Halifa Sallah Has Beaten all the Odds
BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx New York
A few weeks ago Halifa Sallah, Opposition leader, Socialist Revolutionary and one of the most outstanding humanitarian figures of this century did what any responsible Gambian should have done to stop Yaya Jammeh’s witch hunt and bring the whole world’s attention to this unbelievable inhuman activity, which has shown the entire world what a pathetic and mentally unstable government our country has.
This medieval practice has been perpetrated on the oldest, weakest and poorest of our people for the past three months, and the architect of this madness is the very government who swore to serve and protect the most vulnerable in our society.
Halifa Sallah, one of The Gambia’s veteran politicians and an opposition spokesperson for the People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), had expressed his deep concern about these ongoing witch-hunts even before his historic visit to the Kombos. Just after this political manhunt began a few weeks ago, unlike many other politicians, Mr. Sallah spoke out against the regime’s harassment of ordinary civilians and their accusations of witchcraft. Whether his condemnation was politically motivated or not, many people considered that it was a move which should have been made by any responsible citizen against a brutal dictator like Yaya Jammeh and his group of thugs.
Despite many offers from countries right across the world, Halifa has preferred to put himself in harms way in The Gambia, and has worked hard for the past fourteen years to establish a democratic socialist model of government, not only in The Gambia but throughout the African continent. The struggle to achieve this goal has made him the greatest humanitarian The Gambia has ever known. Yet voters failed to stand up to the regime when they failed to give Halifa the chance to establish his socialist plan at the last general election. He now spends his time on issues and programs dedicated to establishing human rights and the development of the African continent.
I have never met Halifa in person but I cherish the wonderful discussions we have shared through the Internet, and the last time we exchanged E-mails he was in Benin at a conference organized to break down the barriers to Africa’s economic development. In spite of attending a conference, Halifa wasted no time in helping me to prepare an article on the socialist market economy, which is a subject close to his own heart. As a socialist, he too believes that the market system could help our little Gambia to become one of the greatest economic states in the Sub-Saharan region. Based upon what I learnt from him, I feel I know the man himself. I also know that his one concern in life is the future of our nation and Sallah is the kind of leader we should yearn for.
According to information gleaned from Banjul, Halifa was arrested shortly after visiting some of the small villages in the Kombos where witch doctors had been harassing and threatening the lives of innocent civilians. Now that the charges brought against Halifa have been clearly published for the whole world to see, it is also clear that we have to stop Yaya Jammeh because, as long as this tyrant and the lackeys who pretend to serve him rule, there will never be peace in our country. We Gambians cannot expect other nations to come and wage war on our people just to remove Yaya Jammeh from power, but what we can and should expect is another lance corporal coming from out of nowhere to remove him from power, just as he removed Sir Dawda in 1994. Until that beloved son of The Gambia comes to serve our nation, our constitutional and human rights are at a great risk. If a citizen, be it Halifa Sallah or a country farmer, cannot speak out against human rights abuses being perpetrated on helpless, innocent civilians by the State, then we have no need of a government. That is the trademark and legacy of Yaya Jammeh’s regime. Wake up compatriots!!!
If there are any other socialists in The Gambia besides Halifa, Sam Sarr and Sidia Jatta, then they have not come forward to face the Gambian people. For me, as a socialist and a true member of PDOIS, Halifa has become a guiding hand that has continued to inspire me across many years. Jailing political opponents is just one of the many ugly trademarks of the Yaya Jammeh administration, but how long can we Gambians allow this to continue? It is we who should stand up shoulder to shoulder with Halifa, Sam Sarr, Sidia Jatta, and OJ and end the human rights abuses that this government continues to perpetrate against our country for the past fifteen years.
As other countries all around the free world are battling with an economic crisis, the Gambian government is shaming its citizens by busying itself pursuing and harassing its old, and its weak and its poor with unbelievable allegations of witchcraft. The funds wasted on this infamous joke could have been spent on government programs for the benefit of the Gambian people during this time of global hardship. State funded witch doctors going into government offices and private homes in the 21st century, dragging out so-called witches, is a move that continues to do more than raise eyebrows within the international community. It is surely the most stupid in a long line of stupid programs launched by the Yaya Jammeh regime. It is just another chapter in our nation’s world renowned human rights record which Jammeh and his thugs don’t give a damn about. Now that an opposition leader has been arrested and released for just expressing his views and condemning this atrocity, every Gambian, including past military officers, must rethink our situation and help rescue our country before it is doomed.
A belief in witchcraft is still common in Africa, but most African countries have sane governments which have ruled out a belief in witchcraft from their constitutions and punish individuals who claim to be witchdoctors, while others regard it merely as an old cultural belief which has no place in reality. In Tanzania, where bogus and unscrupulous so-called witchdoctors were murdering Albinos for their body parts and telling people this would make them rich, the government has revoked the licenses of all witchdoctors and has confiscated all of their belongings and medicines. Witch doctors are now illegal in Tanzania and the government is standing beside the Albinos to stop the killings. In recent months nearly 90 people have been arrested, including police officers, who were suspected of being involved. Now in Tanzania, witch doctors, once considered to have supernatural powers or magical nemesis and who were smart enough to fool their fellow countrymen, are now relegated to being despised citizens. Their claim of possessing supernatural powers has been revoked, leaving Tanzanians to live in the real world. Thank God that Tanzanians have a sane, responsible government whereas for us, our very own stupidity has just began
Despite a common belief in this deep rooted culture, no government in Sub-Saharan has ever launched a physical manhunt on its own people, arresting them for supposedly practicing witchcraft, like the Gambian government under Yaya Jammeh’s command. Hunting down ordinary Gambians in any sense is a severe human rights abuse, which requires immediate international action. The word witchcraft reminds me of my childhood days when our traditional superhuman “FANGBONDI” would scream during the night to frighten witches from getting near newly circumcised children on the outskirts of towns or villages. Despite the cultural belief that witches love newly circumcised children, I have never witnessed Fangbondi capture a witch. While Fangbondi’s legacy remains a traditional belief, no one in this day and age would accept it as a reality.
Witchcraft is a common belief, which has remained an unsolved mystery for centuries, but even in fictional books issues surrounding witchcraft always end in tragedy. An example of this is Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare where the main fictional character demonstrates how a belief in witchcraft affected English society in the late sixteenth century. I am also reminded of the Ancient Greek mythology where certain gods were characterized as being half human and half goat. In both of these cases, people could be excused for believing in witchcraft because their civilizations were not as developed as they are today, and people’s minds were not so enlightened. But I think that everyone in his right mind today will agree with me that Yaya Jammeh’s acclaimed belief in 21st century witchcraft is worse than that of the Ancient Greeks. They believed in different gods and their effect on human society, but Jammeh is a man who carries the Holy Quran in his right hand and claims to have the ability to cure AIDS. Countrymen! Wake up! Liberate our people! Save us from this madness! If Yaya Jammeh thinks that talk of witchcraft and hunting humans is what will help him remain in power, then he is even more deluded than he seems to be.
So BRAVO HALIFA! Your commitment in trying to establish democracy in The Gambia is unique. Like all human rights activists and politicians who dedicate their own lives to fighting for justice and equality for their countrymen, be strong like Nelson Mandela or Che Guevara for the future of our nation, because the minds of Yaya Jammeh and his bandits are, as yet, unformed and full of sickness. Until then, as they would say in Latin “Mensana en Copore Sano”