman in 1821 and worked and lived in the hospital. She however could not stay long in the country. Only the Methodist Church was active in the Gambia during those first years.

It was after the establishment of the church in Senegal that an uninterrupted presence of Catholicism in the Gambia could also be seen. The migration of the people to the settlement since 1816 include Catholics and others open to becoming Catholic. Two Priests took residence in Banjul by 1849 to serve this population and Church began its slow but steady growth. The Banjul mission was under the Apostolic Vicarate of Dakar. It was concentrated in Banjul but around 1876 it began looking beyond to the Kombos and provinces

By 1905, Fr. John Meehan took up his appointment in the Gambia. It was his destiny to maintain and give quiet growth to the church. In 1931, the Holy See declared the Gambia “Sui Juris” and Fr. Meehan as ecclesiastical superior. Under him , the church was to develop towards an independent mission and diocese. In 1951, Fr. Michael Maloney was named Prefect Apostolic and consecrated first Bishop of the diocese of Banjul on 6 May 1958.

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Arch 22 is a commemorative arch on the road into Banjul in the Gambia. It was built in 1996 to mark the military coup d'état of July 22, 1994, through which Yahya Jammeh and his Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council overthrew the democratically elected Gambian government of President Dawda Jawara. The arch was designed by Senegalese architect Pierre Goudiaby, who also designed the Yundum International Airport at Banjul and the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar, Senegal.