Over the course of the past year, the West African nation of The Gambia has attracted an outsized volume of media attention, including a recent front-page story in the Washington Post. The lion’s share of international scrutiny has rightly focused on the country’s highly erratic and brutal dictator, Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the country with callous and brazen impunity since a July 1994 military coup. At the time, then interim President Jammeh announcedto the world: “We will never introduce dictatorship in this country.”

More than two decades later, the human rights situation in The Gambia has increasingly deteriorated to the point that the country is now referred to as the North Korea of Africa due to Jammeh’s violent intolerance for dissent and legitimate criticism of his abusive regime.

Unsurprisingly, Yahya Jammeh has registered the newfound and rising interest in his country by noticeably ramping up efforts to counteract the negative, and well-deserved, spotlight. Indeed, in recent weeks Jammeh has beenhonored by African Leadership Magazine – a widely recognized “award mill” that bestows faux honors to undeserving leaders – for his “extraordinary leadership” and for “the love he has for his people and entire humanity in general.” This “award,” which has been shamelessly publicized in Gambian state media, has coincided with a concerted social media campaign led by a shadowy new propaganda outlet called Kora Broadcasting that has been seemingly collaborating with the First Lady of Gambia Zineb Jammeh and a so-called “son of President Jammeh,” Prince Ebrahim— each have become quite active on various social media platforms, espousing the fabricated virtues of their beloved dictator and his myriad “successes.”

What’s more, I’ve been targeted myself – repeatedly – by Jammeh’s propaganda apparatus for helping to raise thelevel of awareness and for serving as a platform for citizens to voice their long-silenced concerns regarding missing and detained family members, as well the ongoing human rights violations that are routinely committed in the country. (As an aside, the outpouring of support from ordinary Gambians, as well as from activists in the diaspora, has been tremendous and will no doubt serve as additional motivation moving forward).

The new public relations campaign by Jammeh should come as no surprise— it is undoubtedly an indication that efforts to expose his illegitimate and wholly unaccountable rule are having an effect and have positively rattled the foundations of his regime. In the meantime, Jammeh and his cohorts may continue to shroud themselves in faux awards and phony accolades all they want.  For it stands to reason that the world is now onto their charade.

In the past decade alone military establishments or units of military establishments in West Africa have either destabilize or threatened the state in many aspects. These units have resisted the peoples demand for change, overturned elections results or used indiscriminate force against citizens demanding more rights and freedoms. They influenced politics and left a legacy in part, which continues to shape the role of the military establishment in political transitions.

In 2008, a military junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara led a coup after the death of long time autocrat Lasana Conteh. Amid growing opposition, the military cracked down on peaceful protests in September 2009, sparking widespread condemnation and increasing Guinea’s international isolation. Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was shot and decapitated two months later, and a military-led transitional government paved the way for a general election in 2010. Professor Alhpa Conde was declared winner after defeating Cellou-Dalein Diallo in a run-of.  In 2010 the electoral victory of opposition candidate Alassane outara was met with resistance by elite republican guard units of president Gbagbo who rejected results of the elections. Both Ouattara and former president Gbagbo took separate oaths of office in December 2010 and remained in a standoff over the presidency until Gbagbo’s capture in 2011.

 On March, 21, 2012, Malian soldiers under the leadership of Captain Amadou Sanogo overthrew the government of Amadou Toumani Toure and formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State. Following international condemnation and harsh sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), The African Union (AU), The European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) and the United States (US), the military was forced to step down and handed over to a transitional government led by Dioncounda Traore.  In September 2015, the euphoria of the popular protest that ended the 27 year rule of Blaise Campaore was short lived when Elite Presidential Guard (RSP) units led by General Diendere, arrested transitional leaders, and declared a coup. Condemnations by ECOWAS, AU, UN, the US and the European Union, coupled with declaration by the national armed forces and its support for a restoration of the transitional process forced the RSP to step aside.

As the role of the military continually shifted from one part of the pendulum to the other, the issue of civil military relations in both the developed and developing world got considerable scholarly attention. Samuel Huntington (1957) puts civil-military relations as military security policy that is an integral part of national security; it minimizes and neutralizes efforts to weaken or destroy the state by the military. Amos Perlmutter (1977) used the concept of the praetorian state/ praetorian army as “one in which the military tends to intervene in the government and has the potential to dominate the executive”. Perlmutter further breaks the praetorian army into two types: the “arbitrator army” which limits military control and seeks to influence politics from behind the scenes; and the “ruler army” that exercises military rule for long periods. Mehran Kamrava (2000) identified three types of civil-military relations: the “autocratic officer-politician” regimes, these are regimes led by former officers turned civilian politicians; the “tribally independent monarchies,” have their armies drawn mainly from tribal lines and pays allegiance to the monarchy; and the regimes with “dual militaries” mainly regimes with dual military structures or parallel military forces in addition to the army which is based on ideology. Drawing on the experiences from all the armed forces and regime types, and how they responded to given popular political situations, Eva Bellin (2004) developed the concepts of “Institutionalized Military,” and “Patrimonial Military”. Bellin (2004) found institutionalized militaries to be ruled bound and governed by clear sets of rules, have established career paths, strong links with society and promotion based on merit and not allegiance. Institutionalized militaries are willing to disengage from politics and allows political reforms. By contrast, patrimonial military apparatus is not ruled bound, have no established career paths, weak links to society and promotion is based ideological, tribal and political loyalty. With the outbreak of the  Arab Spring, Derek Lutterbeck (2013) further argued that the degree of institutionalization of an armed force and their relationship to society at-large, generally explains the armed forces response to given political situations. Lutterbeck observed the armed forces response to protest movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria.  Therefore it is clear that the puzzle about what constitutes an effective national armed force , to a large extent, lies on ‘what counts’  as Ebo (2005) puts it “the attitude of the military towards the civilian society, the civilian society’s perception of, and attitudes to the military, and the role of the armed forces in relation to the state”. For Naison Ngoma (2006), democratic civil –military relations implies the military‘s adherence to principles of conforming to accountable, legitimate democratic authorities, and the exercise of oversight over the military.

While the military had no doubt taken a forefront in the politics of several African countries, it is evident that the exponential growth of civil society and rising political maturity and consciousness is forcing the African military to be a part of progressive voices of reason and conscience. The abuse of power and the flagrant violation of rights by military governments in many Sub-Saharan African countries left policymakers, academics, researchers and ordinary citizens with skewed views of the military. Society have grown to mistrust the military in all aspects of politics.

Despite the conventional wisdom that military establishments are guardians of the state and her citizens, Sub-Saharan Africa is witnessing a reversal of the trend. It is the people who are “guarding” their very own “guardians”. For decades, the source of state fragility and failure in Sub-Saharan Africa has been attributed to the nature of civil-military relations and the “patrimonial” and “praetorian” nature of the military or the armed forces. When military institutions are formed on the basis of allegiance to a leader or a group, such institutions only protects its interest and not that of the state. It can disrupt and undermine the state when its interest is threatened, since it is well equipped and empowered with resources over other institutions. In Burkina Faso, the action of the Elite presidential guard (RSP) units led by General Diendere to disrupt the transitional process clearly exemplify  its entrenched nature as  both a “patrimonial unit” and a “parallel military force” in addition to the national army. Even in Ivory-Coast, where the opposition candidate emerged victorious, it was an entrenched patrimonial unit of the presidential guard and a parallel unit  (The Young Patriots) comprising of mainly youth from the late president Gbagbo’s ethnic group resisted to the last hour, when the Republican Forces or New Forces supported by French peacekeepers captured  Gbagbo. Amid the simmering tension, it was the voices of reason and conscience that prevail, upholding citizen’s aspirations for political reforms.

To better understand other dimensions of the “patrimonial” and “parallel military units” in Sub Saharan Africa, it is important to closely diagnose the 2008 military coup in Guinea, and the 2012 Coup in Mali. In both cases, it was other units of the armed forces and not the entrenched patrimonial presidential guards unit that seize power. On one hand both coups happen during periods of political uncertainty and polarization. On the other hand, it was a backlash of forming an army within an army, resentment against a well-resourced parallel unit as an elite presidential guard. Arguably, the degree of popular support for both the coups was largely linked to the people’s aspiration for change during those periods of uncertainty. However, when it was clear to the people that the military had different intentions, the “uniting clout and spread” of the coup forced out the military with a stark choice of succumbing to national, regional and transnational forces; the power of civil society. In the end the “Guardians” (the Military) were guarded by its very own people it is supposed to be guarding.

While many skeptics will use the most recent military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and the Guinea’s as indicators that the “no more coup” norm adopted by ECOWAS and the AU is only a “lip sinking” norm, a new form of political order has emerged across sub-Saharan Africa; a new order that is entrenched in the power of civil society. Perhaps this new order signals the end of the “praetorian”  “patrimonial” and “parallel” military establishments that has destabilized Sub-Saharan African States for so long. In sum, even when other leaders are relying on such military establishments (as in The Gambia, Equatorial Guinea), or amend their constitutions (as in Cameroon, Angola, and Burundi) to prolong their stay in power, a furtive glance at recent events shows that citizens of sub-Saharan Africans are “guarding” their very own “guardians” (The Army).

Ever since July 22nd 1994, haa, that dastardly accidental embarrassing event in our country’s history, when a section of the Gambia’s armed forces stroke a crushing torpedo on our flourishing democracy, imperfect as it were, we have been observing with keen interest, a growing line-up of self-serving gold diggers crawling before a rather dejected and disconsolate leader all in the name of polishing his brushed image to the unsuspecting audience.

And it does not matter who and what type of audience they’re spewing their propaganda to so long the targets have the energy to listen.

The chorus, notwithstanding its boring content, were and are still carefully designed to depict a situation of hope, happiness, progress and normality. But in reality the cherished choir singers and directors always crash head-on even before they land because they always have to lie so hard to fake a situation of catastrophic proportion that the Gambia finds itself in. But the dictator, who we all know is the chief architect of such self-ballooning image building projects, even though is ever scared to be seen to be directly associated with them, is never deterred to paint an image that is otherwise him.

If it is not an award of a new Doctorate Decree from a fake institution of learning, it will be a rather bizarre title added to his long lists of names that have now become imbecilic of our nation state and to the personality of the president himself.

And the people spearheading these projects all have one thing in common: line-up their pockets with our public loot through material adventurism with the utmost of disregard to our plight….in fact to them our plight never matters.

They range from big names in Nollywood; the cockroaches, the fetish and starved musicians; the religious fundamentalists and the willfully ignorant (to borrow a quote from Ousainou Mbenga); and now we have seen the maggots in the types of Becai Mbayi who think that Gambian blood and tears are less significant so long their breads are buttered by our President’s dirty money.

Hey Gambians have blood running in our veins and we feel pain too. So to Senegal’s 2SS TV presenter Becai Mbayi who insulted the dignity of Gambians in an interview this week, we say: if you are a door mat, allow Jammeh to trample and roll on and over you but leave us alone because this fight that we are engaged in with Jammeh is legitimate and we shall uncompromisingly pursue it to the very end.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held its 47^thordinary session in Accra, Ghana on May 19, 2015 as the region is roiling in crises such as the most recent rebellions in Burkina Faso and Burundi. In fact, the entire continent is entangled in the contradictions of its “neocolonial states” with escalating uncertainty for social justice and peaceful existence. This critical period in Africa, marvels Kwame Nkrumah’s prophetic words: “neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism”.

Nkrumah was right and the rest of them undoubtedly wrong. Even the great Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, at a conference in Ghana gave an apologetic speech to Nkrumah with great regrets for not sharing Nkrumah’s foresight at that critical moment of struggle for the union of African states. Nkrumah saw neocolonialism in the making and warned against the profound consequences that continue to haunt Africa to this day.

The historical conditions and circumstances under which these “institutions” were created will help us understand the behavior of these creatures called “presidents” – “heads of states” and why they will never be at the service of Africa and African people.

The ECOWAS, inaugurated on May 28, 1975 celebrated 40 years of its existence on May 28, 2015 as the institution tasked with charting the path for the economic cooperation and development among the West African states. Its counterparts, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) inaugurated in 1983, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) inaugurated 1980 and Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) inaugurated in 1989 all hinge on the imposed economic structures of “mal-development”. And for the maintenance of sub regional solutions to conflict, the ECOWAS inaugurated the ECOMOG in 1990 – the military monitoring group tasked with “conflict resolution” in the region. The military deployment of ECOMOG into Liberia and Sierra Leone was a catastrophic “experiment” with a high cost of innocent civilian lives, particularly in Sierra Leone. It was in March 1998 that the ECOMOG criminal soldiers, predominantly Nigerian soldiers bathed Freetown, Sierra Leone with African blood by bombs, bullets and rocket propel grenades (RPG); again at the behest of the imperialist U.N. Would this same ECOMOG show how well they could fight against the former “white settler” Apartheid army to repel the invasion of Angola? Never! All of these institutions are sanctioned only to kill, starve and humiliate Africans.

Colonialism doesn’t want anything in Africa that would benefit Africans, therefore: the neo-colonial states – colonialism in black faces. And the O.A.U/African Union (AU) celebrates half a century of humiliation, evident in the mediocre functions of its “institutions”, be it regional or continental.

No amount of lavish – wasteful annual conferences and the creation of impotent institutions will rescue Africa from the wretch conditions of the neo-colonial states. Yet, we are offered the likes of Jammeh and his ilk as the solution. There must be a revolutionary willingness to break with the ruinous ideas and practices of the neo-colonial states in order for Africa to emerge out of the swamps of misery and “mal-development”. Colonialism destroyed our self-determination while neo-colonialism gives us the illusions of restoring self-determination.

                                                                 AFRICAN UNITY BETRAYED

The seeds of betrayal for genuine African unity were sown a little over 50 years ago at the height of the most promising period of resistance to overturn the colonial relationship of exploitation and degradation. This was a period when the hearts of the vast majority of Africans were won to the revolutionary insights of pioneers like Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Patrice Lumumba, Ben Bella and Abdel Nasser who became known as the Casablanca Group. On the opposite pole of “post-independence” struggle was the Monrovia Group which included Liberia, Nigeria and most of the Francophone or the reactionary French speaking governments. Those poisoned seeds gave growth to the O.A.U which morphed into the A.U, in imitation to the European Union (E.U), the rot that these neo-colonial states represent.

Before the creation of the O.A.U, Ghana and Guinea were the first to initiate the Union of African States after which Mali later joined and it became known as the union of Ghana – Guinea – Mali. The mighty E.T. Mensah, “king of highlife” music composed a song in praise of this lofty ideal of African unity. Mensah in his lyrics called it the “nucleus of the great union” and that “Africa’s strongest foundation has now once been laid forever”. Furthermore, “only unity can safe us”, concluded Mensah. To this day, African unity remains the biggest threat to neocolonialism and its imperialist masters.

The O.A.U was structured to fiercely antagonize Nkrumah and other pioneers who profoundly understood that attaining independence alone was not enough for our complete economic and political liberation from colonial domination. Fifty years of humiliating dependence on the “colonialists” begs the question. Where is the “independence”?

In stark contrast to the O.A.U, which was erected on termite infested colonial pillars, bound to crumble; the union of African states that the great pioneers (Nkrumah, Toure, Keita and Lumumba) envisioned was to be constructed from the bottom up by our own African hands, our blood if necessary, by our sweat and for our absolute benefit and not for Europe or America.

The slanderous attacks on Nkrumah and his subsequent overthrow, the savage assassination of Lumumba and the trail of terror unleashed across the continent was ample evidence that the neocolonial states were in the making. The European administrators need not be on site for the united looting of Africa to continue. The newly created neocolonialists (colonialists in black faces) will assure the parasites of their feed.

This crushing humiliation of mother Africa has never gone unchallenged inside and outside the continent. The only drawback to this challenge is that it happens in isolated pockets of resistance which favor the treacherous guardians of imperialist interests. This fighting in isolation is a thing of the past. We have grown to know Africa better, including all her scattered children around the world.

On May 24, 1963 at the founding meeting of the O.A.U, Nkrumah and others by then knew fully well that the creation of the O.A.U represented the beginning of the neo-colonial era and its willingness to drag the continent into the swamps of misery and humiliation for decades to come. In his speech Nkrumah said: “Our people supported us in our fight for independence because they believed that African governments could cure the ills of the past in a way which could never be accomplished under colonial rule. If therefore, now that we are independent we allow the same conditions to exist that existed in colonial days, all the resentment which overthrew colonialism will be mobilized against us”.

And indeed, it is this fed – up resentment against colonialism and neo-colonialism that is being mobilized and furiously unleashed against the impotent “African ruling class”. Rebellions have become the order of the day across the continent, the most recent being the rebellions against the Blaise Campoare regime in Burkina Faso and Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi. These rebellions cannot be contained within these colonial borders any longer. It is a “historically determined necessity” for the neo-colonial states to be uprooted for Africa to take her rightful place among nations.

Life under neo-colonialism is grinding into a halt for the vast majority of Africans, while presidents and their “sharers of crumbs” amass unscrupulous wealth and worst still “invest” it in the imperialist countries. Trade among African countries is virtually non-existent.

     TERM LIMITS, ELECTIONS, ANTI GAY-RIGHTS; DISTRACTIONS OF THE NEO-COLONIAL STATES

At the May 19, 2015 ECOWAS summit in Ghana, one of the agenda items was “term limits” for West African presidents, apparently suggested by Macky Sall of Senegal. The “term limit” issue was dead the moment it was brought up for discussion. As was expected, the Gambia (with Jammeh in a tuck-tail retreat from travel) along with Togo vigorously opposed it. Out of the 15 neo-colonies that make up the ECOWAS, it is said that all decisions by this body must be voted on “unanimously” for it to become binding. An abstention or a no vote nullifies the majority vote. This is the typical “hand in glove” relationship these presidents have among themselves in ECOWAS and the A.U. The likes of Jammeh throw periodic petite bourgeois radical temper tantrums against the European colonialists and homosexuality to win sympathy from his religious sycophants and the ill-informed masses. The neo-colonial state was created and trained to show total disregard for “law” with their “bayonet constitutions” exactly as the colonialists ruled their colonies.

On September 7 – 9 2015, the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and Chiefs of Defense yet again met in Dakar, Senegal to discuss security issues and institutional reforms among member states. These wasteful and futile exercises are nothing but distractions to further erode the on –the –ground challenges against the “bayonet constitutional” reforms against “term limits” and the entrenchment of the neocolonial state.

Next year 2016 is election year in many African countries, the most violent period (horizontal violence among the masses) in “third world” countries. All of these actions are preparations to support each other’s regime to maintain the status quo at the expense of the vast majority of our people. The neocolonial states can never provide solutions to our problems; the only solution is to declare revolutionary war against the neocolonial elite and restore our beloved Africa’s dignity once again.

As we go to press, the entrenched “presidential guards” of the deposed Burkina Faso tyrant, Blaise Campoare waged another coup d’etat to restore the status quo and possibly impose Campoare again. Only a revolutionary resistance movement can overthrow the neocolonialists permanently, never to return.

                                ONE AFRICA! ONE NATION! TOUCH ONE!  TOUCH ALL!

The notorious dungeon cum prison of Mile 2 Central Prison in The Gambia is situated six minutes’ drive from the capital, Banjul.  The national institution is the most dreaded place of abode for not only its ill-fated inmates but also the unfortunate wardens who find no alternative engagements than sign up for a job that involves the enforcement of a madman’s incarceration scheme.

To the eyes of the passers-by, who ply the Banjul- Serekunda highway, Mile 2 is just a mystery place – a small camp with floral decors and a high wall with seemingly nothing out of the ordinary in the world beyond it.  However, to my shock and horror, I confirm the worst fears of many who suspected there was more to this place, that on the whole, there is indeed another world behind those high and thick walls.  I have placed a huge warning signboard at one of its entrances. On the the board, it is written:  STAY AWAY!!!

Here is a brief but maybe comprehensive description of what President Jammeh used to boast of as his five star hotel (Hotel Jammeh Yaa), which is divided into four different quarters bordered by 15 meter high six inch block fences.

* REMAND WING:- This is where more than 300 inmates are housed in a space meant for a hundred. It is where the suspects who are undergoing trial are kept.  However, there are more than one hundred of them who have never appeared in court.  More than that number has spent up to an average of seven years undergoing trial, while the rest have had their cases adjourned indefinitely. This is also where, on average, between 12 and 18 young men and women (some as young as 14) are herded in weekly from pickup trucks from around The Gambia’s ridiculously plentiful police stations and illegal arrest points.

* FEMALE WING:- As the name suggests, this three block complex is where female inmates are kept. The cells here are short-ceiling halls paralleled on both sides of each room with a two foot tall raised platform to serve as bed.  Each of these cells has only one squat toilet and bathroom and a tap head. The cells are meant to contain only 15 but each is congested with more than forty inmates. As a male inmate, I could hear their sweet love songs but could not set an eye on anyone of them let alone dance to their sorrowful melodies. This is where I was told, a GNG sentry guard mounting on duties at the tower overlooking the female wing’s block facade, completely lost control of his emotions when he found himself face to face with an intentionally naked dancing girl. No one would have realized what transpired had his AK 47 assault rifle not slipped away from his trembling hands and landed with a clatter thud on the ground twenty meters below. From then on, till the day I left Mile 2, that particular tower was either mounted by a female soldier or by none at all.

* MAIN YARD:- This is the most densely populated part of the prison housing up to at least 980 inmates in just six blocks named by numbers. The cells are meant to house 40 inmates but each is jammed with an average of 150 forcing close to another 100 or so to sleep on the bare floor, in the toilets, and any little space they can find. I attempted to be a ‘mesh boy’ to enable me to enjoy some little privileges such as serve food, stay out during the day’s indoor hours etc but to no avail.  That would have given me more room to investigate some of the statistics and demographics of the main yard where I only peeped but never stepped into. I met one Senegalese prisoner who confirmed to me that some spend years of their terms until their release without ever sleeping on the raised platforms or even with their legs stretched.  Everyone is constricted and confined to a little space due to the congestive jamming of humans. In order to get to the toilet, one has to snake in between heads, feet and arms all through the way to the end of the cell.  Almost every night, there is always someone sleeping on the toilet floor that has to be awakened first before anyone can access the toilet.  Up to 20 inmates miss at least a meal every day.

* MAXIMUM SECURITY WING :- This is where I spent all my detention period.  Unlike the other wings of this notorious dungeon, the MSW houses mainly detainees, death row inmates, senior Government Officials and Security Officers. It is also where punishment is routinely carried out by the masked forces that come from outside and the very prison wardens themselves.  It is divided into four blocks namely:

Number One: this is the smallest of the four blocks. It has two squat toilets, one bathroom and a tap to serve twelve individual cells. This is where Sanna Sabally was.  The links used to chain his legs and the irons that were used for tethering his hands are still in the cell now occupied by a Nigerian National, Stanley, one of the duo convicted for lynching a Briton. 
Number Seven: This is just like the cells in the main yard. It is an open hall meant for housing 30 but it contains on average 45 inmates. Old and sick inmates are kept here if they’re not on death row. There’s one toilet, one bathroom and an open tap, two naked electric bulbs and the wing’s only television screen and fm radio receiver.

Number Four: Like Number One, this block contains two squat toilets, a tap and two bathrooms serving 32 cells.

Number Five: I was in this block.  It has 86 individual cells, three squat toilets, four bathrooms but only one tap. As of 21st January 2015, 84 to 86 cells were occupied. This complex was designed by a Gambian and its difference from those cells like Numbers 1 & 4 could reveal a lot about how some Gambians perceive those whom fate has ordained imprisonment. The cells here are worse in every aspect than those built by the British.

DAILY ROUTINE 
Everyday at 08:00hrs, prison officers open the locks to our individual cells and we would rush to the toilets to empty our chamber pots with bad and pungent odor all over the block. We lived constantly under this bad environment every morning. Outside the cells, another bad odor also takes precedence. It comes from the badly managed Banjul Sanatorium located just 300 meters east of the prison. Sometimes there is fire and the bad smoke from the dumpsite hangs in the air choking us to the core with acrylic plastic, and poorly disposed off medical and clinical wares. The complex is very narrow and there is nowhere to go. The walls both in and out are painted grey. There is no green plant visible from the inside. This has caused serious consequences on our eyesight as well as respiratory infections.

After a quick but well deserved bath, we would venture out to wash our basins, refill water bottles and do the normal pleasantries with our fellow inmates and the morning shift officers who had just come from the other world outside of our prison walls.

Those who had something to eat, do so and that begins the first half of the day.

Standby is at 11:15 am.  It means everyone should prepare for another lock up session in 15 minutes. By midday the camp is as quiet as the Earlington Cemetary except for the overhead 8 ohms speakers booming West Coast Radio relay of BBC Newshour.

After the one hour foreign media news on events in the outside world which to some of the inmates seem so imaginary, GRTS radio would bring us the day’s monotonously irrelevant yahya jammeh praise singsongs read by mostly a very highly untrained anchor who would be counting the syllables making the words or when (at least once) unable to recall how to pronounce a word, try to spell it instead.

At 2 pm, we are opened again for the second and final half of the day. Some go playing draft while others rush for the TV screen to make follow ups of how some films ended, match results and for some of us, this was the best time to mentally summarize the day’s events and memorize them since maintaining a diary is punishable by treason.

Shifts change is at 15:30. To mark this, every inmate is ordered to stand by their cell door for the incoming shift to confirm that they were alive and kicking. The fiesta continues till 16:45 when the Azhaan is called for prayers. Immediately after the Asr prayers, the day has ended in Hotel Jammeh Yaa. We are indoors from now till 8 am the following day. A peep through the post hole shows a line of new quarter kilo padlocks each confining someone’s father, husband, brother, or son.

THE CONDITIONS OF THE CELLS

In Number Five, all the cells are of the same dimension 1.80X2.10M. Each is equipped with a chamber box at one corner and a 0.75M wide concrete raised platform on the opposite to serve as bed. The only difference between these cells and a grave is the 20CM diameter hole born at the upper part of the heavy metal door and a thickly barred opening right under the concrete ceiling that serves as a window. We sometimes exhausted the fresh air and feel void of breathable oxygen. Each cell has a 5litre mayonnaise bucket to serve as toilet. Once full before 8AM, one has no option but to urinate within the cell. A 1.5 bottle of water is also provided for drinking.

DAILY PROGRAM

8:00-11:30 first rest
12:00-14:00 indoors 
14:00-17:00 second rest
17:30-08:00 indoors

SANITATION

The toilets have NEVER seen even Omo (a cheap cleaning detergent) let alone any form of detergent. It is usually cleaned with ash from the kitchen. Most of the time, they are in horrible conditions as mentally and seriously sick inmates abuse them.

DAILY RATION

The format I am using here is as follows:

Day= b/fast, lunch and dinner.

S=half bread empty, meat stew and dry coos
M=Porridge. Palm oil fish stew and dry coos.
T= half bread, palasass, porridge 
W=half bread, benechin, dry coos 
T=Porridge, groundnut stew, thiouraa
F=half bread, groundnut stew and dry coos and
S=thiouraa, palm oil fish stew and dry coos.

These foods don’t conform to any recognized standard. Even the imitated “benachin” in Kanilai couldn’t be worse. The cooks who are men have no qualifications and as a result, most of us in there develop stomach complications as a result of poorly cooked or rotten condiments. The “Thiouraa” (CHUURAA GERTEH) that is served on Saturdays is confirmed to be the cause of a disease I have never heard of till I got into that hole: BIRI BIRI, which makes one look like pumped with hot air like a tractor tire. All the good fish is shared among the Senior Officers of the Prison. On Mondays, the meat served on the rice which they compelled me to call stew,  is either rotten or only joints with sharp bones protruding from the lunch basins like spikes and spears.

PUNISHMENT

Types I witnessed as practiced include, drop bathing, caning, lashing, denial of food and rest, sealing, denial of bathing, kneeling with hands raised, public stripping to nakedness, physical assault, donate-the-flies drip to death and injection to either increase sexual libido in the absence of women or to increase hunger with powerful multi vitamins in the absence of food.  In Mile 2 Jammeh Resort and Spa, the waiters are usually hungrier than the customers.  Stories I could not confirm indicate that the principal torture centre is found in Tanji, where electrocutions, water budding, drowning etc are carried out by the security elements. There is also the old well where I am told people are mass-graved. To spare you some of the worst horrors you may ever imagine, my conscience compels me to euphemize the narrative to laze it with some humor to downgrade the harm I am exposing you to.  
Some of the horrors are too horrible and I am obliged to repress them in my memory for a while and some for eternity.

Momodou Sowe
Former Protocol Officer and Records Manager
Office of The President, State House, Banjul.
Now Asylum Seeker and Advocate for Rights Activism