5 things about Bakary Papa Gassama that should delight every Gambian and inspire every football referee on the smiling coast 

Gambia’s Bakary Gassama is set to officiate today’s semi-final clash between Egypt and Cameroon. In the build-up to the contest, precisely on Tuesday, journalist Gary Al-Smith reported that the Northern Africans had protested that decision by CAF to the dismay of many Gambians. With Gassama’s standing in the global game as near flawless as ever, here are five reminders worthy of consumption, especially for the Gambian.

By Famara Fofana

1. A simple man from Memeh in Jokadou The man they call Papa is not only of provincial extraction – coming from Memeh- a small village lying a few kilometres from Kuntaya, North Bank Region, he is very much a down-to-earth human being who carries no airs and graces. Despite his well-documented success, those close to Bakary speak of a man with a big heart with his broad smile a mark of his openness off the football pitch. Papa exudes no shades of celebrity. His personality jars with his media-generated life. 

2. Humble beginnings: from Nawettan venues to the game’s most iconic grounds 

Papa is reputed to have launched his refereeing career in 2003 officiating almost at every level although his FIFA call-up would come in 2007. Whether it is Nawettan football, the second division to the female league, he has been involved in it all. The now celebrated referee was a familiar fixture himself in the dusty fields of Nema-kunku, Talinding’s Buffer Zone to elsewhere. And as any other Gambian does go through, he too had to contend with a barrage of verbals from unsympathetic supporters manning the touchline. But when talent is married with perseverance and hard work as was the case for Papa, big teams can happen. 

3. Africa’s only referee at 2017 FIFA Confederation Cup, 3-time Africa Referee of The Year and many more 

Papa Gassama refereeing CV can be rivalled by only a few in Africa. This includes the 2012 London Olympics during which he became the fourth official in the final between Mexico and Brazil, the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey, 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In terms of continental Africa’s premier football showpiece event: Afcon 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and the ongoing 2021 edition in Cameroon are the ones in which he deservedly officiated. Remarkably, in 2017, our Papa became Africa’s only referee at the 2017 FIFA Confederation Cup hosted by Putin’s Russia. For three years in a row (2014, 2015, 2016) he was named at the Glo-CAF Awards as the continent’s Referee of The Year. 

In 2018, reputable international football website GOAL referred to him as: ‘The highly competent Gassama’ in a piece about his officiating of a Group A World Cup match featuring Mexico and New Zealand and how he was primed to be in the centre of proceedings when Harambee Stars of Kenya and Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia in the 2018 Afcon qualifiers.  

GOAL, in the same year, reported: ‘Interestingly, Gassama was the sole representative (referee) in the last World Cup where he was supposed to be deputized by Kenyan Aden Marwa.  The East African later ruled out for his alleged involvement in a match-fixing scandal exposed by BBC. 

 4. A cool head for the biggest games 

Papa did not only preside over the opening match of the 2015 Afcon but the final itself between Ghana and Ivory Coast. Rewind to Brazil 2014 where he officiated between The Netherlands and Chile. That fiercely contested game was a metaphorical powder keg as Gassama used his cool head and unbending authority to prevail over one Arjen Robben at the peak of his powers then and a Latin American side featuring a handful of combustible figures such as Aturo Vidal, Alexis Sanches, Gary Medel and their firebrand coach Jorge Sampaoli. Like a duck to water, he emerged from that contest unblemished despite the die-for-a cause attitude exhibited by two footballing powers that day.

5. A nation’s sole consolation package throughout our fallow period  

While the recent past has not always been kind to The Gambia from the perspective of international football, referee Bakary Papa Gassama has been an ever-present force in the game. Sights and sounds about Papa come as a ray of light and a noteworthy consolation prize for our absence in football tournaments we had long dreamt of. Commentators mentioning ‘the man from Gambia’ on television gives one a spine-tingling feeling.

When it comes to him, PRIDE is the one common currency every Gambian trades about Papa, even now that we are out of Afcon. He is the last man standing for the fatherland.

Good luck, legend!

By: Christian Conteh

According to Afrobarometer’s latest surveys, a majority of people across the region think corruption is on the rise, while simultaneously expressing dissatisfaction with the way democracy works.

This is not surprising, persistent corruption has gone hand-in-hand with unconstitutional changes of power in various parts of the continent.

On a continent where corruption persists, natural resources and its attendant benefits impede access to public services for millions of people rather than facilitate them, the result is decades of stagnation laid bare by the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). This cannot be more devastating.

With an average score of 33 out of 100, Sub-Saharan Africa shows no significant improvement on the 2021 CPI. The gains made by a handful of countries are overshadowed by backsliding or stagnation in others and the region’s poor performance overall, as 44 out of 49 countries assessed on the index still score below 50.

With the COVID-19 pandemic severely hitting the previously less-affected continent, alongside protracted armed conflicts and rising terrorist threats, 2021 was a turbulent year for Sub-Saharan Africa. These worrying trends exacerbate the serious corruption problems that exist for long before.

To keep corruption out of the public eye, governments across the region have limited information and cracked down on independent voices calling out abuses of power.

Elsewhere, governments imposed disproportionate restrictions on civic freedoms often under the guise of containing the COVID-19 pandemic limiting people’s ability to hold power to account.

On the 2020 Democracy Index Sub-Saharan Africa recorded its worst average score since 2006, primarily owing to a drop in countries’ civil liberties scores.

Repression continued in 2021, as governments used the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts as an excuse to further crackdown on rights.

Mali’s (29) significant decline (from 35 in 2015) on the CPI has occurred concurrently with a drop in its civil liberties score. The country is facing political, institutional and security crises, having experienced three military coups since 2012. The ongoing armed conflict undermines key state functions, leading to a vicious cycle of corruption and human rights abuses

And while Ethiopia (39) registers a significant improvement (from 33) since 2012, its decline in civil liberties threatens to reverse any previous progress. The government has used the ongoing armed conflict in the Tigray region as a pretext to silence independent voices.

In 2021, authorities shut down a popular independent media outlet and arrested dozens of journalists for their coverage of the civil war.

The 2021 CPI results should serve as a wake-up call to societies across Sub-Saharan Africa. The magnitude of corruption challenges requires responses much bolder than ever before.

Sustainable progress on anti-corruption can only be achieved if societal and institutional checks on power are ensured. Governments must urgently roll back on the disproportionate restrictions on civil liberties and stop using the COVID-19 pandemic or ongoing conflicts as an excuse for stifling dissent.

And when allegations of abuse emerge, anti-corruption agencies and justice institutions must provide accountability no matter how high-level the culprit.

By: Dr. Manal Ghazzzawi

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health catastrophe that affects how the body processes sugar due to either lack of the hormone insulin or issues that makes the body resistant to the action of insulin. Insulin is the hormone in our body that stores excess glucose to glycogen and helps the cells of our body absorb glucose for energy.

DM leads to devastating complications like stroke, heart issues, amputation, blindness etc, if left untreated or unattended to.

People with diabetes who live a normal life have a full-time job to ensure their sugar level remains stable. But in as much as such affected persons try endlessly to prevent sugar levels from escalating, they must also work so hard to prevent sugar levels not to go too low to prevent complications like coma.

People in Africa face lots of difficulties in terms of accessibility to diabetes care. Marginalised communities are unaware of DM and its consequences, and they must pay out of pocket for their drugs and continuity of care.

In a country like Sierra Leone, most tertiary and secondary facilities are clustered in the city, leaving villagers accessing health care at community health centres which lack the necessary expertise to manage and prevent DM. Unfortunately, many Africans are diagnosed late after complications have already set in.

There are about 4 types of DM: Type 1, which is insulin dependent DM; Type 2, which is non-insulin dependent DM; Type 3, which is DM affecting women during pregnancy; and Type 4, which is DM due to drugs and other diseases affecting the pancreas.

Burden of DM in the Africa region

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the Africa region represents the highest proportion with undiagnosed DM, with 60% of its adults having it without knowing about their condition.

Below is a concise representation of types 1 & 2 diabetes in Africa and projections of prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes by 2030/2045, as well as projected government health expenditure by 2030/2045.

In summary, it is estimated in 2019 that 19 million people were living with diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and this figure was expected to skyrocket to 47 million by 2045. Among those with undiagnosed DM, 12 million people have diabetes unknowing to them and 366,200 people in Africa die because of DM.

The 8th edition of the Diabetes Atlas report estimates that 77% of all diabetes related deaths worldwide occur in SSA, in people under 60 years of age (IDF atlas 2017).

This information is quite a bit alarming, but the good news is, diabetes is a preventable disease if we adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours.

A systematic analysis on prevalence and sub-regional distribution of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus among adults in African countries reveal that West Africa has the highest burden of undiagnosed DM. Nigeria represents the top five countries in Africa with high prevalence of DM.

In Sierra Leone, inadequate data makes it difficult to ascertain national prevalence of DM.

It is inevitable that uncontrolled endemic and epidemic diseases affecting a nation can extremely place health expenditure burden on governments, especially with our fragile health system in Africa.

According to IDF 2019, government expenditure on health due to diabetes is US$10 billion and is projected to increase up to US$17 billion by 2045.

What could be the cause for the time-ticking-diabetes-bomb that awaits us?

DM is characterized as one of the leading non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa. DM itself leads to increased risk of leading causes of communicable diseases like Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Tuberculosis (TB), viral hepatitis, pneumonia and Covid-19 infections (Davies K et al., 2020).

Food stuff like these increase the risk of diabetes. Image source unknown

Plausible reasons for the increasing prevalence of DM in Africa are due to common chronic communicable diseases on the continent, which cause inflammatory conditions, leading to organ dysfunction and damage. Even some drugs used to treat, for instance, HIV and TB, could also lead to DM (Davies K et al., 2020).

In addition, obesity appears to be a major issue among urban women aged 15–49 years, as demonstrated from the results of demographic and health survey from 24 African countries (Neupane S et.al, 2016). These women have high risk of developing gestational diabetes in the future, which in turn predisposes their poor babies to diabetes at adulthood or even childhood.

A study was conducted by me in 2017, to assess the risk of developing DM among adults in Freetown. A population size of 1013 was randomly selected, and the prevalence of participants to be at high risk of developing Type 2 DM (T2DM) was 17.8%. Though more rigorous and extensive research is needed to ascertain this, the study highlighted that age, gender, occupation, high waist circumference, hypertension and family history are associated risk factors that yielded statistical significance.

Body Mass Index (BMI) categorization by gender shows that more females (77%) had higher BMI compared to males (53%). Also, more females (19.2%) compared to males (8.1%) were found to have a high waist circumference (WC) which denotes central obesity. This study conforms to a systemic review and metanalysis conducted by Davies A et.al, in Nigeria, which demonstrated that there were 21 million and 12 million overweight and obese persons respectively, in the Nigerian population aged 15 years or more in 2020, and more females were over-weight and in the obese category compared to males.

Previous studies have established that West African Lineage is associated with greater BMI and total body fat. Many studies have shown distinct evidence to confirm that obesity is a major risk factor for T2DM.

Obesity is on the increase in Africa, due to adoption of westernized culture, urbanization, growth in economy, sedentary lifestyle, and introduction of processed foods (Searcey & Richtel 2017).

It is indeed poignant that improved standards of living is driving us to make poor health life choices. In Sierra Leone or in some regions in Africa, obesity is a sign of affluence, dignity, and respect (Janzon E et al., 2015).

Despite this fact, let us not forget that diabetes respects no socioeconomic status or boundaries in general. In a country like Sierra Leone, which probably other countries in the region can relate, people can hardly afford to buy fruits and vegetables. Healthy foods are not produced abundantly in our country, and the poor will continue to be deprived from eating healthy foods that could prevent the occurrence of diabetes. We are highly dependent on importation of most of our food items, even salt and sugar. It has reached a point where imported foods can be cheaper that home grown foods.

Poverty, which is our biggest killer, forces us to eat unhealthy foods to fill our stomach. Adoption of the Mediterranean diet, which mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, wholegrains and fish have been shown to prevent diabetes.

People with diabetes can prolong their health with the proper diet involving these kind of food stuffs. Image source unknown

Regular physical activity is undeniably relevant in the prevention and management of diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends 150 minutes of regular physical activity per week to prevent and manage DM.

Our road networks in Africa could be a turn off for citizens to be engaged in walking and jogging. That needs to be changed, citizens of African countries have every right to be able to exercise conveniently whenever and wherever they find themselves. People living in the rural setting walk miles to reach their farm or place of work, whereas in the urban setting we just rely on transportation. The latter provides such a convenience to people in the urban setting combined with the chair we sit in the whole day at work, highly encouraging us not to be active.

Among other factors that is causing high disease burden and undiagnosed cases in Africa are lack of motivation needed for health workers to provide service; shortage of health work force, brain drain, lack of organized structure for chronic disease care, fewer tertiary care hospitals, lack of awareness of prevalent diseases among the population and inappropriate health care information systems

Strategies to mitigate the epidemic in Africa

Without leadership, governance, financing, health workforce, health information systems, supply chains, and service delivery, we will continue to suffer from diabetes and many chronic diseases. Because diabetes is a lifelong disease and is associated with acute and chronic complications that could cause multiple organ damage, it requires several multi-faceted approaches to reduce the burden of the disease from a public health point of view.

Interventions to target obesity include nutrition labelling; marketing restrictions of unhealthy foods and beverages to kids; fruit and vegetable subsidies; physical activity policies and social marketing campaigns. WHO member states around the world, including South Africa, have committed to halt the rise of obesity and diabetes, reduce premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025 and one-third by 2030. The latter target is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

How many countries in Africa are really committed to keep that ambitious promise? Many countries in Africa will be hesitant to execute laws that would prevent DM due to political reasons. In Sierra Leone, selling of alcohol occurs in the streets so freely that it can easily be accessed by kids. There are foreign companies that manufacture high percentage of alcohol beverages with no one to hold them accountable. Alcohol overuse and substance abuse is a rising pandemic that also needs to be addressed. Chronic alcohol use is an associated risk factor for the development of diabetes. Studies have shown a genetic predisposition to increased risk of DM among heavy alcohol users (Jang et al 2019).

As we know, diabetes was known as the disease of the rich. Though it is still affecting people living in developed countries, many strategies are being put in place to help protect their citizens. The political will is there. In Africa, some of our presidents themselves are obese, they are diabetic or are at high risk of developing T2DM. Politicians of African countries, including the health ministers themselves, will rather fly to the most sophisticated countries to seek medical care. They themselves do not trust their health system which they are supposed to fix, leaving their own citizens vulnerable and deprived of the basic health care they need.

With the exception of a few, the health system of Africa is highly fragile. In Sierra Leone, for example, we keep on putting the blame for our poor health system on the [1991-2200 civil war, Ebola and now Covid-19 pandemic.

If we do not finance our health system to achieve universal health coverage, life expectancy of Africans will remain low, with the potential of holding back economic growth.

Many people are pushed to extreme poverty when they must pay out of pocket for diseases other than TB, HIV.

A multipronged urgent control measure is needed to diagnose people at risk of developing diabetes to prevent subsequent complications of the disease that is affecting quality of life of people globally.

This is the time to take action towards strengthening our health system in Africa. We need to create a donor-independent health system, otherwise emerging and remerging infectious diseases will continue to claim our lives, further exposing our fragile health system. Sadly, this is a reality which we cannot ignore. Diversion of resources towards communicable diseases, away from non-communicable diseases, and provision of essential health services, further leads to more morbidity and mortality.  Africa needs to wake up!

The Gambia’s judiciary is officially calling for former head of state Yahya Jammeh to be prosecuted. It is now up to his successor, Adama Barrow, who has just been re-elected president, to set the legal machine in motion.

On 24 December, Justice Minister Dawda Jallow released the report written by the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC), further tightening the noose around Jammeh.

The Gambian justice system cited the autocrat, who ruled the country for 22 years after seizing power in a coup, as being responsible for numerous abuses committed during his regime. Among them are several crimes against humanity, for which there is no statute of limitations.

‘The Scale Of The Crimes’

In the report, which was submitted to President Adama Barrow on the eve of the 4 December 2021 presidential election, the TRRC recommends prosecuting Jammeh, who had established an authoritarian system based on terror and impunity.

Alongside nearly 70 people, two of whom are now dead, he is presented as the main perpetrator of certain crimes committed between July 1994 and January 2017. “Even before we started our investigations, we knew that Jammeh, as a leader, was largely responsible for the atrocities committed during that period,” says Baba Galleh Jallow, the TRRC executive-secretary. “But we did not know the extent of the crimes.”

After listening to the testimonies of 393 witnesses, victims and former death squad members, and after two and a half years of investigating, the commission concluded that Jammeh was responsible for extrajudicial detentions, torture and the deaths of oppositionists and journalists. The former president was also found guilty of raping several people, including former beauty queen Fatou ‘Toufah’ Jallow, who had named him in her statement.

The self-styled ‘development dictator’, who was convinced that he had found a cure for AIDS, was also convicted of the deaths of 41 patients who had been given a fake HIV treatment – violent sexual acts were part of this ‘miracle cure’.

A Court Based In Dakar?

“If Yahya Jammeh is indeed being prosecuted for crimes against humanity, this means that under the principle of universal jurisdiction, he can be arrested and tried anywhere in the world,” says Jallow.

In its report, the TRRC states that the “best option” would be to create a hybrid court supported by either Ecowas or the African Union and based in Dakar. Not only is Senegal close to The Gambia and therefore to the evidence, but it also hosts the Extraordinary African Chambers, where Chad’s Hissène Habré was both tried and convicted.

According to the commission, such an option “is likely to receive more international support” and carries less risk of instability. “[Jammeh’s] return to Banjul is a real risk for the country. He still has a lot of support here,” says Jallow.

Supporters made their voices heard on the eve of the presidential elections, when the former leader made a comeback onto the Gambian political scene. From Equatorial Guinea, where he has been living in exile since 2017, he spoke out against the electoral agreement between his party and that of his successor. His reaction was so strong that it caused his political party to split. “If Jammeh had been part of this electoral alliance, it would have been more difficult for the executive to implement our recommendations,” says Jallow. “By withdrawing from the agreement, he is making things easier.”

Requests For Amnesty

The president and his justice minister are expected to submit a white paper, which will outline their strategy for implementing the TRRC’s recommendations, by 25 May 2022. A Gambian professional and an international expert recruited for the purpose will be part of a task force responsible for drawing up outlines. The TRRC has also submitted a set of recommendations for reforming and strengthening the judiciary and security forces, as well as initiating the reparation process for victims to the president.

Before it can be considered to have finished its work, the commission will have to tackle one last – and thorny – task: to review applications for amnesty from those named in its report.

According to the justice minister, any named individual who has testified before the TRRC “without omitting anything about their responsibility for human rights violations” and “expressed remorse” has two weeks to apply for amnesty. Several applications have already been filed, but those allegedly responsible for crimes against humanity are not, a priori, eligible for such a measure.

Could some of them slip through despite the seriousness of the crimes they have been accused of? In Banjul, all eyes are on Saul Badji, the presidential guard’s former commander and pillar of the former regime. This close friend of Jammeh returned to The Gambia the day after the 4 December presidential election. “It is worrying that soldiers exiled alongside Jammeh in Equatorial Guinea returned just after Adama Barrow was re-elected,” says a source close to the commission, who recalled that Badjie was “directly implicated in several extrajudicial executions, including the brutal murder of two American-Gambian businessmen and the execution of nine prisoners.”

Despite these concerns, the justice community hopes that the colossal work done by the TRRC will set a precedent in transitional justice mechanisms. US lawyer Reed Brody calls it a “historic” model and praises the justice minister’s efforts at “transparency”, as he decided to make the entire report available to the public.

“It took a great deal of preparation and financial support to establish this commission,” says Jallow. “By taking inspiration from other transitional justice mechanisms in the world, we have created a Gambian model that will serve as a landmark.”

Writing by Marième Soumaré

Source: The Africa Report

By: Momodou Ndow

I have no idea how many of you remember Watch Night Day? But I remember it vividly, and I have a story to tell.

Watch Night Day was the day when everybody should be on their guard because thieves are supposed to come to your house and steal from you. It was the night that theft was legal, I suppose. Kids would normally go out at night under the pretense of being thieves and steal stuff. Maybe to steal small items or fruits, not go out and climb a fence, dagi palanterr, and enter deh, just like real sacha kat yee ning deh deff.

My childhood friend, Saib Muhammed’s grandma sent him purr mu yobu ange. Ange bi was wrapped in a towel and put in a nice sized basket to keep warm. Sor mu nyow orsi ma purr ma gungay kor. On our way purr yobu ange bi, we saw that all the grapefruits Kerr Anafew, were all nice and ripped. Kerr Anafew was the compound just opposite the Bakau school, right next to suma Kerr torma bi fofu, si junction bi. It is a mechanic shop now.

But it’s not actually Kerr Anafew deh, we called the watchman, Anafew. He was very fast, so we called him “Anafew” (as in…anamu? Rek few, mu romba la! So Anafew. Get it now?). But du kerri Anafew deh, it was owed by bena Payi Aku, y fateh na turam sah! Anafew was good at catching kids attempting to steal fruit from the grounds, after a quick chase.

On our way home after delivering ange bi, the basket was now empty with towel inside. When we got to Kerr Anafew, we heard the grapefruit screaming our names on top of the tree. Tempted like Adam with the apple, we decided to go look for the forbidden fruit. The devil played tricks on us, and he also got us, just like he did Adam. We decided to do our Watch Night Day sacha during the day, baychayki ndara kama!

The plan was that we would both climb over the fence and enter the compound. I would then climb up the tree argi grapefruit yee, and Saib would fill up the basket. Then after ma chipalu and we make our getaway with our fruit basket! I got up and started shaking the branches so the grapefruits would fall off. After my first shake, the grapefruits started to fall, and I got excited. I increased the tremors and brought them to a violent level, and the grapefruits fell like rain.

After we went off with our “loot basket” and reached across the street, then Anafew realized a Hit and Run was carried out. The chase was on, chaapans! We ran off and headed towards New Town, as if Anafew had a gun with him. Soon after, the grapefruit started to fall out of the basket, one after the other. The faster we run, the more they fall out.

We would lose Anafew and decide to pause, di wahu nak, while always looking over our shoulders. Dehnyor tork rek, BAAM, Anafew is right behind us, rek nyu takeoff fat! This was how it was until we reached borri stadium. That was right before the stadium was built, it was an open land. That’s when we finally realized that we had lost Anafew, and started to rest and laugh at the ordeal. With our adrenaline pumping nak!

Then suddenly we saw aye Narri Gannarr, nyome three or four, nyungee jongkon taking a dump si birr nyahh yee fofu. Rek nyu start delen mock, “yakalbass yakalbass, bailen di poop si pirr nyahh yee”. They too decided to give a chase, having swiftly wiped off their tootsie rolls. Chase number two was on! At the level of our adrenaline at the time, Narr yee had no chance! That day, Bakau yepp leng worr! After all was said and done, we found ourselves with just a few grapefruits. Howma five or six. Mann dama fully live suma childhood days deh, bulen ma giss nee nak!

Is Watch Night Day still going on in Gambia? Dumako dey dayga fen sah! Or maybe with the way things are now fofu nonu, everyday is Watch Night Day, but purr real sacha kat yee. The ones that show up with a jassi.

Madi Jobarteh

From the outset, I must commend DA Jawo for his apt article, ‘A Piece of Advice to President-Elect Barrow’ in which he raised pertinent issues that require the urgent attention of the President if he truly wishes to succeed as a President hence make the Gambia succeed as well. In the same vein, I must express my utter dismay and concern at the reaction to that article by my dear brother Dr. Cernu Barry in which, in raising questions about non-Gambian voters, went further to make assertions which I consider to be only reinforcing tribalism.

Indeed, I agree with Dr. Barry that the issue of citizenship needs to be looked at carefully given the analysis he gave that there are individuals from the subregion who have lived for decades in this country and have offsprings yet who are non-Gambians.

In my view this is as a result of the weakness of our Constitution which needs updating. Surely, a Guinean or a Ghanaian who has lived in this country for decades and built his life and future in this country should obtain citizenship, not to mention his or her offspring obtaining Gambian citizenship. This is one of the failures of this Government in conducting the necessary constitutional and legal reforms in order to modernize our Republic in line with human rights standards.

That notwithstanding, the issue of non-Gambians obtaining voter cards is an open secret. In 2012, when the opposition constituted themselves in an alliance for electoral reforms, they spoke to the issue of what they called ‘fraudulent registration exercise’. In their 12-point demands issued in 2015, Point 5 spoke to the issue of illegal registration which is about non-Gambians, under-aged voters and instances of double registration. It was precisely because of such potential fraudulent registration that the opposition also proposed the abolition of the attestation.

Interestingly, as both Jawo and Barry noted, no political party contested the 2021 voter registration in the revising courts. Even when the civil society successfully took the issue of attestation to the courts, no party came to stand with them. Hence it can only be said that either the political parties do not believe that there were any non-Gambians registered or they were all guilty of putting through non-Gambians to register or just don’t care, or all of the above. Otherwise, I challenge each and every political party to come out to explain why they failed to utilize the revising courts to cleanse the voter registration list at the right time and place.

However, where I find Dr. Barry’s comments really concerning is when he went further to explain why some ethnic communities refused to vote for Darboe and gave their votes to Barrow. The narrative he came up with as he reported from those folks in NBR and URR is extremely weak at best and tribal at worst as far as I can analyze it. This is what Dr. Barry reported,

“I asked them why and they responded that they have observed the aggressive nature of some of their mandinka neighbours and the level of hostility against them, the fulas, made them afraid. They have had their fair share of hostilities during the Jawara era when they were constantly arrested for ‘Aliens’ cards or ‘Alliance’ and tortured indiscriminately without cause and sometimes their wealth taken. They are afraid to go through the same so they did everything to make sure their families vote for Barrow.”

I would like to know what form of ‘hostility’ exactly those Mandinka neighbours inflicted on their Fula neighbours? As far as I know, all reports from CSOs as well as from independent bodies and public institutions such as the police have only highlighted incendiary tribal messages or bigotry which have come from all sorts of individuals belonging to various religions, tribes, regions and political parties. There have been no reports so far of any physical or violent clashes between any communities in the Gambia on account of tribe and for the purposes of tribal interests.

Hence to claim that a particular Fula community received hostilities from their Mandinka neighbours smacks of incendiary language at best and tribalism at worst. I would be interested to see the exact evidence showing the incidence, form, place, and time of such hostilities.

Secondly, Dr. Barry made the wild assertion that Fula communities faced hostilities during the Jawara era which he connected to the use of ‘Aliens ID Card’. Once again, there has been no reports in the Gambia that show that there have been ethnic clashes in any part of the country from 1965 to 1994 when Jawara was in power in this country. Therefore, where were these hostilities? In fact, ‘Aliens ID Card’ did not exist during the First Republic. This obnoxious identity card emerged during the authoritarian regime of the Tinpot Dictator Yaya Jammeh. Hence how come this card was connected to Jawara?

More importantly, the immigration Department has probably as many Fula as Mandinka officers. Hence if any Gambian of Fula extraction claimed to be stopped because of being profiled as a Guinean, it must be that this malpractice is being perpetrated by immigration officers who could be Fula or Mandinka or Wolof, etc. Hence this abuse of our Fula citizens cannot be pinned solely to the Mandinka, as Hamat Bah had also spewed once at a meeting at State House in front of Pres. Barrow. Such malpractice cannot be UDP’s fault or caused by the Mandinka!

The epitome of Dr. Barry’s ludicrous claim was to state that the Fula were “tortured indiscriminately without cause and sometimes their wealth taken”! Again, Dr. Barry should give evidence to show that the Fula or any ethnic group were targeted under the Jawara Administration for discrimination and torture. I think this is a very unfair allegation against the Jawara Administration and Pres. DK Jawara in particular who was indeed one of the only two Gambian prominent politicians to be the most inclusive. It was only Jawara and Ousainou Darboe whose spouses have never come from their own ethnicity. A man who can do that in the Gambia can only be described as de-tribalized, inclusive and bereft of any form of bigotry.

In fact, Dr. Barry failed to mention the fact that during the Jammeh regime many Fula foreign exchange businesses were raided and their monies taken away. But even there, one cannot accuse Jammeh for purposely targeting these forex businesses simply because they were Fula owned. No. Jammeh did that only for his economic interests regardless of the ethnicity of the owners. Therefore, a Fula persecution in the Gambia is a very serious narrative.

Hence for the good Doctor to make this assertion requires further inquiry and evidence otherwise such assertion must be considered a tribal commentary which undermines national unity and peace. As I have expressed many times, tribalism does not exist in the Gambia in terms of our communities. I am from Fulladu Boraba which is Mandinka dominated but has Fula and Wolof families and the village is surrounded by majority Fula and Wolof communities. We have never had an occasion when the people of Boraba or those from the Fula and Wolof villages find it necessary to quarrel on the basis of tribe. Never. The same story goes for each and every community in the Gambia.

The form of tribalism we have in the Gambia as in most African countries is tribal politics. This is where individuals who seek political power and economic privileges exploit tribal and other sectarian sentiments to seek support or to eliminate opponents or to entrench and maintain their grip on power and access to resources. These individuals are usually politicians, public officials, business people, and the highly educated men and women in every institution.

Since Independence the Fula in particular have been key leaders and players in the politics and governance of this country. The idea that the Fula could be marginalized in the Gambia is utterly unthinkable. The Gambia’s second vice president was a Fula, Assan Musa Camara from 1972 to 1982, who later came to form a formidable opposition to Jawara, Mandinka, when he formed the Gambia People’s Party in 1986 and challenged Jawara in the presidential elections in 1987 and 1992. He was never persecuted nor were the Fula persecuted or marginalized for supporting GPP.

Hassan Jallow, a Fula was the Minister of Justice under Jawara from 1984 to 1994. One can list many other prominent positions manned by Fula politicians and intellectuals in the Government of Jawara just to show that the Fula, like any other ethnic group, has never faced hostilities of any kind from both the Jawara Government nor from ordinary Mandinka communities. If so, let the incontrovertible evidence come out. Even today the current Minister of Justice is a Fula, Dawda A Jallow.

I think our intellectuals, more than anyone else, should exercise utmost honesty and be faithful to history and knowledge in our analysis of national issues. The incidence of tribalism in the Gambia is the imagination and invention of our intellectuals and politicians but not by our ordinary folks in our communities. These ordinary folks may not be sophisticated enough because they lack the necessary tools of analysis hence are usually hoodwinked by politicians and intellectuals to believe that tribalism is real. Therefore, as intellectuals, we owe it to the country to clear the minds of our people and stand against tribal bigots and tribal politics. If I were Dr. Barry, I would have educated those Fula communities that their perceptions were false.

UDP is not a Mandinka party in any way just as APRC is not a Jola party nor is GDC a Fula party or PDOIS a Wolof party, etc, etc, etc. But, if UDP is a Mandinka party then all the rest are also tribal parties. As we all know, this disinformation about UDP is politically created by the Tinpot Dictator to alienate UDP and Ousainou Darboe by making all non-Mandinka voters perceive UDP in such a negative light. This was for Jammeh’s political survival given his incompetence and dishonesty. That nonsensical narrative is what we see NPP and Pres. Barrow and his surrogates also employ today to further demonize and alienate the UDP and Ousainou Darboe just to secure their political and economic hegemony.

Therefore, whoever perpetuates the narrative in any way or form that UDP is a Mandinka party or when they gain power all other ethnic groups are in trouble is himself or herself the very tribalist. Similarly, the claim that any ethnic group were or are marginalized by the Mandinka in any part of this country is false and a tribal commentary.

For The Gambia Our Homeland