Gambia: Yahya Jammeh’s Crowds

By Karamba Touray

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                         Karamba Touray

Have you ever wondered what the typical profile of a person that shows up at any of Yahya Jammeh's orchestrated events be it politically driven events such as public rallies, televised loyalty buying sessions or folks providing free manual labor at personal farms of the President? Two categories of people seem to make up the crowd. The first is the person responsible for the mobilization of the people expected to constitute the crowd and this individual or groups of individuals tend to be people who are either existing beneficiaries of direct patronage of the President or are angling for such similar favors. I supposed their approach can be described as predatory sycophancy in that they use hapless and utterly gullible people as a means to pursue personal ambition. That is why in all of the cases, the narrative is similar in how the organizer’s role is repeatedly emphasized and the poor suckers who make the trek and provide the labor become useful props for the cameras. One may then ask just who would honor the self serving call of manifest sycophants to go and provide free manual labor to Yahya Jammeh? It is primarily someone whohas nothing better to do with his time. He is unlikely to be a productive farmer because those Gambians tend to be meticulously focused on tending to their own farms and looking after their own affairs. He can't be someone with an ounce of common sense either because sensible folks tend not to be goaded into being props for other people. I can't imagine the people I grew up with answering the call of Ganji Touray (Governor of CRR) to come down to Georgetown and provide manual labor at a rice field he is supervising for Yahya Jammeh! It would be considered an act of Hallaku by most of them and for good reason. They value their labor and their dignity and the scheming and wily governor would have to look for fools elsewhere to use as vehicles to issue press releases at their expense. The typical volunteer tends to be an idle person, gullible to a fault and they tend to put greater stock in the prospect of being a permanent underling to some other person than finding their way in life. As a result they are more than willing to subjugate their own sense of self worth to even the mere possibility that a presumed benefactor might throw a crumb or two their way. That is what makes it easy for them to be corralled by devious people and used in the manner that they are and for the most part the only benefit for them would a slight change of diet occasioned by the trek to Kanilai!

The same is true for the politically inspired crowds as it was amply demonstrated by the just concluded tour of the country. Again those Gambians who didn't have anything better to do joined others who wanted to pick Yahya Jammeh's pocket to provide stage managed television images of people at their worst. It was at once surreal,pathetic and shameful as the President alternated from berating and threatening attendees for the supposed conduct of his political opponents who were presumably not at his rallies to questioning the motives of those who pledged their newfound support to him. It was quite a site to see grown men with whimsy white beards  in their best
gowns being thoroughly dressed down by this petty dictator they have cuddled for all the wrong reasons . Here they were facing the very guy
who was telling them he didn't quite need or value their support and they can expect to be punished if they sought to take their unneeded support to some other party. In order words he was negating their essence as human beings with free will to chose their leader and in the process their destiny. What kind of a person would find the
Presidents' abhorrent conduct of insulting people as a means of coercing them to tow his line tolerable or even acceptable. It is a similar mindset to that of the so-called volunteer laborer in which the individual's sense of him or herself is subjugated to the mere expectation of some undetermined benefit. The insults, disrespect, and overall lack of decorum is considered an acceptable price forwhatever the tyrant may or may not throw their way.

Sadly there will always be a segment of our population that is gullible, idle, predatory, and selfish and predictably individuals fitting the molds of the fourth and third categories respectively would certainly find plenty of the second and first
group of Gambians to provide Yahya Jammeh his crowds. One just has to hope that the pool continues to shrink.