The Gambia

Independent from Britain in 1965; an overwhelmingly Muslim Senegambian society reached by Islam along the Sahelian trade routes and within the orbit of the Mali empire, its faith organised by the Tijānī and Qādirī Sufi orders.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Sahelian trade and the Sufi orders

Islam entered Senegambia along the Sahelian and river trade routes and within the orbit of the Mali empire, carried by Muslim traders and clerics and, later, spread widely by the Tijānī and Qādirī Sufi orders.

☾ Religious Composition

An overwhelmingly Muslim country

The Gambia is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, with a small Christian minority and some adherents of traditional beliefs; Sufi brotherhoods shape much of religious life.

Demographic shares are approximate.

At a glance