Gambian literature

Oral literature, including the traditional griots and various forms of ritual poetry, has historically been the predominant type of cultural transmission in line with the wider Senegambia.

He also acted as a catalyst for increasing literary output in his homeland, founding the magazine Ndanaan, published by the Gambian Writers Club between 1971 and 1976 in five issues.

Brown notes that there was not much that was "intrinsically interesting" in this magazine with the exception of Gabriel John Roberts's play, A Coup is Planned, about the power imbalance between Senegal and the Gambia.

Brown considers Dibba to be "the most accomplished of this group" and "a novelist of real stature", whilst Sallah describes his 1986 novel Chaff on the Wind (the first to be published by a Gambian since Peters's The Second Round) as "the Gambia's truly first national novel".

[2][8][10] Following Yahya Jammeh's coup d'état in 1994 and the subsequent stifling of free expression in the Gambia, literary production within the country was also limited.

In the postcolonial period, Arabic-language literature has been produced by those in religious milieus, such as Imam Alhaji Alieu Badara Faye, who wrote various manuscripts in Wolof and Arabic, many of which remain unpublished.