A History Lesson with Possible Repercussions
By Demba Jawo

It has now become a tradition for President Jammeh to
grant an exclusive interview to the GRTS at the dawn
of every New Year, which he uses to not only castigate
the opposition, but also to make some controversial
comments.

While this year he made just a few passing comments
about the opposition, describing them as not being a
genuine opposition, apparently because there was no
Neneh Macdouall-Gaye or Kebba Dibba to ask questions
that pushed him to say more, but true to tradition, he
made certain controversial comments.

Indeed at some stage, he transformed the interview
into a history lesson, using several maps to drive
home some of the points he was making. One of those
points was the fact that the Casamance region of
Senegal was once part of The Gambia, producing a map
to back his assertion.

While I have no cause to deny that assertion, I am
sure most Gambians are concerned about some possible
repercussions of such a history lesson. The Casamance
region has been involved in an armed rebellion for
more than 20 years, with militants of the Movement for
Democratic Forces of the Casamance (MFDC) fighting for
secession from Senegal. In fact, some of the MFDC
hardliners have always based their rebellion on the
historical fact that Casamance was once not part of
Senegal. Therefore, President Jammeh's history lesson
seems to give credence to their claim, and it is no
doubt likely to re-invigorate those claims and make
them see it as a justification of their cause. As it
is said in Wollof, "those accused of witchcraft should
avoid being seen to use a child's limb as a chewing
stick."

It is indeed hard to see any relevance of such a
history lesson in his interview, particularly when
there was no question to that effect. However, the
very fact that he brought all those maps to the
interview is an indication that he had prepared for it
rather than just mentioning it from an impulse.

Therefore, I wonder whether he did not see the
possible diplomatic repercussions such a history
lesson could have on our relations with Senegal, which
has been engaged in trying to suppress the rebellion
in the Casamance. Particularly when he seems to have
cast aspersions connecting the killing of journalist
Deyda Hydara, the closure of the Senegal-Gambia border
and the last coup attempt as part of a scheme by some
unnamed country (or countries) to prevent The Gambia
from hosting the AU summit. The aspersions seem to
have been quite obvious for anyone to guess.

Another controversial aspect of the interview was the
reference to another of his maps which showed the
Mandinkas being from outside The Gambia. He said they
were chased by the Bambaras from that area and that
was how they ran to come to The Gambia, but they were
never original Gambians.

It is indeed hard to see what President Jammeh or
anyone else stands to gain from such a historical
fact that the Mandinkas, unlike the Jolas, are
indeed not original inhabitants of The Gambia.

We in this country would definitely be much happier by
making less emphasis on ethnicity and religion,
because they are very sensitive issues in any society.
Therefore, everyone expects the Head of State to be in
the fore front of discouraging such divisive issues
rather than being seen to engage in them quite so
often. The Gambia is home to all the ethnic groups
living in it, no matter where they originally came
from, and it does not help our cause for national
cohesion by engaging in any form of historical
profiling of any ethnic group. We certainly should now
transcend ethno-centricity and think and behave like
one extended family.

There is absolutely no doubt that The Gambia as a
country is much younger than all the ethnic groups
that inhabit it, including those who call themselves
Mandinka. Indeed, the fact is that all these ethnic
groups are a combination of various tribes which, as a
result of inter-marriage and living together, began to
speak one form of language. This is very much
evidenced by the fact that one would find the same
surnames in almost all the ethnic groups. It certainly
cannot be mere coincidence but as a result of more
tangent factors. This is why some people prefer to
call ethnic groups as language groupings rather than
tribes because they have all transcended being mere tribes.

Mungo Park 1771-1806
Another of his historical lessons was that Mungo Park,
the Scottish explorer who passed through The Gambia in
the early 19th century was buried in this country. As
far as my little knowledge of history goes, that is
not the case. While it is true that he passed through
The Gambia on his way to look for the source of the
River Niger, but he never came back. We are told that
he and some of his surviving sailors died at the Bussa
rapids at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers
in present day Nigeria.

Probably because there is an obelisk erected in his
memory somewhere up country where his entourage was
said to have briefly stayed in a trading post,
President Jammeh assumed that he was buried there.
That is certainly not the case. Therefore he needs to
change that portion in his lesson notes.