Until the 1994 coup, led by Lt.-Col. Yahya Jammeh, the 1962-1994 government of President Sir Dawda Jawara had tried to offset minority resentment of the Mandinka's domination of politics, distributing political offices fairly according to ethnic origins. There is a yearly influx of migrants, who come from Senegal, Guinea, and Mali to trade in groundnuts.
Women are active as traders in an otherwise male-dominated society.