Unpacking the Challenges and Opportunities of the Gambia's Membership of the African Union 

The Gambia is a small and economically weak nation state in West Africa. Due to the fact that the Gambia is not endowed with precious natural resources such as oil, gas, platinum and gold, it is generally not found in the geo-strategic calculations of the big powers such as France, Britain and China. Consequently, the political and socioeconomic affairs of the Gambia do not get adequate scholarly attention unless it is an ugly story about military coups. The situation is worsened by the reality of an undeveloped culture of research in the Gambia, which is reflected by the presence of just one public university. Against this backdrop, this paper sought to fill this void by unpacking the challenges and opportunities of the Gambia's membership of the African Union (AU). This aim was achieved by relying on document study and interdisciplinary discourse analysis in its broadest form. This paper argues that there are a lot of opportunities than challenges with the Gambia's belonging to the AU. In order to fully understand this situation, it is proposed that any study about this should be located within the historical and broader context. To appreciate an avalanche of benefits in the membership of the AU, one needs to be also familiar with the AU's challenges in its quest to achieve its set goals.