December 11, 2018

On his 57^th birthday, His Excellency Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal today presents his book, “Le Sénégal au Cœur” to the press at The Terrou Bi hotel in Dakar. The book is based on his character defining experiences from childhood to being in the many positions of leadership that led to him being the fourth and youngest President of Senegal.  It touches on his long march made possible, by holding on to his faith and principles of discipline and firmness, which led him to the helm of his treasured Senegal. An opportunity he does not take lightly, as he pushes through his emergence blueprint that is fast seeing Senegal as a developed nation on the cusp of a transformational breakthrough. It is apt that as he concludes his first term in office in February 2019 and prepares for the battle of his second term, Senegalese gets to know more intimately the man they often reproach for being too rigid andnicknamed “Niangal” in Wolof. A nickname he somehow accepts as he himself accepts that he can come across as such from the outside. Animage that is not helped by Sall being an expert in engineering and geology with a very pragmatic outlook on life.

This book places Sall’s heart on the table for all to see the complexities that make up the man, Macky Sall. It is a story that connects the president’s past with the youth of today’s present. It is a story of sacrifice, hardship, personal growth and powerful dreams for the future, with many experiences and aspirations that most children of the developing world can relate to. In the book, we learn about the harsh realities faced by Sall, like many other rural children such as, walking many miles to get to school. An experience that led to his decisions to map out a greater life for himself and a trajectory of a bright destiny. He discusses his very sour relationship with his predecessor and then mentor, Abdoulaye Wade and all the political characters such as, the colorful character that is, Idrissa Seck who Sall have had clashes with.

From a child of Fouta of modest beginnings, to a man of the world, who refused to let “The nauseating remarks of [Abdoulaye] Wade” calling him a descendant of slaves and coming from a family of cannibals not define him; after Wade, the former President who mentored and guided Sall became furious at Sall for daring to run for the presidency. Sall refused to bow his head low in his pursuit of a brighter tomorrow.

Wade’s unformed statements were the last act of revenge meant to push in the blowing dagger into Sall’s heart for his supposed betrayal. Sall touches deeply about his family ancestry, stating that it is rooted in Toro and Ngénar. “They know that I come from a line of famous and prestigious warrior nobles,” he says.

Macky Sall delivers a tone of perseverance despite adversity and failure in ‘Le Senegal au Coeur.’ His journey is akin to the theme of a hero’s journey “a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.” It teaches the future generation the importance of failure as something to learn from is important on the journey to success. But above all, it teaches us all the importance of a dignified life.

Sall dedicates his book to his parents, children and his adored wife,Marème Faye Sall. He pays many tributes to hisbeloved Marème and touchesonher endless sacrifices made, in order for him to pursue his career. It speaks to the importance of choosing a partner that supports ones during the good and bad times.

*The English version of “Le Sénégal au Cœur” is out end of January and available on Amazon.

By, Mwaz Diallo

The 2019 budget of the Barrow Government indeed leaves one wondering if this government really understands what kind of society it has inherited, what conditions of life majority of Gambians live and what must be done to transform this country for the better. A budget explains what the vision and objective of a government is hence the 2019 budget clearly tells us that the Barrow Government has either no vision or a very bad vision for this country. For example, it is indeed scandalous that millions are allocated to buying of vehicles, furniture, refurbishment, lubricants and tours that have no bearing on citizens’ lives but only go to satisfy the comfort of few public officials.

A budget is not just a projection of income and expenditure. But much more than that a budget is the second highest law of a country after the constitution. Our Constitution as well as other laws of the country has set out our rights and needs as citizens for which the Government has an obligation to protect and fulfil those rights and needs. To protect and fulfil rights and needs means the provision of goods and services and building of facilities as well as the creation of opportunities in terms of an enabling legal, policy and institutional environment, the building of infrastructure in any form and the provision of credit, incentives and the enforcement of laws among others. It is the budget that enables the government to protect those rights and deliver those needs.

In other words, the budget is what tells us what is priority or not a priority for a government or which citizen or community will befit or not from public goods and services. This means the budget tells us what and how the government intends to use public resources in order to protect rights and fulfil needs hence national development. Thus, the budget is a life and death issue. Whether a Gambian will die from a preventable disease or not depends on the budget available to the health sector to ensure quality care. Whether a Gambian child will obtain quality education from primary to tertiary levels depends on the budget available to the education sector. Whether a Gambian will be safe and secure or not in her home depends on the budget available to law enforcement and justice delivery structures.

Considering the foregoing one now wonders why the Barrow Government presented the estimates that they did for 2019 for which the National Assembly went ahead to approve. For example, what is the justification for giving over 600 million dalasi to the Office of the President? Yes, this is the highest office in the land, but it does not mean it requires that huge amount of money when it does not build facilities or provide goods or services. The details of the OP budget is clearly meant to fund an overstaffed State House as well as fund exorbitant spending on travels, office operations, ceremonies, patronage among other irrelevant expenditures. The budget for that office needs to be scaled down!

I expected that Pres. Barrow would have realised that his tenure should focus on the transformation of the country, socio-culturally, economically and politically. We do not only need legal and institutional reforms with a new constitution but that we also require the bulk of our budget to go into areas where Gambian lives will be impacted tangibly. For example, despite having a Cabinet and a National Assembly as well as other state institutions to provide guidance and advice, why should Barrow appoint another 6 new official advisors costing us more than 2 million dalasi? It is clear that this budget is only meant to compensate political allies to serve the political objective of Barrow. This is because so far the advisers we see are not only unfit for purpose but they are also all cronies hence it is a waste of public money to allocate more than 2 million dalasi to a bunch of 6 people.

Similarly, when Barrow’s Finance Minister talked about 50% salary increment, one would have expected that in the first place this will not affect the top earners like the president himself. In 2018 Barrow’s salary was 170 thousand dalasi per month but this has now been raised to over 255 thousand dalasi. This makes the 50% salary increment therefore disingenuous and self-serving as it has benefitted the president more than any other worker within the state!

Secondly why would 10 million dalasi be allocated for one country tour of the president within a space covering only 11 thousand square kilometres with 7 administrative areas? This huge amount is utterly unjustified. The parliament should have reduced this amount to les than half a million. Rather what needs to happen is for the president to reduce his entourage to only a small technical team many of who do not even have to spend the entire time in the tour. Technocrats could be coming from their offices to go to Basse or anywhere in the country to give technical assistance to the president in a meeting with a community and then they head back to Banjul to go to work on the same day. Thus, the entourage should be small. But if we turn the country tour into a political jamboree certainly the amount of money needed will be colossal.

Then we have the D384, 416 for the president’s wife as an institution. There is no need for a permanent office for a so-called First Lady. We elected and pay the president and not his wife or daughter or uncle. Hence let the president travel with his wife if he has to. Let the president’s wife lend her voice to social and economic justice causes where necessary or invited to do so. She does not need to operate a permanent office for that matter. Doing so would lead to turning it into a political tool and an avenue for corruption and patronage. Secondly do we factor the scenario where the president is a woman; in that case would her husband maintain the Office of the First Lady or should we say, ‘Office of the First Husband’! Ridiculous!

The most shameful part of the budget is where the most critical institutions that ensure that the Executive arm is held accountable so that it delivers efficiently and effectively have been severely under-resourced. These are the National Assembly, Judiciary and Ombudsman, all of which combined receive less than half of what the Office of the President receives. Yet these are the key institutions that have oversight and accountability functions to check the Executive and society as a whole to ensure that institutions and public officers perform effectively according to law. With this budget, the National Assembly has therefore over-empowered the president over and beyond the legislature hence severely undermining our democracy and good governance.

Another shameful aspect of the budget is the incredibly huge sum allocated to the Ministry of Defence (D699,057,843)! Really what is the objective here? Is the Gambia going to engage in some arms race soon or is this country funding an ongoing war? At this stage of our history and experience, if Barrow understood the exigencies of the Gambia he should have realized that we need more funding for youths (D97,026,190), works/infrastructure (D81,265,164), agriculture (234,268,940), energy (D48,515,500), fisheries (D36,320,000) and science and technology (D243,339,522) because these are the foundations of our economy and productivity. All these combined equal to D740,735,316 which is almost equal to the defence budget.

Even more scandalous is the fact that Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs could questionably get D790,816,197 when the newly created women, children and social welfare ministry has only 44 million dalasi while very limited funding was provided to transitional justice institutions such as the Constitutional Review Commission, TRRC and National Human Rights commission. Since the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs does not deliver public goods and services one wonders where this money will go to? Is it to fund travels, trainings and meetings when availability of quality materials and capacity within the health and education sectors are appalling?

Meantime the allocation for health (D1.03 billion) and basic education (D1.9 billion) are far below the commitments made by the Gambia to international declarations to ensure education for all and health for all citizens. The mindboggling question is how does this entire budget relate to the NDP and the pledges made in Brussels? There is absolutely no reflection that the budget drafters had contemplated or factored in those pledges. Therefore, if this budget goes as it is one can only expect national debt to increase while giving space for corruption to also become widespread because the budget has too many and too much procurement for areas where kickbacks and inflated prices are common.

The 2019 budget is scandalous and a shame that must be rejected by the citizenry. Therefore, it is utterly urgent that the new Constitution creates a new budgeting process so that citizens can engage on it early on to ensure that we truly have a people’s budget. The budget process must begin at least 3 months before the year ends and that the Government must ensure that citizens access the estimates immediately. The law should require that NAMs engage their constituents for a considerable time to obtain public views on the budget for consideration by the National Assembly. This is necessary so that we do not leave our budget, which is about our life and death, to the whims and caprices of a bunch of appointed public officials who are only interested in catering for their privileges, incentives and benefits at the detriment of citizens.

No to 2019 Budget! For the Gambia Our Homeland.

Readers could recall that in July 2006, the Summit of Heads of State and Government adopted the African Youth Charter at their Summit in Banjul, The Gambia. They underscored the importance of youth participation and involvement in the development of Africa.

Besides, The Gambia as the host and a signatory to the African Youth Charter should lead by example through empowering her youth by occupying the leadership space. As it will pave the way for the development of national programmes and strategic plans for a better Gambia we all want to see.

On Monday, 9th July President Adama Barrow presided over the swearing ceremony of new Vice-President Ousainou Darboe along with eight ministers at State House in Banjul. Surprisingly enough, there was no Youth among the list including the Youth Minister who is above the Youth age bracket.

Of recent, we have seen how the young people of this country been ignored as none of the political parties nominate a youth as its flag bearer. The Constitution which is also the supreme book of the land discriminated the youth as it is categorically stated on Section 62(1) B of the 1997 Constitution.

Besides, the Ministry of Youth and Sports which aim is to ensure that investment in youth and sports take place across sectors and in all policies and programmes is headed by a person who is not a youth. Lamin Darbo, Executive Director of the National Youth Council once said ‘‘anything for the youth without the youth is not for the youth’’. The Gambia youth has all it takes to preside over the affairs of the State beyond imagination in the 21st Century; it is a tragedy for a pensioner to run the affairs of the Youth.

The African Union Assembly decision in January 2016 established the theme for 2017 as ‘’Harnessing the Demographic Dividend Through Investments In Youth”. AU heads of states and governments recognize a country level demographic dividend as a central to continent’s economic transformation in the context of AU Agenda 2063.

The last time I checked, Gambia’s regeneration cannot be realized if adequate investment is not made in the youth who constitute about 60 per cent of the total population. The African Union Constitutive Act and the African Union Commission strategic plan 2004-2007 give due priority to youth development and empowerment as the youth are the solution to Africa problem.

Furthermore, Article 11 (C) of the African Youth Charter stated that ‘‘Ensure equal access to the young man and young women to participate in decision-making and in fulfilling civic duties ’’. Therefore The Gambia will not develop until and unless the Youth are given the opportunity to take part in the development process of the State.

Saidina Alieu Jarjou

Political Activist

By: Dr. Assan Jallow

I am left worried and concerned having heard the proposed submission made by the Hon. Minister of Finance before deputies at the National Assembly for scrutiny and possible adoption on the draft report of total government revenue and expenditure projections for 2019 to increase basic salaries of civil servants by 50% and pensioners 100%. I wondered what necessitated this 360° magnum leap and intended increase move as the announcement of this news was ill-timed and have the dangers of a possible looming crisis in the public service and a locked down on workers’ morale if the proposal backfire. It came at a bad time and proposals of such nature shouldn’t be placed before the public domain without been properly look at in a form of a conducted empirical study to assess the health of the economy and the sustainability of the public wage bill. It is expedient to note that conducting an empirical economic research would have served as a fitting mechanism in designing issued-based policies for any proposals of the government. Hasten to say, it serves as a compliment of action, a way of understanding our problems and finding alternate means to change, improve and innovate for the better across the national divide. Research can lead to more effective action, and vice versa, too. Action can be a great learning experience for a researcher, especially collective action. It can help us deal with some of the blinkers we are talking about in nation-building. It is time to practice applied economics in our thoughts of minds and proposed actions, and avoid taking or making a hasty or haphazard presentation of proposed ideas on the binary lenses of table or desk analysis that are not base on facts, but rather on perceptions to score a political point.This will save us the time of not entertaining certain things of critical national concerns on face value.

Therefore, let no judge me wrong as I am not against any proposed pay increase, but more concern about its ramifications to our economy. Civil servants deserve every possible pay increase, considering the prevailing economic realities on the ground. I understand that the government intends to pursue a structural civil service reforms all geared to increase productivity and effective quality services to the public. However, the proposal is not realistic as the trajectory of our economic and financial base as a country cannot sustain it. As a country, 60- 70% of our budget is spend in funding personnel emoluments which is unacceptable. And the proposed 50% salary increase is way beyond the standard cap for a developing country like ours. We are aware that we have one of the least pay structures for public servants, hence becoming an unattractive pool to attract talents, coupled with high attrition rate.

Since the government focus is to transform the civil service, any such policy of intent should be directed in adopting the role of an entrepreneurial state in partnership with the private sector to create prospective job market for the teeming unemployed young population. Therefore, I proposed the following as a strategy to empower, develop and give the civil servant a competitive position to cushion the high cost of living and growing market shocks on goods and services:

1. Streamlining the civil service, hence making it lean, smaller, effective, efficient and smarter with the overarching objective of ending the open employment entity of political connections or familial relations. We have seen every Kumba, Pateh and Samba is hired without the due process or not passing through the exhaustive norms of the employment laws as stipulated under the rulebook of the Public Service Commission. There is the definite need to end the politicization of the civil service.
2. Training and capacity building programs that are geared to upskill the civil servants with the required skill-sets, not on the forms of organized workshops or traveling abroad to attend seminars and fill their per-diem purses at the expense of the public
3. Revamping the pay structure to put greater emphasis on pay for performance
4. Provision of basic, quality and affordable healthcare delivery services to help attend to the health needs of the citizens and help inoculate our children in the event of major outbreak of diseases
5. Provision of better insurance coverage and effective, and efficient social services and programmes of lifting thousands out of poverty through providing housing schemes to the civil servants where they can be allocated with moved in apartments or houses and be paying monthly mortgage fees that are affordable and reasonable, say 20 -50 years housing agreement.
6. Investing in education to promote entrepreneurship development and innovation to disrupt the market and provide steady growth income and employment opportunities for all Gambians
7. Pursue pragmatic policy intervention and evaluations through the vehicle of public-private partnerships to encourage business investments in the private sector as a means of generating employment opportunities and prosperity rather than the products of dogma, ideology or unworkable economic theory. The private sector is burdened with an elephant-tier of taxes, hence constricting e growth and employment in the economy.

These are the kind of anticipated proposals that should be presented to the public domain so that that expert opinions can be sought and way forward identified and strategized.

From an economic point of view, I oppose the proposal by been an advocate for fiscal discipline in the realm of prudent budget allocations to maintain a healthy, balanced and sustainable fiscus. It is unsustainable and does not provide any prospective avenue of increasing the civil servants purchasing powers against rising food crises and price hikes as the extent statutory labor laws are obsolete and need to be reviewed to accommodate the current economic realities in the country. Time for us all as citizens of conscience to get engaged or be involved in actual policy proposals and discussions to critique, to better make well-informed choices in our development parameters.

Knowing the role and importance of political parties in a multiparty democracy it is therefore no easy decision that the largest political party in the Gambia has decided to stand by democratic and human rights standards. The news that UDP has declared that public servants will not hold party positions and that 30% of their elected officials will be women is indeed steps in the right direction that directly impact on the good governance of the Gambia. Political parties are the pillars of our democratic governance system because it is parties that produce the president, parliamentarians and local councillors. It is these people who run our presidency, legislature and local councils.

Hence if these elected officials come from an environment where democratic standards are upheld and promoted then it means we will end up having a presidency, parliament and local councils that are democratic and abiding by good governance practices. For that matter the decision by UDP to begin the democratisation process from inside its party can only serve the best intertest of the Gambia.

We must bear in mind that when political parties are undemocratic there is no way that when they win state power, they will deliver democracy at the national level. Political parties are either ruling governments or governments in waiting. Hence adherence to good governance principles and practices must start first inside the political parties in order to achieve democracy in the government. It cannot be the other way around.

The decision to also allocate 30% of positions to women is in direct fulfilment of the agreements that the Gambia made to international declarations and instruments for gender equality and social justice in the world. The best example of that is the fourth international conference on women held in Beijing in 1995 where world leaders identified women in power and leadership as one of the 12 critical areas to address in order to empower women and ensure equality.

The Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action specifically mentioned that political parties should examine party structures and procedures to eliminate discrimination against women’s participation and to develop initiatives to encourage women’s participation and incorporate gender issues in their political agenda. Therefore, this decision by UDP is indeed revolutionary in the context of the Gambia for which the party needs commendation and support.

With decisions like this it means UDP, on its own, will raise the number of elected women in our National Assembly and local councils if it ensures that 30% of nominations are women. This can only bring immense benefits to our society by stamping out gender discrimination and exclusion hence spur national development exponentially as we saw how such decisions have benefited countries like Rwanda and Sweden. Considering this welcoming news, I hereby inform UDP that I, Madi Jobarteh is willing, free of charge, to train the leadership of the party and their women leaders in particular on gender and women’s empowerment. Anytime!

Just as UDP has a gender quota we urge it to also consider quotas for youth, persons with disability and other minorities with a view to make the party more open and inclusive hence further strengthen the party and overall governance in the Gambia. In similar vein UDP must also endeavour to set term limits for leadership. The benefit of terms limits for our young democracy is that it allows rejuvenation of the party, build and maintain confidence and morale in the rank and file and limit self-perpetuation in power.

Furthermore, I wish to call on the party to still continue to seek further decentralisation of power. For far too long, by default or design, few names and structures seem to dominate or are synonymous with the power and profile of the party. While I pay special tribute to Ousainou Darboe for steering this party through the most trying times of our history, yet we must recognise that UDP has to transcend Ousainou Darboe. It is not enough for Ousainou to say this, but he has to translate it into practice by creating tangible bylaws, policies and structures so that no one person or committee ever dominates the life of the party.

It is true that during periods of dictatorship or colonialism in any country or in emerging new nations certain individuals do overshadow their parties such as Yasser Arafat and PLO, Nelson Mandela and ANC or Xanana Gusmao of East Timor. Now that the Gambia has defeated dictatorship in which UDP played a major part it is therefore necessary that the new leaders realise that UDP need no more heroes of liberation but heroes of democracy and good governance. This can only be achieved through decentralisation of power and decision making to and through a diversity of structures and processes.

Therefore, it is heartening to realise that there are youth and women’s wings. But these wings must not just merely be structures for politicking, mobilization and to serve particular leaders. Rather these structures must be made into robust and autonomous bodies of power and decision making and whose decisions must carry weight. This is one of the best ways to avoid power being concentrated in one person’s hands or in one committee hence dilute the quality of decision making and the viability and survival of a party beyond a leader.

While we commend UDP for these ground-breaking decisions, I wish to further urge the party to continue to aim for higher democratic and good governance ideals and standards. For example, the party needs to begin to create necessary structures, tools and processes to further enhance its governance, leadership and management. National policy and law-making begins inside political parties in true democracies.

For that matter UDP need to begin to create technical structures or working committees for policy and law-making, gender, budget, oversight, youth, persons with disability, environment and indeed all aspects of our development. Through these structures the party will also become a more professional, vibrant and relevant entity.

In this way the party would easily gather information and evidence in order to suggest policy and development alternatives that can only enhance good governance. Political parties are also accountability instruments for the government hence when UDP and indeed all of our parties modernise their structures and make knowledge and evidence the basis of decision making they will have succeeded in better holding the government accountable if they are in the opposition or better perform if they are in government.

That aside, UDP like all other parties must also uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability for their own affairs, decisions, activities and leaders. For example, I hope UDP will release the details of the resources for this congress: how much was spent and what are the sources? These cannot and must not be anonymous rather the party must continue that leadership streak by reporting back to Gambians how it did its congress. It must therefore create various platforms, structures and processes to ensure transparency and accountability. These can be online platforms, press conferences, press releases and issuance of reports to the general public.

Once again kudos to UDP. Meantime the general public must continue to scrutinise UDP and all our political parties knowing that when our parties fail the nation fails.

For the Gambia Our Homeland.

His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has engaged a high-level delegation from the Egyptian energy producing company, El Sewedy Electrometer, where he promised to provide the conducive environment for investments in Sierra Leone.

During the meeting at the Haqyatt Resort, Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Chairman and CEO of the company, Engineer Emad Z. Elsewedy, said his company had been to Sierra Leone once during the meter installations in 2004, a project he described as their opening to Africa.

He said they were specialised in producing and distributing energy as well as collecting electricity bills, adding that the lack of adequate monitoring in the collection of electricity bills had been a challenge in most African countries, which also affected their production levels.

Mr Elsewedy also stated that they were ready to come to the country, not only to manage electricity networks but also to transfer their skills and knowledge to Sierra Leoneans. He maintained that his company would be of great help to the energy sector in the country, especially by generating more power for the people, adding that they had the capacity of producing 6,000 meters annually.

“Ineffective collection of energy revenue has been a huge challenge in most African countries we have been to. This is even affecting the production level in some countries because if the cash flow does not improve, the production level would also be affected. We have a 24-hours’ system to detect any illegal tampering of electricity that we connect through GSM. This system increases both the cash flow and transparency levels,” he said.

On his part, President Bio said he was happy to meet the leadership of the electricity producing company. He said over the years Sierra Leone had faced challenges in the electricity sector which he hoped to address within the shortest possible time. He added that his government was determined to produce a lot of energy that would be able to supply households as well as companies operating within the country.

He disclosed that the country had challenges not only in the production of energy but also in its distribution and metering, which he said needed to be addressed urgently. He assured that Sierra Leone was open for business and that his government was ready to open the space for credible investments that would benefit the country.

“Energy for us is very important because we want to provide enough of it at a sustainable level for our people. We are interested in the proposal for the meter billing because we want to establish a proper system on the management around collecting the revenues we make in the energy sector. We encourage you to come into our country and we will look at the financing models involved so that it will be done on mutual benefits,” he said.

The El Sewedy Electrometer is an Egyptian energy producing company that innovates new technologies, metering solutions and services that support its customers across the globe to overcome their operational challenges, improving the rate of revenue collection, reducing the level of non-technical losses as well as managing their consumers load during peak hours. The company has its facilities in Africa in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Zambia respectively and also in India, Brazil, and Mexico.

Bakary my good brother,

I hail you on this bright Saturday morning as I take a ride towards your home town, Chaku Bantang!

You are one of my many cousins but you hold a special space in my honour roll, perhaps second only to my fave duo, your two younger siblings, the Doctor without a medical degree and the ‘Fodaywo’ without a ‘Karanta’- what a world? Lol! Kudos to Doctor Dibba since he is in certified medical practice in a rare speciality; but my ‘beef’ remains that he is not a doctor-Lol!

On a more serious note, even though we disagree on many issues of public policy et al, I have always held you in high regard for your tolerance to my (more often then not) inferior dissenting views knowing that you are more than a decade older than me. And you have been a blessing in my life in matters of academic and cultural import.

Bakary, even though my roots are from one of the satellites in the constellation of villages that makes your home a nodal town, there is no geographical space in The Gambia that can claim more blood relations of mine than Farafenni. Is your town not the place where my two most senior aunts, maternal siblings of my late father Landing Binta, lived their lives and bore their children?

Speaking about your mother, Mbinki Jankay Jammeh, and her sister the late Tomaring Sabally, I am proud to let you know that I am the honoured guest speaker for the final of an academic championship at the, organised by an organisation called Badibu Musolu. My very own mother the late Kaddy Jammeh (of both Sabach Kataba and Yilliassa) being the quintessential Badibou woman, the invitation from this organisation is indeed a huge honour for me.

And what shall I tell the brilliant young minds that I am supposed to address this morning on the subject of restoring our roots and giving back to our communities?

Indeed given the name of the organising body, it would not be out of place for me to start with advising these youths about the need and importance of honouring, respecting and supporting our women. Given the fact that you as a person are known to us as “Bakary Jankay” more so than by Bakary Dibba, authenticates the fact that we are not a misogynistic culture as claimed by some manipulative  so called gender activists. Our tradition in Badibou places women on a high pedestal. Though we bear the surnames of our fathers we are all practically called second names that are the first names of our mothers. Is that not a root to be preserved?

Bakary, Shall I not tell the young audience to learn from the admirable moral ethos and inspiring work culture of our gallant women of Badibou? Why are we looking up to a synthetic monoculture propagated by western media behemoths when our roots are golden mines of authentic and enriching lifestyles? Indeed Jaliba Kuyateh’s metaphor for our cultural heritage is apt: Mamoe lu yeh yiri lu fee; mbay beh nyunu leh dubeng-na” (we are under the shades of the trees planted by our forefathers). In another song Jaliba tells us that the foundations of our culture were laid by our forebears and we should also endeavour to bequeath something worthy of a heritage to our  descendants.

And on that note, my good brother, let me delve into the second part of the subject under discussion here: giving back to our communities!

If we are trees as human beings, then each of us has their community as the roots from which we grew as trees.  It is obvious that any tree that is disconnected from its roots will whither and fall. In the same vein, any person who disconnects from his community cannot mature and bear fruit. So being rooted in our communal spaces is key to wholesome lives and livelihoods.

Personally I have always been grateful to my community. From the circumcision rites where I learnt about real manhood and manners to the social settings, the ‘kafos’; the masquerade clubs in Banjul to the hunting groups in Lamin (and by hunting I mean going to the bush and hunting rabbits and squirrels) to my memorable holidays in Farafenni and Kataba, I have been blessed with a very rich life and a golden cultural foundation that powers and spices up everything I do at home and at the international platforms where I have been blessed to have the opportunity to teach and motivate young people from all over the world.

With all these blessings from my community I remain grateful and my mission to Farafenni today as well as others I have conducted in Jarra Soma, kappa (in Foni) and my own Sabach Sanjal constituency; and myriad locations in the urban centres of The Gambia are all part of my little efforts aimed at giving back to my community. Truly my establishing of the Sabally Leadership Academy (SLA) and it’s offshoot, the SLA Cultural Choir are all efforts aimed at respecting our roots and giving back to our communities.

My good brother it is noble and healthy to give back to our communities. Shall I not present to them the example of former US President Barack Obama whose rise to power could be traced back to his humble service as a community organiser in the south side of Chicago?

But speaking of giving back and charitable activities, shall I not warn these youths about the the phenomenon called ‘Kaur Sadaa’ (charity of the town of Kaur)  which is a very poignant Mandinka idiom; and while I do not know its origin, I know that it is that kind of charity that the giver also takes and consumes by himself/herself. The activities of some charitable organizations registered and operating in this country are essentially nothing but ‘Kaur sadaa’ disguised as giving back.

So my advice to the audience shall be to give back in an honest and authentic way!

My good friend, our vehicle has just passed Kinteh Kunda and Saabaa, two very famous settlements in our very beautiful Badibou, land of the truly brave. Kinteh Kunda reminds me of the classic jibe against us upon being asked “where are you from?”: “Kinteh Kunda Marong Kunda, Janneh-yaa, munem?” But that’s because unlike our rivals from Kiang who are not very proud of their ancestral home, we just say it out loud with uber-confidence Lol!

On the town town of Saabaa, that’s the home of our uncle, my late dad’s best friend, former cabinet minister and top ranker among the founding fathers of our dear nation who was privileged to have been  part of the delegation that represented our country at Marlborough House, London, for the Gambia’s Independence Conference in 1964. The Honourable Alhagie Kalilu Singhateh is indeed a worthy son on this country and one of the architects of our nation state! To him and the natives of this great town, I drop here a couplet from my poem “Jamba Sansang” from page 11 of my 2012 manuscript “Faaraa Ning Jambakatang”, yet to be released:

‘Jamba Sansang Saabaa lu yaa wooroe…

Kabiring nyoboring tumoe; boyro ning kanyewo...’

Adieu, my good ‘cousin-brother’ as the greatest offenders of the rules of the Queen’s language the Sarahullehs would put it-Lol!

Alamaa Tiloe kairoe siyaa la…

But oops; I have just arrived in Farafenni, only to be told that the venue for the event is actually in Kerewan, at the regional education centre. Now I have to drive back another half an hour towards Barra. What a miss! My other cousin, one of the organisers of today’s event, Lamin Dibba, has his unique opportunity to throw a jibe at me: “hey why are you so obsessed with our town, Farafenni? We are here in Kerewan but if you want, we can still grant you citizenship in Farafenni!”

What a a journey!

Yours,

Momodou Sabally

The Gambia’s Pen