The tiny west African nation is in the news this week after it summarily announced it was leaving the Commonwealth after 48 years. No reason was given for the decision, but the government's statement – which was read on state TV – referred to the institution as "neocolonial". The announcement seemed to come out of the blue, but the Gambia – whose long-running and unpredictable dictator Yahya Jammeh still clings to power two decades after toppling the last government in a military coup – is no stranger to surprises. Here are seven facts you probably didn't know:
1. The Gambia is a major destination for female sex tourism. Predominantly middle-aged white women from Europe and America visit the Gambia's beach resorts looking for a "holiday romance", in which local young men – known as "bumsters" – exchange sex for money, gifts or visas.
2. Though 50,000 British tourists visit the Gambia each year, the country has been much-criticised by the UK and other countries for its human rights abuses. A year ago, the Gambia sparked a diplomatic crisis when it suddenly decided to execute all its death-row prisoners by firing squad within one month, after 27 years without any executions at all. Nine prisoners – including one woman and two Senegalese nationals – were executed, provoking the wrath of neighbouring Senegal and widespread condemnation abroad. "There is no way my government will allow 99% of the population to be held to ransom by criminals," Jammeh said at the time, in a statement broadcast on state TV that was the closest the president came to giving an explanation.
3. Gambia's president can cure Aids. Or so he says. Jammeh announced in 2007 that he had found a remedy of boiled herbs that can cure Aids. He says 68 patients have been cured. Doctors say patients have to stop anti-retroviral treatments to take the "cure", which can be deadly.
4. Jammeh has a very long name: Alhaji Sheikh Professor Dr Yahaya Abdul Aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh.
5. Last year Jammeh married 22-year-old Ghanaian Nora Muniratu, making her the third wife in his polygamous household. His first wife is Zeinab Suma from Morocco, and his second wife is Alima Sallah, daughter of the Gambia's ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
6. For much of the population, the Gambia's weekend is three days long and begins on Thursday. Jammeh announced the measure – for public sector workers and schools – to give the country's mainly Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to their fields.
7. The Gambia is home to Kunta Kinte, the main character in Alex Haley's slavery epic Roots, which has become a central work of literature about the African diaspora. Although it later transpired that Haley – who wrote Roots as the true story of his own family's history – had fictionalised some of it, the Jufureh village, where the first part of the book is set, has become a pilgrimage site for many descendants of slaves.
