Although the official government center of the Division is located in Janjanbureh downstream, Bansang has better access to the more affluent coastal region of the country, and is sometimes considered the unofficial "upcountry" economic capital.

[1] According to legend, Bansang was founded as Ba-Sansango, meaning 'river tata' in the early 1260s, during Tiramakhan Traore's migration into the Gambia river valley.

[2] The area became part of the kingdoms of Jimara and Wuropana, constituent states of the Kaabu empire.

It became an important settlement during the colonial period as families settled there to take advantage of opportunities in the growing trade of peanuts on the Gambia river.

[3] The village began as a seasonally inhabited trading post, until the first compound was founded by a prosperous local trader, Bakary Darboe, in the 1920s.