A Land Use Map of Kuntaur in the Gambia

Abstract

The oxford university expedition to the Gambia in 1948 spent most of its time at Kunta r (a river port 150 miles up e Gambia river from Bathurst, the capital) where it carried out a land use and soil survey of an area of about 12 square miles.1 The land use map can make no claim to real accuracy; it aims only at giving a general indication of the pattern of land use in this part of the Gambia. Three geographers were responsible for the survey?C. Swithinbank, E. Gordon and J. Pook. They were helped by an African surveyor and four boys, so that two parties could be at work simultaneously. The team spent seven weeks of the rainy season in the field. The Africans lost some days through sickness, and two of the geographers were away at Basse (100 miles upstream from Kuntaur) for a week to make a comparative study. One of the party was usually at headquarters, computing or drawing. Recent astronomically observed positions were available at Kuntaur, and the main framework was computed from chain and compass traverses with detail from minor traverses. Some plane-table work was done around Wassu; most of Madina's lands were not surveyed. The only published map was one on a scale of 15 miles to 1 inch showing roads, but the R.A.F. air photographs, on the basis of which the Directorate of Colonial Surveys has since produced its 1/50,000 series covering the Gambia, were available. From these photographs were plotted some of the boundaries of the swamps and riverine forest that were inaccessible because of flooding. The soil map, prepared by R. du Boulay, also gives a very generalized picture of conditions. The types distinguished correspond roughly to the three topographical divisions of the district: the bush-covered edge of the sandstone plateau, rising to about 120 feet; the alluvial flats bordering the river and extending behind Kuntaur and up the tidal creeks; and the area between these two which slopes gently from the plateau edge to the river flats and is the vital area of settlement and of upland agriculture. The variety of soil types has an important effect upon settlement because, while most villages stand on the sandy soils that are suitable for ground-nuts, they are usually close to swamps where rice can be easily grown. Each village, and indeed almost every family, is therefore able to cultivate a cash crop, ground-nuts, in addition to rice and upland food crops, such as maize and millet. The Kuntaur district produces large quantities of ground-nuts and is also?unlike many other parts of the Gambia?almost self-sufficient in food crops. Shifting cultivation remains however the basis of its agriculture. The map shows the actual state of the land in a particular season. The areas under cultivation are usually near the settlements or on the clay soils of some of the swamps. The unshaded areas have been cleared and used for cultivation in the past, but in 1948 were lying fallow. There are also the areas, like the riverine forest and the close orchard bush or park savanna of the plateau, which have never been cleared, but which may at some future date be cultivated. The