In our society, many women have died as they give birth to life due to complications of FGM. Many homes have become battlefields as husbands despise and torment wives for not meeting their sexual desires due to FGM. Many families have been mired in turmoil as co-wives engage in life and death struggle over husbands who marry more women just to satisfy their lust. Divorces, adultery and sexual promiscuity have become all too frequent due to the prevalence of FGM in many communities and homes.

Above all, FGM has served to tame African women in communities that practice the tradition into absolute submission and disempowerment. Thanks to solemnly controlled secret societies and well stage-managed FGM rites and ceremonies in which young girls are subjected to a series of well calculated and carefully delivered messages, FGM has become an effective socialization program intended to indoctrinate women and girls to a life of subservience in their society. In these societies and ceremonies, our girls and women are taught to be contented being behind boys and men; not to aim high for their world stops in the kitchen and the bedroom, while they are constantly miseducated to belief that women are weak.

Our girls and women are taught in the FGM rites of passage to perceive themselves as objects whose value can only be manifested in how they take care of their bodies in order to satisfy their men folk. Consequently our girls and women have become far more preoccupied about their bodily looks even if they have to paint their bodies and add all sorts of artificial materials on their heads, eyes, lips including piercing their tongue, navel, ears, genitalia and nostrils just to appear like a decorated artifact in service to the desires of boys and men. It is this mindset that forces our women to seek the lighter side of life and be prepared to remain a step behind boys and men. It is such indoctrination, perpetuated by both men and women that give rise to statements such as ‘Ladies First’, which has been erroneously meant to be a compliment. But this is a terrible mindset at the back of which only confirms the persistent indoctrination that girls and women are toys without self esteem whose lives are at the mercy of their male counterparts. This is why FGM serves as an effective exploitative and oppressive tool that does not empower our women to be equal members of society.

About FGM

FGM is a gross human rights violation meted out to girls and women for centuries. It is neither Islamic nor a good cultural practice. For long though, it has been held, falsely that Islam approves of the practice. Secondly, while it is a fact that FGM is a tradition in many African communities, what is not fully understood or rather ignored is the fact that everything is culture. Human beings have culture, a set of existing yet changing way of life manifesting in practices, values, ceremonies, institutions, laws, materials, relationships, sports, food, dresses among a host of others. Our time and environment play a decisive role in building this way of life to meet our needs as we seek to dominate nature to continue to acquire and perfect a more decent and better way of life.

But in this world of culture, one will notice that there are aspects that empower and liberate individuals and communities, while some aspects also enslave and oppress individuals and communities. Thus there are good and bad cultural values and practices. Secondly in any society, there are always dominant groups who seek to define and establish the prevailing socio-economic and political systems and institutions to serve primarily the dominant class or group. In each home or tribe, as well as in organizations and institutions whether in the public and private sectors or civil society, or in instances of colonialism or foreign domination, one can notice a dominant idea and system to which all conform. In feudal and colonial societies, just as in authoritarian regimes, this dominant idea and system always serve the rulers and the powerful that are connected to them. This is why the fight for self-determination, freedom and democracy has always been imperative by all peoples everywhere in order to bring about a new society founded on the principles of human rights and dignity. Thus FGM, as an oppressive cultural practice is also an idea and a system carved by the dominant class, men with the intention to contain and control the dominated class, women. Thus the fight against FGM is a fight for cultural liberation that ultimately does not only free women, but alongside it also frees men from being oppressors and exploiters, hence the entire society.

It is extremely important that Africans understand the value and role of culture in our lives. Not only our ceremonies, values and practices are cultural, but also even science and technology are aspects of culture. The Internet therefore is not only an information and knowledge production and sharing platform, but more importantly the Internet is a cultural tool just like the balafon or aeroplane or kaftan created for the benefit of society. This is also the reason why anytime an individual or a group dominates another individual or group, their first target is to alienate the dominated from his or her culture, and then impose the culture of the occupying force on the occupied.

This is because human beings also only think and act within the confines of their culture. Hence if I impose my culture (i.e. my ideas, systems, values, beliefs, materials, etc) on you and managed to get you embrace it, the tendency for you to think and act like me becomes much easier. In that situation therefore the occupied will not anymore resist occupation, rather will become obedient and subject himself or herself to the ideas and systems of the oppressed, hence facilitate his or her own domination. This is exactly what slavery and colonialism succeeded to do to Africans that even up to today, the more an African is educated in Arabic, English or French tends to become more Arab and English than the indigenous owners of these cultural tools, i.e. languages. This is why in the context of FGM, men were able to impose their ideas and systems on women to the extent that the leading exponents and practitioners of female circumcision have been women themselves. For example, I have given up convincing my good old mom that FGM is not only harmful health-wise, but also exploitative and oppressive which is responsible for her disempowerment.

Understanding the Abolition

The Gambia Government is said to be developing a legislation to formalize the banning of FGM in the country. There have been jubilations at the pronouncement of the abolition. However a fundamental question must be asked as to why did it take a government 50 years to ban what is clearly a violation, which poses a clear and direct danger to the lives of girls and women? The pronouncement and the imminent legislation must serve as the beginning of an accountability process to ensure that justice is delivered for the damages done to the health, bodies and dignity of women and girls.

No government can and must claim ignorance on any issue that affects the lives and rights of citizens. That FGM is unhealthy, harmful and non-Islamic is clear. The government has the capacity in all ways to know whether FGM is right or not. It is clear that even without a law banning FGM, the path has been carved for the voluntary abandonment of the practice in the Gambia, sooner or later. The rate and intensity of the campaign by civil society groups including youth organizations have registered tremendous gains that it is clear that many more Gambians are rejecting FGM than embracing it. Coupled with other factors such as education and generally high levels of awareness thanks to a more open world, the move towards voluntary abolition was very assured.

The question still is why did we wait for so long as a country to ban this harmful practice?

We must recognize that the state has the resources, expertise and mandate to protect the rights of citizens. Thus since gaining independence, FGM like all other harmful traditional practices should have been banned in the country in protection of the rights and dignity of citizens. Section 17 of the 1997 constitution stipulates that the state bears primary responsibility for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens. Thus the onus to ban FGM lies entirely with the state. It must be noted that the primary function of a state is to create and promote a liberation culture in which citizens enjoy freedoms, sustainable development and quality standard of life. This is why a state collects taxes among other sources of revenue to provide social services such as education, healthcare, good roads and other infrastructure as well as security and all other public goods and services. In providing these social goods and services, the state also makes laws and creates institutions to ensure orderliness, regulate human behavior and operations of businesses and all other aspects of life in that society. It is this process of managing resources and affairs of the society that the state then creates a new culture, hence development. Thus by failing to ban FGM since 1970 when the Gambia became independent, one must therefore hold the state to account for the reasons behind this indecision until now.

Compensation for Victims

In holding the state to account for failing to ban FGM since independence, we must therefore remind everyone that indeed FGM has produced scores of victims. Marriages have been broken by FGM. Homes have been plunged into crisis because of FGM. Lives became horrified and lost because of FGM. Rights and dignity have been bruised because of FGM. What happens now to that 10-year-old girl who was circumcised last year? What about that 35-year-old woman who cannot bear a child anymore after FGM related complications following her two previous deliveries? How about that woman living in torment and daily fights with co-wives, and shunned by her husband because of FGM? These and many more thousands of girls and women are already dead or in our homes, offices, and communities and all over the country. What about them?

I wish to state here that the abolition of FGM is incomplete until the Gambia repairs the damages caused by FGM to our girls and women. The government must open a trust fund to compensate all girls and women who have been subjected to FGM. The FGM bill must make entrenched provisions to set the modalities of this reparation. These girls and women were betrayed by their state that sat idly by to watch their humanity and dignity being marred with impunity. The state must demonstrate responsibility and compassion and ensure that justice is seen to be done for those who were not protected by their chief protector, i.e. the State, but left to suffer irreparably scars of life. We must bear in mind that abolishing FGM is not a charity or a favor provided to our girls and women. It is an obligation that must have been fully fulfilled since 1970. That, we allowed it to persist in the face of overwhelming evidence that the practice is non-Islamic and an oppressive and exploitative cultural tool intended to harm more than half of society is criminal. I demand justice in the name of the victims.

Let justice prevail. Stand for FGM Victims.

President Jammeh of the Gambia has done it once more, bringing to light his controversial and irrational state of mind. From claims that he can cure HIV/AIDS, Female infertility and his dehumanizing scheme of witch hunting, the Gambian leader at a recent political rally declared the Minuscule West African state an Islamic State. Jammeh noted that making the Gambia an Islamic State detaches the country from her colonial legacy; an enigma that has given rise to several speculations.

When the Arab Spring erupted in 2010, cities across much of the Arab world came under fire from mass protest of citizens demanding change. From Tunis in Tunisia, Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt; to Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya; Sanaa, Yemen; and Damascus in Syria, popular uprising against decade’s long authoritarian rule came with a Euphoria that hung across most of the region. Even some of the richest Gulf States such as Bahrain felt the heat when their very own citizens took to the streets in protest. President’s Ben Ali of Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt were forced out by tumultuous crowds that lit the night time skies.

In Libya, Mohammad Qaddafi was killed by a mob of protestor turned rebels after several months of fighting across much of Libya. In Yemen, President Saleh was forced out after narrowly escaping a decapitation. In Syria, President Bashar Al Assad is able to stand his ground as protest movement shifted into a brutal civil war.

The euphoria that came with those tumultuous events seem to have dissipated, since the only two states (Tunisia and Egypt) that experienced transitions with some degree of success have intermittently come under scrutiny. Many have charged that those changes falls within the fulcrums of the old adage; “pouring old wine into new bottle,” largely denoting the status quo welding the most power and influence.  In Libya, although longtime leader, Mohammad Qaddafi was killed and his regime ousted, thousands of citizens are displaced, and various militia groups continue to operate and battle the legitimate government with impunity. In Syria protest escalated into a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, as President Bashar, Al-Assad continue to fight for his regimes survival. Even in Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the elections that ushered in a new government did not stabilize the country. Iraq continues to be gripped by a violent sectarian divide, and armed militia mainly from the deposed regime and other groups roving and disrupting peaceful coexistence in Iraq and across territories in Syria.  Evidently instability in Iraq and tumultuous events of the Arab spring lit fires across several cities of the Arab world, from Tunis, Sid Bouazi,  Cairo, Alexandria, Tripoli, Benghazi, Sanaa, Damascus and Manama.

While calm has returned to most of the cities, state fragility and failure in Libya, Syria and Iraq led to the birth of a new form of threat that shifted fires from cities of much of the Arab World to Western cities – the threats of transnational terrorism. The collapse of the Saddam Hussain regime in Iraq and protest movements that left Syria into a state of volatility and fragility, gave birth to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Our failure to stabilize Syria and Iraq in the framework of an international collective goodwill to protect human dignity has emboldened the ISIS network to share disturbing video messages showing the beheading of innocent beloved world citizens. Jihad John, the notorious executioner may be killed but his tale will continue to hunt mankind for good. The anger, fear, outrage and threat that came with those videos were both enigmatic and repugnant to our conscience as a human family. Our failure to act collectively in the name of humanity, irrespective of our divergent interests and power dynamics shows the volatility and weakness of mankind in a world polarized by interest. Hence, ISIS has shifted the path of the fires that lit the skies of cities in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring to cities in the western world.

ISIS reminds us of our own failures, challenges and contradictions. In the past decade, experts, policy makers, academics and think tanks have cautioned state failure and fragility, and poverty, as an international security challenge that could have lasting consequences on global stability.   Prominent among them was the US National Security Advisor, Dr. Suzan Rice. In  her 2006 policy paper titled, The Threat of Global Poverty, published in The National Interest Journal at Brookings Institute, Dr. Rice cautioned that “Americans can no longer realistically hope that we can erect the proverbial glass dome over our homeland and live safely isolated from the killers—natural or man-made—that plague other parts of  the world” (2006,p1). She warned that in the long term, it can threaten US national security. Apparently, the underlying truth beneath the threats of poverty, state failure and fragility threatens both US national interest, and the peace and security of the modern world. ISIS has opened up training camps and occupied territory in the failed and fragile states of Libya, Iraq and Syria, recruited operatives in the west, carried out bombings, suicide missions, and indiscriminate killings in the heart of Paris, London, Beirut, and threatening to strike American and other western cities. Similarly, it is alleged that ISIS has set footprints in Afghanistan, Somalia and Nigeria.

Most disheartening of the ISIS inroads into prominence, is its ability to recruit young men and women in our very own backyards in the west. The majority of those recruited either have a polarized background entrenched in a troubled life or feeling of alienation or frustration from societies incapacity to provide an institutionalize support system. Such loopholes in modern western society, shows the unsafe nature of our very own communities. ISIS has tapped into such vulnerabilities to commit murder at an alarming rate.

On November 13, 2015, ISIS has struck hard, carrying out attacks in a massacre style that killed about 153 people and wounded hundreds of innocent citizens  in Paris, France. On November 12, 2015, it carried out suicide bombings in Beirut, Lebanon that killed up to 43 people, and wounded about 153 citizens, demonstrating its determination to strike into our very own heartlands. Prior to these attacks, ISIS claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris that killed 12 people. ISIS did not limit its operations to only continental Europe, it had continuously redouble its efforts to strike in the United States of America (USA) with limited success. In the United States ISIS operational dynamism has been incapacitated in many regards with the exception of the May 3, 2015 attacks of a cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, depicting the prophet of Islam (May Peace and Blessings of Allah Be upon Him), and the  December 2, 2015 San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people  and wounded 17. Investigations have so far concluded that both attacks were inspired by ISIS, which shows the strength and determination of the terror group to strike under all circumstances.

The debate on Freedom of Speech following the Charlie Hebdo, Paris, and Garland, Texas attacks did not do any good either in our collective effort of empowering citizens. Instead, we used the mantra of Freedom of Speech as an umbrella to pervasively intrude in to the arbiter of human dignity, culture and customs. We disregarded the mantle of the framers of freedom of speech as an institution that comes with responsibility. No one can deny that freedom of speech constitutes an integral part of our values. However, free speech that comes with da demeaning and devaluation of human culture constitutes irresponsibility in all its forms.

Arguably, the threats of ISIS that lit fires across cities in  both the Middle East,  the West and other parts of the world  reminds us that state failure and fragility creates conditions of  poverty, international criminal activity, terrorism and weakens state capacity to prevent violent threats. The world is no longer a safe place with, poverty, state collapse and political instability that has deepened poverty and displaced populations in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Defeating ISIS requires taking ownership of the failed and fragile states of Iraq, Syria and Libya in the framework of a collective goodwill of finding a lasting political solution, and containing pervasive poverty among the millions of displaced citizens. This means the world’s most powerful nations must take a leading role in helping resettle the millions of helpless Syrian refugees seeking security and safety. It will also require empowering the majority Muslim population in all facets of society committed to upholding the Islamic values of peace, love moderation, tolerance and respect for the people. Such an empowerment should take place at the work place and educational institutions, government institutions, community organizations, the private and public sector. Such a framework can be an effective de-radicalization mechanism, especially for the vulnerable young men and women of our communities. Perhaps the leadership role of Canada and Germany in resettling and integrating thousands of Syrian refugees provides concrete historical lessons for other nations.

It is 11 years since the assassination of prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, and all those who care for justice are still waiting for the Gambian authorities to take up their responsibilities and launch a thorough investigation into his killing.

While there is no hard evidence that the Gambia government or its agents are involved in Deyda’s killing, but it is quite hard for any reasonable person to explain the government’s complete lack of interest in investigating the case as if they are not interested in knowing who, killed him and why or that they have something to hide from people knowing the truth.

We can recall that Deyda, who was managing editor and co-proprietor of The Point newspaper, was killed on 16 December 2004 while driving home from The Point’s office on Garba Jahumpa Road in Bakau late in the evening. He was accompanied by two female staff of The Point; Ida Jagne and Nyangsara Jobe.

Apparently, the assassins were trailing his car and immediately it curved on Sankung Sillah Road in the Kanifing Industrial Estate, just by the perimeter fence of the paramilitary barracks on the Serekunda-Banjul highway, they struck, pumping several bullets on the driver’s side, and he was said to have been killed on the spot while his two female companions sustained various degrees of injuries. With assistance from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the two ladies, who were virtually left untreated at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital, were later evacuated to Dakar by the Gambia Press Union (GPU) for specialist treatment.

However, from the very onset, the attitude of the Gambian authorities towards the case was quite bizarre. Not only was the family not invited to the postmortem but the autopsy report was also never made available to them, even when they requested for it. Up to this very day, neither the family nor the GPU, who are an interested party, know what has happened to the autopsy report or even the bullets that were removed from his body. Something is definitely fishy with the attitude of the Gambian authorities towards Deyda’s assassination.

Therefore, instead of putting in all necessary efforts to find out who killed Deyda and why, the authorities have continued to demonstrate their complete indifference to the case.  In fact every time President Yahya Jammeh comments on the case, he makes some ambiguous remarks which tend to confuse rather than clarify his government’s stand point on the issue. A case in point was an interview he had with the BBC in November 2011 in which he compared Deyda’s brutal murder to the deaths of other Gambians in road accidents, asking why anyone should be more concerned about Deyda’s death than those Gambians who have died in other circumstances, thus further dashing any hopes that his government has any intentions of investigating the killing.

We can also recall the only official report so far released on the case, dubbed ‘Confidential Report’ that was issued by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in June 2005 in which instead of displaying any seriousness in investigating the case, they chose to subject Deyda’s personal character to all sorts of disparaging comments, even to the extent of blaming his death on his wayward behavior. And since then, there has not been any other report on the case, as if the authorities are not interested in knowing the truth.

While there is as yet no iota of evidence to link the regime or anyone else in Deyda’s murder, but the least anyone expected from the authorities was to show commitment in thoroughly investigating the case with a view to bringing the culprits to justice. Therefore, there is a general consensus amongst those who cherish justice that the failure of the responsible authorities to do so tantamount to shirking their responsibilities to a bona fide Gambian citizen.

From the very beginning, the GPU and other civil society groups had called on the authorities to invite more competent investigators from abroad to help the Gambian security forces to unravel the case, but they always turned down the request, insisting that the security forces had the capacity and competence to carry out the investigation, and yet so far, they have failed to show any commitment and resolve to carry out any serious investigation. There is no doubt that if the government had agreed to such a proposal then, by now the truth may have been known as to who killed Deyda and why.

Therefore, even the failure of the authorities to carry out a forensic analysis of the bullets recovered from Deyda’s body, which are some of the most basic things anyone would expect from any responsible authority, can easily be interpreted to mean an apparent attempt of a cover up.

It could be recalled that during events commemorating the first anniversary of his death when the GPU and its invited guests from the sub-region and abroad attempted to visit the site where he was killed, they were met by a large contingent of heavily armed para-military forces who said they were given instructions not to allow anyone on the site. That of course was yet another clear indication that the authorities had something to hide.

The failure of the authorities to accord the case the seriousness that it deserved has not only dented the Gambia’s image as a respecter of the rule of law and provider of justice for all its citizens, but it has also strengthened any speculations that the regime or its agents may have been accomplices to the killing. Therefore, in view of the obvious reluctance on the part of the Gambian authorities to show any commitment to investigate this heinous crime, it is incumbent upon regional bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union, or even the United Nations and the rest of the international community to assume their responsibilities and ensure that justice is done in the case.

There is no doubt that all those who knew Deyda and what he stood for, and indeed all people of conscience, will never rest until justice is seen to be done in this case.

 On the eleventh anniversary of the callous and cowardly killing of a daring and fearless journalist, who never gave in to threats or intimidation and stood steadfast for his ideals, I wish to pay my respects. DEYDA knew exactly what his job entailed as he did it objectively without fear or favour. All that he did was for the good of the country. He was a true reformer and a real patriot.

To a lot of people DEYDA HYDARA was just another victimized African journalists who just made the statistics but to us he was the world and a huge part of what used to be a close-knit and perfect family which makes writing this tribute not only with a heavy heart but brings back the numbness of that fateful night.

When 3 bullets were launched into him on December 16, 2004, a lot was killed with him, including his 30 years career. He had great tenacity, passion and conviction for journalism, which never let him off the hook to be a loving granddad, a good husband and an excellent dad who listened and always defended the truth.
Thinking back brings anger, frustration and it is totally hard to grasp with the pain it brings after all this  time is excruciating, as no one can explain it  unless you have been through exactly the same thing you won’t be able to comprehend such agony.

Journalism is one of the noblest of professions and journalists are respected for the sacrifice they undergo to get information through to the masses, while risking their lives. This is the case everywhere in the world except in Africa, where all that our leaders know is to incarcerate, harass, torture, intimate and even kill those who dare criticize them.

African journalists are over-worked and under-paid, endure long tiring hours whilst generating more enemies and are treated as second class citizens, when tyranny and abuse of office is exposed. They remain the voice of the voiceless and the oppressed, with ethics and steadfastness without fear or favour, they are the masses’ eyes and ears.

That is what DEYDA was.

After 11 dastardly years it’s pointless to dwell on the Gambia Government’s flagrant disregard of the case, as well as its inhuman and degrading treatment of the whole circumstances surrounding this tragedy from the very onset. Their incompetence and inability to diligently carry out proper investigations which the Ecowas court also highlighted and concluded that the NIA was not an impartial body to carry out the investigations. How can they be, when the then head of the investigation Captain Lamin Saine admitted that he was supposed to be in that very car in which Deyda was killed, on that night as he had been doing a couple of months prior to the incident.

We have seen the bad, the worst and the ugliest sides of some Gambians, who had been transformed over-night and became monstrous like vultures after a prey. When all he was to them was generous and selfless through and through.  At the same time we have come to realise who DEYDA’s real friends were and what was real and fake in them.

With time we had to bear the pain of admitting the reality that some people are born scroungers and will always be. So when people say “we are in this together” we can now tell who really means this and the ones who don’t. We thank the Almighty Allah for blessing us with a very few people who are honest and full of integrity and have been with us in our plight for justice for the last 11 trying years.

We have been calling on the International Community, including International Human Rights Organisations such as Amnesty International, The United Nations, Ecowas, The European Union and The African Union to take up their responsibilities on the matter.

On this occasion and from the perspective of a victim’s family I thought it would be useful to reinforce once again our plight from a different dimension. We welcome all your efforts but can’t help but think whether recommendations, fact finding missions, bilateral sanctions, or condemnations are the way forward and whether this is enough for victim’s families, when the government of the Gambia continues to blatantly ignore and disregard all these decisions and findings. Such sanctions would only make it worst for the masses who have to suffer more and or these might further cause more reprisals.

We commend and with utmost gratitude the efforts that your Organisations have gone through, but we cannot help but wonder if more could be done. We appreciate the fact that it is not an easy task when the world today is filled with atrocities from all around, which may be seen as more gruesome than our plight but “nipping it in the bud” would surely prevent it from getting to the level of atrocities you can’t ignore. Also, we would like to acknowledge your dilemma of having to deal with such cases day in day out, but it is heartbreaking to know that the only thing that made my dad sacrifice his life for his ideals was the believe and trust he had in The UN system, Human Rights Organisations and The International Community.

As I said before if there was anything more than gratitude, I will send it your way as we do know how much you are owed for all your efforts, especially when there is so much that you can do,but just thought it is an insult to the Gambian people when the African Union Human Rights office is based in Banjul. That I believe to be a mockery of the very fundamental principles your Organisation is known for.

It could be argued that more strenuous measures should be put in place to eradicate the endless cycle of human rights abuses and violations which are being meted on the people.

I am pleading that you are able to understand my frustration and the horrific ordeal my family and many other families have gone through in the past couple of years.

With some families not knowing whether their sons, fathers, husbands, brothers and sisters are alive or dead, when some families are left to fend for themselves in the absence of the breadwinner, when some families are still waiting for justice which is denied for so long.

It would seem to me that probably a review of the principles or mechanisms put in place to run some of these institutions are well overdue.

Take for instance since the inception of the Ecowas court how many different cases regarding Gambian journalists have been heard at the said court, how many judgments against the Gambia government were given, and yet still over 10 years now none have been complied with. When certain other African governments have also argued why they should abide by the court’s judgments when the Gambia government does not show any respect for the court and nothing comes out of it.

How many more have to die, leaving so many more families in destitute, how many journalists have disappeared, how many more are languishing in high security prisons (when criminals and the killers of these journalists are roaming the streets of the Gambia in search of a morality check). Without any proper safeguards in place to investigate such cases, or even make any attempt to arrest or try the culprits.

As the night falls with so many enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture, intimidation, bogus charges and false imprisonment of journalists have become routine.

We have seen more journalists forced into self-exile where more journalists are now in the diaspora than on the ground with some of them being sentenced in absentia. Leaving the few on the ground some of whom are left with a very tiny number who will dare to report stories without any fear of reprisals and the rest are left to carry out self -censorship or transformed into mouth-pieces of the government to avoid harassment.

In the absence of any basic human rights and any fundamental freedoms or rule of law, the Gambia continues to silently slip into another Rwanda. When people’s silence and fear have been misconstrued as satisfaction and content to a catalogue of abuses and violation of so many fundamental human rights protocols which the Gambia has ratified.

People’s rights are abused on a daily basis without any proper intervention. We can’t help but wonder if the AU Human Rights Institutions are honoring their obligations to those Conventions or are Gambians ignored or forgotten and left to perish in the hands of a Government whose main aim and objectives are to force its people into “Utopia” where no wrong can be seen, heard, uttered or tolerated as in oblivion? Ultimately the so called Utopia promised though fictional seems real or safer to some instead of the alternative, who therefore bury their heads in the sand long enough and pray their promises would be fulfilled or they will be saved. But that then is the problem as the more they wait the worst it would be for the masses and the few who want to stand up for their rights and sensitize the masses to the reality that utopia is a figment of their imagination and can only lead to more repression and impunity making them stand out as enemies of the state.

Let us try to save our Smiling Coast before it becomes a bloody river with blood of patriots flowing on the banks of the River Gambia our motherland.

Our heartfelt gratitude and endless commendation to Article 19, and all their partners and sponsors (especially Fatou Jagne Senghore), Ndey Tapha Sosseh, Uncle D. A. Jawo, Tonton Njagga Sylla, Tonton Alioune Tine, the Senegalese media, Radho, Amnesty International and the UN in Dakar.  GPU, OSIWA, TAEF, WAJA, FAJ, IFJ, PEN, NUJ, AFP, RSF, CNN and Multi-Choice. Also our gratitude goes to all human rights activists, especially journalists, NGOs and to all who believe in good governance, free speech, democracy and justice and press freedom.

Special thanks and prayers go to all Gambian online newspapers and urge them to remain in harmony and work as one team as only collectively will we achieve our objectives. Starting first and foremost, Freedom newspaper and to Pa Nderry Mbai for your untiring support, lengths and efforts, Hello Gambia, Kibaaro, Mafanta, Gainako, FatuRadio and all other online radios that use their platform to promote justice, freedom and democracy for all especially journalists in the Gambia

I wish to take this opportunity to also wish a Happy 24th Anniversary to The Point newspaper.
We thank you all for the continued support and hard work.

Thanks to the entire staffs, publishers, friends and advertisers especially Uncle Pap Saine and Mr Philip Kotey for continuing to keep the candle alight.

To Pa,
At the risk of repeating myself a dad like you is hard to forget, you will always remain the only constant thing in our lives, as it will take more than 3 bullets to forget you.

Until we meet again you will forever be the best man in my life.

To Ma

Pa has left you in charge of his grand kids and they need you more now than ever, so please stay strong and remember what they said “Enjoy your Birthday granny that is what Papa would have wanted.” We love you, admire your courage and always thank Pa for choosing you.

Happy Birthday Aja Mariam Hydara

Today is International Human Rights Day, an annual event established to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948. For many human rights advocates across the world, this day presents an opportunity, albeit brief, to reflect on the year that was, as well as our role and our place in it.

It is an irony of course that in this occupation our daily toil can bind us together and, at times, separate us when the next crisis or series of human rights violations emerge. I often struggle with this challenge, torn between maintaining campaigns on still important, ongoing issues while also helping to provide due attention to outbursts of political violence, for example, or deadly crackdowns on peaceful protests.

In light of this dilemma I have found it important to remind myself – and others – that speaking out against and highlighting injustices, regardless of where or when they may occur, form part of a broader effort to confront one of humanity’s enduring certainties: that those with power, and the means with which to inflict pain and suffering on their fellow human beings, do so because they calculate that the outside world will not notice or otherwise care to take action.

Defying this corrosive logic has been, and will continue to be, what drives my work, especially as it pertains to countries that do not often register on the international radar— the likes of Angola, Gambia, Eritrea, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are a few examples. And I know I am not alone.  The belief that we can make a profoundly positive difference in the lives of ordinary people simply by highlighting what is going on there, consistently and steadfastly, is rooted not only in private conviction, but also in facts.

Take the case of Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu in Swaziland, for example, two prisoners of conscience who were put on trial and jailed for exposing rampant injustice in their country— many will agree that these two men would remain behind bars today if it were not for an international campaign that focused attention on their ordeal. The same could also be said for Rafael Marques, a fearlessly resolute journalist and anti-corruption crusader in Angola. While these brave men will undoubtedly continue to face harassment and persecution due to their legitimate (and desperately needed) work, the fact that they will spend today with their families – and not behind bars – is testament to the influence of public advocacy, as well as the power of naming and shaming repressive regimes and the perpetrators that are given license to abuse human rights, often with brazen impunity.

In this line of work we are all too familiar with tragedy and hardship. At the same time, however, we have the privilege of standing alongside the best people on Earth— the humble and altogether inspiring individuals like Thulani, Bheki and Rafael, who continue to strive, often at great personal peril, for principles bigger than all of us. If these at-risk individuals manage to uphold the strength and courage to press on, in spite of the myriad odds and threats routinely stacked against them, then we have no excuse to not follow their lead.

I look forward to seeing all of you out there, on this Human Rights Day, the dates in between, and all of those that will come hereafter. As my Swazi friends would say: Amandla!

Dear Editor,

With a heavy heart, I would like to share this recollection of mine on your prestigious platform. It’s December again. I thank Allah that it is 2015 and I am privileged to recount the December of 2012.

It was Monday 3rd December 2012. I had an appointment to keep. I was to report, for the third time, at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency, Banjul. I had spent the weekend with my family, playing indoor games with my wife and daughter just to assure them that everything was going normal.

Deep inside me though, I felt a disturbing fear that prevented me from sleeping soundly, neither eating nor reciprocating my little daughter’s giggles. She would mumble-jumble something between Mandarin and Russian and finish the incomprehensible phrases with sweet giggles in expectation of the usual fatherly hug that tells a child that its father was the best in the whole world.

It was always like that prior to this Sunday preceding my faithful Monday. On this Sunday, my daughter did what she never did. Whenever she had issues with her mother, I was the best sanctuary and protector for her. She would report that her mother had smacked her, denied her the TV remote set, gave her serious sponging at the bathroom, refused her to wear the boots I bought her from Addis Ababa which rewarded her with beeps and multi-colour blips etc. That was normally the first thing for me to settle upon arrival from work. Together, we will set the penalties for her mother, ranging from denying her the fruits I always came home with, to promises of revenging on her behalf.

This kid could be accused of loving me more than she does her mother. She was my best friend in the house.  My wife, on her part, would excitedly help translate our daughter’s daily complains and accusations although most of them were levelled against her. 
On Sunday 2nd December 2012, I jumped from a shallow slumber after getting back to sleep after Fajr. My daughter had woken up a few minutes before but not hearing the usual reveille from my Galaxy tablet which she used to locate from its rings and screen light and on which wallpaper was her innocent face, she had busied herself with her doll.

My snores might have fascinated her because, according to her mother who was watching her quietly from above the blanket, the kid first listened to the heaves from my smoke-ridden chest, put away the Arab doll and went straight for my nostrils. She thrusted her soft little index into one of my nostrils. I can’t remember what I thought it was but all I could recall was sitting upright at the centre of the bed, gnawing hard at my nose.  Seeing that I was stupefied, my wife mocked at me from under the blanket. She was bursting of laughter. “Don’t you know that your dad is a coward? You frighten him again and he may hit you before knowing! ”

I turned to face my wife and met my daughter’s intrigued eyes, triumphant but bewildered at my sudden jump. I never knew what actually transpired until it was all explained to me by my wife later that afternoon, but only one thing was certain: there was no longer any chance of getting back to sleep that morning again. Neneh was up and so must everyone else.

I staggered to the ante-room where I boiled water for the morning bath. Usually, my daughter would be musing with my Galaxy tablet while I am at the bathroom but today, upon entering the dressing room, she was standing patiently at the mirror waiting for me. “Neneh, may I boil water for you too to take a bath? I will not use the sponge”, I persuaded.

She didn’t seem to hear me for she didn’t even look my way. “Or do you want us to go and buy chips and wonjo from the shop?” I ventured again. This time, to my horror, she turned to me with a grimace. With that wail of a terrified child, she cried till I thought she must have been stung by an insect or something for I inspected her all round to see any sign of pain but saw nothing on her body. Her mother came in a rush and enquired. Nothing.

The next minute, our neighbour knocked and greeted at the door. “Ami, what is going on here, hope it is not boiling water or the still hot gas stove?” She too had recognized the terror in the kid’s shrill wails. No one, except God, knew what caused this kid to cry so uncontrollably that early Sunday morning. What was wrong? How come I was unable to calm her, not even by my usual tricks: kneeling before her and telling her that she was now taller than me, or clapping my palms noisily together to say I have beaten her adversary, or giving her an all-five gesture and saying ‘take five’ which she normally cherished by surrendering her hands into mine?

None of these hitherto successful tricks worked out that Sunday morning. After watching us speechless and almost motionless, her mother took her from my arms and offered her a motherly hug that, I must admit, transformed my helplessness into tenderness. I could feel their hearts beating in unison and I wondered what a monster a man would have been without that love from a mother.

The cries subsided and presently she swallowed a bile and was soon heard trying to say something amid her sobs. We thought she wanted milk which she was habitual of taking at that time of morning. We agreed she should get her usual. My wife turned to leave the room and as she faced me from the top of her mother’s retreating figure, the little girl mumbled something I never understood till it was too late.

This kid of just nineteen months had sensed what not me, neither her mother nor our parents had sensed. Or so I thought.  Was she already in the picture and just didn’t have the words to say it? Or were we insensitive of her moods? She actually sent us signals because my wife confessed that at one occasion, late in the night, she woke up and found her sitting quietly and staring fixedly at my sleeping figure.

On another occasion, she scrambled some Fula sentence which even my wife, who used to be my expert translator couldn’t make out. That was when I kissed them goodbye on my departure to Dakar where I was to catch my flight to Addis Ababa in advance for an AU Summit. Both me and her mother misinterpreted her. We thought she wanted me to buy her something hence the Arab doll and noisy Disney boots that I brought back with me.

I later knew what all these signals were. But it was rather too late. My daughter had sensed that some inevitable danger was looming. She was going to miss her dad. She would have no one to expect in the evenings to listen to her usual reports. No one to play with on the floor of the living room, who would give her access to the T.V., DVD remotes and moreover, a mobile phone to watch her own pictures and identify others she knows but couldn’t name.

There may not be the usual fruits she liked sharing with Musu, her friend. Who would offer her his finger for her to hold and run with to the shop and ask her to point at anything, anything at all, and would buy it for her? Who will call at least once in the afternoon and say “Neneh, what did your mother cook today? Or tell me who shouted at you today?” Who would now promise her to take the nurses to police if they inject her or insist that her mother gives her those not-nice syrups a number of times a day?

To what I later fathomed of her strange behavior, she might have had these questions but did not know how or what to do or say. Weakened by these big worries too heavy for an infant, she had resorted to the only available option to her….crying her heart out. I should have known this earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to avert predestined but I would have died trying. At least I would have attempted to flee before going to bed that Sunday night.

We had spent the day under the mango tree brewing attaya, smoking cigarettes and playing crazy eight with almost all the girls at home that Sunday. I had not left the compound the whole day, not even for the mosque or the shop till eleven in the evening when I had lulled my daughter to sleep and could take a walk before retiring to bed.

It took me almost half an hour before I decided it was best not to go far in that cool night. I wish I had. I wish I had just kept on going till I find myself in another country on that night. 
Little did I know that to be out in the open night sky decorated with brightly sparkling stars and a gracious moonlight was something I will miss! And for a long time. I remembered I had an appointment to keep so I retreated and headed home.

I went to bed but could hardly sleep. I tossed around from one side to the other almost all night, caressing my daughter’s hair whenever I faced her. My wife too was awake because she used her left foot to search for mine under the blanket. When she found it, she groaned emotionally. “Why are you awake still?” She whispered. I expected the question but did not brace up well for it for it took me unawares. Not certain what to say, I returned her the question.

Whether she was reading my mind or me reading hers I can’t tell but she answered exactly as I thought was my best bet. “You see”, she began, “for some reason I don’t understand, I am very worried. Be honest, I know you have always been but this has nothing to do with what you regard as confidential. Are you sure you are not in any danger? I have lately been feeling awfully afraid and having sleepless nights since you came back from NIA. I don’t actually know what I am feeling. It is between paranoia and frightening feeling. Sometimes I get the feeling that something terrible has either happened or about to. Is there anything you don’t want to tell me?” She was right. I couldn’t just tell her so. The situation will only worsen if I confessed what I too was feeling.

So I went on the defensive. I was feeling the same awful thing in me but could not decipher what it was. I shifted my left hand which, from the time my wife’s foot found mine, I noticed, had stopped caressing my daughter’s hair and was laying heavily on her forehead. I searched and found my wife’s arm. I held it tightly and cleared my coarse throat. “You know I would never hide anything from you, right? You know I would confide in you where my life is kept if I can. I am not aware of any danger at all”, I lied. “I think you are just into those hysterics again. Don’t you think we plan you a visit to the village?”

I wanted to change the subject but she brought me straight back. “No. This has nothing to do with nausea. Yes, you have been smart and attentive enough this time to know I am expecting. It is not about that. It is about your job and your report to NIA tomorrow. If things are OK as you put it, then why going to that place again?” She was right again. “I think you are just imagining things but to be honest with you, I have done nothing to warrant me to worry. I am very innocent of what they say I did. The NIA have even confirmed that to me. They know the wrong person was arrested. If it was thought that I was The Soldier and I am arrested and yet The Soldier is still writing, I cannot imagine a better vindication. What else should I fear? I am innocent my dear, you know I cannot be a criminal even if I want to”.

I waited for that to sink in. None of us spoke again till dawn when she woke me up and said the bathroom was all mine. My daughter was still asleep when I was leaving for Banjul but when she woke up, she cried till she went back to sleep.

I got to Banjul at around 08:30 am. The NIA front gate was full of terror as usual. I booked in for Invest Unit and the usual protocol was carried out. Phones, wallets, bags etc were registered and left behind. “OC good morning”, I greeted Mr. Sukuta Jammeh, head of the Investigations unit. “Good morning Mr. Sowe, how is the family? I hope you rested well with the family”.

Minutes later I was escorted to the Office of the Director of Operations, Mr. Louis Gomez who beckoned me to a seat opposite his expansive desk. “Just give these boys a few minutes” he politely said after dismissing my escort. I waited with much confusion. Which boys and for what? I hoped to get some clue from his solid face but he avoided mine throughout my brief encounter with him. I was deep in thought about what next.

A sharp knock at the door brought me back into the present. Two gentleman-looking guys walked in and announced that they were ready. My heart wanted to jump out but I managed to swallow it back. “Mr. Sowe, you may go with these boys”, Mr. Gomez said from behind the desktop monitor which prevented me from seeing his face. “OK then thanks and have a good day”, I managed to compose.

We descended down the narrow and steep staircase leading to the facade of the complex. There was a Mitsubishi Pajero revving idly just outside the foot of the stairs. “Did you leave anything at the main gate, Mr. Sowe?” “Umm yes, my phones and wallet”, I answered as we headed for the security room where my phones and wallet were handed back to me. “This way please”, Mr. Suso ushered me towards the waiting darkly tainted Pajero. I complied and soon we were out of the GPMB gates signalling a right turn.

I wondered what importance I had amassed overnight to be driven in the Director’s official car and most horrifyingly, where. We passed the cemeteries at a steady speed and all of a sudden, Mr. Suso, who was seated at the front passenger seat, turned to face me. “Mr. Sowe, we are being directed to transfer you to Mile Two for detention. I am sorry about that”. The words came like spikes into my heart. At a certain degree of fear, there is a zone of bravery. I feared no longer.

I was certain that death could be inflicted from man to man but Heaven or hell was entirely God’s discretion. “It’s alright, you don’t need to be sorry for that. You are merely doing your job. It’s okay with me “, I relieved him from fixing his eyes on me. We entered the gates of Mile Two on this 3rd December and never went out through them again till twenty six months later.