Banjul [key], port city, capital of The Gambia, situated on St. Mary's Island where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only large urban area in The Gambia and is the country's economic and administrative center. Its port handles oceangoing ships. Banjul's chief export is peanuts; beeswax, palm kernels and oil, and skins and hides are also shipped. Peanut processing is the chief industry. The city was founded by the British on the site of an anchorage in 1816 as a trading post and a base for suppressing the slave trade.
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