Dear Mr. Sankareh:
Re: “Genesis Of Tribal Politics The Gambia”
Please allow me space to touch on few issues that have been lingering in my mind these days. First and foremost I hope you are not bored by our endless acknowledgements and appreciation for providing a platform for discourse on matters relevant to The Gambia. Don’t be bored that is all we have for now. When I read some of the articles in the online papers, the question, “why did we have such great minds and still ruled by a man with hardly any?” would usually not leave me until I feign the easy answer ‘nothing happens without a reason’ just to keep myself sane.
I guess this article might taste stale, I still believe we need to debate this issue in order to enlighten each other by disagreeing without being disrespectful to each other. In fact, I first sent this mail on 31st Dec. but for some reason the editor never got it. I will always beg to differ with those who think tribalism should rank low on the list of topics that need to be debated. As long as there remain some of us with relics of prejudice from past misconceptions, I believe they do not only deserve enlightenment, but also, we are duty bound to realign their anomalous trends to be at par with the general Gambian attitude to tribal harmony.
A classic example of such a person is Mr. Sarr. I have great respect for Mr. Sarr for his continuous intellectual contribution to our debating environment. However his article ‘Genesis…trabalism’, in my view contains, some misrepresentation of facts. I hope it was out of ignorance, in which case my article will be of great importance to him.
Mr. Sarr made some interesting references to Wolof girls being referred to as ‘solimas’ by their Mandinka counterparts and he (like all Gambians) referring to whites as ‘Toubabs’. I assume he does not mean to be racist by referring to whites as ‘Toubabs’. But let me tell him about an incident I witnessed in The Gambia at a naming ceremony. It was around 2:00pm when a ‘Toubab’ (white person) came to join us. As she approached, one of the kids shouted ‘Toubabo!!’ which enraged the lady who enquired why should the boy refer to her with that name. I intervened by explaining the context was rather positive, that it simply is a name in our language for whites. She said it was racist and made an analogy by asking ‘how would I feel if I am called a ‘Blackman’ in Europe? To cut the story short, I tried fruitlessly to change her perception of the name, with little success. The point I am trying to make is as follows: contrary to the context of your reference, when Mandinka girls refer to Wolof girls, as ‘solimas’ there isn’t an iota of tribal motivation. Yes, it cannot be received as positive as ‘Toubab’, nevertheless, it is not tribal. Mandinka boys/men call each other ‘solimas’. It has nothing to do with tribe, it is more to do with 'insult' like most insults but I repeat not tribal. Mr. Sarr like the Toubab at the naming ceremony and most of us can get these kinds of references completely out of context. For the benefit of Mr. Sarr and many readers those kinds of references are not tribally motivated, so don’t interpret them wrongly.
For Mr. Sarr to also say that ‘most important of all the reasons why Jammeh is scrutinized/criticized/not tolerated is due to the fact that Jammeh is from a minority Jola tribe, is highly suspect. The fact is that majority of Jammeh’s critics today were not as critical about the regime in the early days of the Coup, as they are now, even though Jammeh’s tribe has since not changed. I think in addition to some of your reasons, what has changed is the behaviour of the regime, necessitating the surge in criticism. Mr. Sarr should know this better; most critics today were not bothered until the brother became a butcher. Also if the ‘so-called elections’ are anything to go by, the above assertion becomes even more uncorroborated, since Jola’s don’t form the majority in The Gambia.
Another doubtful point in the article is attributing, the tolerance to Jawara’s administration, to his membership to the majority tribe-Mandinka. This in my view is inaccurate. To understand this, we don’t need to delve into history, a moment’s reflections on the current situation here, in The Gambia, tells it all. It will become clear that the ‘acceptance’ of ruling parties in small, tightly controlled socio-political environments like The Gambia are due to diverse and variable reasons. However, I would not list tribal consideration by the general public as any worthy factor, if a factor at all.
I agree with most contributors who belief that Mr. Sarr is over-emphasizing the role of tribalism in our political arena. I strongly believe economic considerations and unfortunately, the inability of the majority of Gambians to make connection between politics, economics, religion and life in general far supersedes tribal considerations conducting political marriages. The connections between these issues I will leave to more qualified candidates to enlighten us about.
Concerning your implication that the PPP politicians played tribal politics, I am not the least surprised by the fact that some selfish politicians might trick the masses into voting for them by gimmicking with the tribal card. Like politics anywhere, ‘players use all available tools to attain their goals’ by highlighting their differences etc. This is not unique to The Gambia or even Africa. Analogies are abundant in US presidential elections; the race/religion/gender etc issues are shrewdly masked behind pertinent domestic and international issues. I don’t see this type of tribal politics as much of a danger if the masses see the value of men beyond the tribal spectrum. In other words, I am not arguing against the existence of individuals playing tribal politics. What is doubtful is the existence of tribal considerations by the General Gambian population as implied in Mr. Sarr’s observations.
It might be of interest to Mr. Sarr that some of us (as students at secondary school) used to perceive any one who was a bit affluent and speaks Wolof at school as ‘Suruwa’ hence whose parents was amongst the corrupt elite. As we grew and got ‘enlightened’ we realized the fallacy of it all. We also realized, it was mostly efforts by some academic dwarfs or socially insecure boys trying to create cliques to compensate for their academic shortcomings. We further more realized that such a phenomenon existed even in offices. But as I said our most important discovery is why were they acting? Not tribal, because now if we meet with them we speak Mandinka, that we never knew they understand, or Fula they had to learn because the beautiful lady they love is from that tribe or even English they could barely manage to speak properly. So please I hope this article will ‘enlighten’ all those who once thought ‘PPP regime was only benefiting Mandinkas’, to the extent that they will cast off those wrong perceptions.
I read with extra attention his paragraph narrating the multi-ethnic/national structure in his home. This I know is not uncommon in the Gambia. It is quite prevalent in the provinces, where neighbours are each others keepers and what we call ‘Surugas’ (seasonal farm workers) come from all over the sub region to work on the farms as well as inter-tribal marriages. This is no secret!
Thank you all,
Mr. M. L. Jammeh.
Editor’s Note: On behalf of the Editorial Board of The Gambia Echo Newspaper please accept our profound appreciations for your candour, discipline and desire to enlighten your fellow countrymen on a delicate topic. Your letter, particularly your tone, speaks volumes about your persona and we hope that Gambians will learn to debate without insulting and chest-pounding, blowing hot air all over the horizon. I have no doubt that many readers will learn from your rich admonitions and thank you so much for the patience.