Senegambia, officially the Senegambia Confederation, was a loose confederation between the West African countries of Senegal and its neighbour the Gambia, which is almost completely surrounded by Senegal. The confederation came into existence on 1 February 1982 following an agreement between the two countries signed on 12 December 1981. The federation was intended to promote cooperation between the two countries, but was dissolved by Senegal on 30 September 1989 when the Gambia refused to move closer toward union.

Senegambia, as a political unit, was created by dueling French and English colonial forces in the region. Competition between the French and the English began in the 16th century when both started to establish trading centers in the region – with French trade centered on the Senegal River and in the Cap-Vert region and English trade on the Gambia River (although there was some overlap in their areas of influence). This region became more important for both growing empires because West Africa allowed for a convenient way station for trade between Europe and their American colonies and a warehouse for the African Slave Trade. As colonialism became more and more lucrative, both France and England took greater measures to define their spheres of influence. From 1500 to 1758, the two powers used their naval power to try to remove each other from the region. In 1758, the British were successful in capturing major French trading bases along the Senegal River area and formed the first Senegambia – a crown colony. The unified region collapsed in 1779, when the French recaptured Saint Louis and burned the major British settlement in the Gambia region, leading to the end of the unified region in 1783.

Laba Badara Sosseh was a Gambian son and salsa singer and composer.

A griot, Sosseh was born in Bathurst, British Gambia (now Banjul, The Gambia) on 12 March 1943. His family relocated to Dakar because of his father's work at the airport, and Sosseh engaged Dakar's musical scene, which was at the time strongly tilted towards son, rumba and other Cuban rhythms . As a founding member of Dakar's Star Band, he shared the limelight during the late 1960s with several future members of Orchestra Baobab. He also performed with Issa Cissokho's Vedette band.

In 1972, Sosseh cast his lot with a splinter group, Superstar de Dakar, that was based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The band went through several incarnations, including the Super International Band de Dakar featuring singer Pape Fall, and Liwanza. After recording with Liwanza for local producer Aboudou Lassissi in 1977, Lassissi managed for Sosseh to visit New York, where he became involved in the fledging salsa scene, and recorded a series of LPs titled "Salsa Africana", with direction from Cuban sonero Monguito "El Unico" .

Ali Baba (Arabic: علي بابا‎ ʿAli Bāba) is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

This story has been used as a popular pantomime plot such as in the pantomime/musical Chu Chin Chow (1916). Like many other folk tales frequently adapted for children, the original tale is darker and more violent than the more familiar bowdlerised versions. Popular perception of Ali Baba, and the way he is treated in popular media, sometimes implies that he was the leader of the "Forty Thieves": in the story he is actually an "honest man" whom fortune enables to take advantage of the thieves' robberies.

Some critics believe that this story was added to One Thousand and One Nights by one of its European translators, Antoine Galland, an 18th-century French orientalist who may have heard it in oral form from a Middle Eastern story-teller from Aleppo, in modern day Syria. In any case, the first known text of the story is Galland's French version. Richard F. Burton, however, claimed it to be part of the original One Thousand and One Nights.