The SaGG Foundation (Sponsor a Gambian Girl) is a girls’ education movement, with the aim of championing the cause for the education of girls in The Gambia. Education is a basic human right and our vision is to advocate this and pair up girls with sponsors to help with their education.

Founded in November 2018, The Foundation has so far paired up 50 girls with sponsors helping to shape their lives through education. Those currently sponsoring girls are from a wide range of countries including The Gambia, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, USA, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Taiwan.

Our slogan “education changes everything for a girl” symbolises our strong belief that education is the only tool for total girl empowerment, helping to ensure they live independent and successful lives.  Formal education enables them to develop skills that can help them earn a living and support themselves in the future, reducing child marriage, harmful cultural practices and gender-based violence.

The primary aim of the SaGG Foundation is to advocate education and pair up girls with sponsors to support them financially (paying of school fees).  These sponsorships give the girls access to education and ensure they stay in school.  The Foundation also raises funds to equip girls with essential educational resources to improve their learning experience. In the long term, the foundation aims to:

1. Support mentoring and career advisory schemes for girls and women;
2. Support or establish skills training centres for girls and young adults

1. Increase the amount of girls and women in education, encourage skills development and entrepreneurship;
2. Collaborate with other stakeholders, agencies and associations involved in similar activities or activities consistent with the objectives and goals of the Foundation.

In order to achieve the aims of the Foundation, various initiatives are employed, our Sponsor a Gambian Girl Champions in their respective countries and cities, use their voices and passion to advocate for girls’ education, connect girls with sponsors and contribute in lots of ways.

The Foundation attends awareness days at various locations and will be present at theGambian Cultural Week in Oslo. Our Norway Champion Betty Marong will be at the Seminar on Friday August 2^nd2019.   Betty will explain more about the organisations sponsorship opportunities, which start at a minimum monthly payment of 100 NOK.

Sulayman Suwareh, Eku Grant and Annetta Paps-King will be at the Gambian Cultural Event in East London on 25^thAugust 2019 to create more awareness of the Foundation and its activities.

From 1^stAugust, The SaGG Foundation will be launching The D1, £1, $1, €1 fundraising campaign drive to equip girls with educational resources for the upcoming academic year in September. You can be part of the campaign by sponsoring a girl, becoming a Champion to help spread the word, by donating educational materials or a donation help with our administrative work.

To make a donation now for D1, £1, $1, €1 or any other amount click here

Those in Gambia can donate D1 or any other amount by paying it into the Foundation’s account:

The SaGG Foundation, Guaranty Trust Bank (Gambia) Ltd.

Account Number: 207-408491-110

To learn more about the SaGG Foundation, visit our website https://www.saggfoundation.org/

For any further questions, see our frequently asked questions page

https://www.saggfoundation.org/frequently-asked-questions.html

For daily updates, follow the SaGG Foundation on Facebookand Twitter

Meet the Volunteers behind Sponsor a Gambian Girl

Rev. Charles King – Secretary

Eku P.L Grant – Deputy Public Relations Officer

Betty Marong – Vice President

Tala Jobe – Public Relations Officer

Sulayman Ben Suwareh – Treasurer

John Paul Gomez – Deputy Treasurer

Annetta Paps-King – President

Thank you.

The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad of the Republic of The Gambia on Monday July 29, 2019 said Ecomig forces are serving as a stabilising force in The Gambia. 

Dr. Tangara made the remark in a meeting with delegates of African Union Peace and Security Council as show of appreciation for the role played by Ecomig forces in the maintenance of peace and security in the country.

The 26-member AU Security Council Field Mission to the country met Dr Tangara at his office on Monday to acquaint themselves with the security situation in the country. 

In welcoming the delegation, Dr. Tangara commended their respective countries for standing by the people of the Gambia in ensuring that the will of Gambians prevailed during the political impasse the country experienced in December 2016. He paid special homage to Nigeria, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea for the role they played during the political impasse. 

He further urged the Council Members to extend the mandate of Ecomig forces adding that the Security Sector Reform is ongoing. 

He emphasise the need to build the capacity of security forces, notably the military. He applauded the AU Security Council Team for their hard work and called on them to redouble their efforts towards bringing greater development on the continent through ensuring peace. The Government, he said is working on attracting foreign direct investment and tourism among others in the country. 

The Ambassador of Togo to the African Union, H.E. Sebade Toba, expressed delight at progress registered and expressed optimism that the trend would be maintain. He said this the courtesy call is a learning experience for them and thanked Foreign Minister for the warm welcome accorded. 

Issued by: Communication Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad

And so my first encounter with the man Peter Bonu Johnson, was through the enchanting commentaries of Radio Gambia legends like Bora Mbodge and Malick Jones. On those intense match days, the voices of the commentators would boom over the airwaves on medium wave (MW): “meanwhile Bonu Johnson; takes possession of the ball and clears it away. But blocked to touch; and ball since taken, the Gambians…”

I was to meet Bonu in person when I was hired as youth assistant at the Department  of Youth and Sports headquartered at the independence stadium. Bonu was to be one of my supervisors there alongside other cool kotos like Pa Suwareh Faye, Abdoulie Kah, Mr. Demba and others.

Bonu always stood out for his businesslike attitude, devotion to duty and the occasional telling of the hard, unpleasant truth that can make others uncomfortable; but those of us who knew him well enough knew he always meant well.

His exploits in national service are quite legendary – from national team player to national team coach, Bonu has truly served his nation with distinction.

Has the nation rewarded him in turn? That is the question worth answering; not just for his sake but in the long term interesting of the nation. Or, Alas, are we going to continue to plead guilty to the timeless charge preferred against us by the Kora maestro Jaliba Kuyateh who sang in Mandinka “fatafing laa jamani bay kang; moe nyimmaa e mang wo keh feng ti. Naa faa ta, e kaa yeh tooraa yeh e laa!” (In Africa we don’t honour our great people but once they are dead we all proclaim : Indeed a great hero has passed away!”

I was to have further contacts with Bonu many years after I left the Department of Youth and Sports in my neighborhood at Kerr Sering and Sanchaba. That was when I found out the other side of Bonu, as a cultural connoisseur and a man devoted to religious service and communal activities.

He came to my mother-in-law’s house on festive occasions of the Christian tradition singing Christmas carols with children and youths. Those occasions just heightened my admiration and respect for Bonu. Here I saw a man who had “been there, done it,“ but remained well-grounded and in tune with his higher self.

I am no Saul Njie or Bora Mboge; neither am I Malick Jones. But I have breathed a bit of their legendary commentary spirits . And so I dare draw inspiration from them to bid the legend, Peter Bonu Johnson, Farewell:

Meanwhile, in the greater game of life, our man, the legendary Peter Bonu Johnson, did collect the pass, skillfully disciplined the ball on the ground; laid his own pass to the next generation, and bowed out gracefully.

Farewell Bonu, servant of the people 

Never condoned hate or evil

On the pitch you proved your mettle

On the bench you raised the mantle 

Thrust the nation to global level

Served Gambia without forgetting Jehova

To country and church you gave your all

Rest well commander of the ball

We shall remember your service to all. 

RIP, Coach. Till we meet again.

#GambiaMourns

Momodou Sabally

Former Secretary General and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Economist, Author, and International Speaker.  

The presence of men armed with AK47 rifles with no uniforms on our streets is indeed a new threat to national security in case the Director General of NIA has not noticed. The Gambia is not a narco-state or engulfed in a civil war neither fighting an insurgency or terrorism. Hence it is utterly unjustified that law enforcement officers of the Gambia could carry assault rifles openly without uniforms while facing ordinary citizens protesting the death of another citizen.

In the first-place assault rifles must not be in the hands of law enforcement agents when they are engaging the civilian population. AK47 is a combat rifle that must not be used ever again by our police as a first instance weapon in controlling crowds. There was no evidence that angry demonstrators in Serre Kunda on July 24 were armed especially with assault rifles so as to warrant a similar response from the police.

Secondly even if the police were to use these weapons in a faceoff with an armed civilian population those officers must be inside their police uniforms. One of the purposes of police putting on uniforms is to ensure identification, legitimacy and accountability. Every Gambian is required to recognise the uniform of the Gambia Police Force. Hence to deploy men without uniforms is to undermine the identification, legitimacy and accountability of those officers in the eyes of the people and therefore undermine the cooperation of the public towards those armed men.

Thirdly the presence of men without uniforms and bearing arms in such situations as a demonstration threatens peace. This is because where such men were to unlawfully use their weapons it will be difficult to identify the shooters. Even where the use of that gun was lawful it has the potential to generate a negative and violent reaction from the demonstrators as they might mistaken the officer to be a criminal. Therefore, this would have endangered the life of that officer just because he was not in a uniform.

Therefore, it is pertinent that we ask why the Anti-Crime Unit command decided to hand weapons to its men knowing fully well that they were not in uniform? What is their objective? If indeed those officers were CID officers as claimed by the Police PRO, I wish to put it to the PRO that CID officers expected to be undercover agents or operate in counter-insurgency scenarios. For that matter it is unjustified to arm CID officers in such public situations.

What we know is that the practice of law enforcement agents bearing such arms openly and in public and without uniforms happens mainly under authoritarian and criminal regimes. They do so because they wish to generate chaos with an objective to shoot to kill identified persons or implicate certain people. Such regimes also employ these tactics in order to create an unpleasant situation that they will now use to justify the creation of more draconian laws or adoption of more oppressive measures against the people. Is this the objective of the Barrow Government?

We all recall how in April 2000 after killing 14 schoolchildren the Jammeh Regime came to say that shooting came out from the protesting students. It appears by then the regime had not fully mastered the gimmicks of notorious regimes in full otherwise they would have planted gunmen inside the students and take their pictures so they can show that as evidence. This is why it is so dangerous to see today, in 2019 after defeating that Dictatorship that this Government would put armed men without uniforms on the streets!

When all is considered it will be clear that this country urgently needs a security sector reform otherwise the peace and security of this country is fast eroding. Since the launch of the security sector program several weeks ago, may we ask the Minister of Justice what is happening so far? The events of July 24 in Brikama and Serre Kunda clearly point to the urgent need for these reforms.

One will find more justification for these reforms when you read the Faraba Commission Report. In that report it was categorically recommended that the IGP should vet all PIU officers and those found to have been involved in torture to be removed. Has the IGP done that? We know that some of the PIU officers deployed in Brikama and Serre Kunda on that fateful day are notorious torturers and killers since 2000! Why are they still in our uniforms?

The Anti-Crime Unit is notorious for torture. The evidence is overwhelming, yet the Gambia Government continues to close its eyes to malpractices that characterised the country under Yaya Jammeh. Those of us monitoring this Unit have reports that the detention conditions at the ACU headquarters are subhuman while various other abuses continue to take place there. The death of Ousman Darboe is a case in point which must be thoroughly investigated.

After 22 years of indiscriminate killing of Gambians by the Gambia Government under Yaya Jammeh, we must not ever again allow a single Gambian to die at the hands of Gambian armed and security forces. So far, we have registered the death of several Gambians at the hands of security forces in Kanilai, Faraba and now Serre Kunda. This is unacceptable and there must be accountability.

Meantime the practice of Gambian law enforcement officers appearing with guns and without uniforms in public must also be investigated and those responsible held accountable.

For The Gambia Our Homeland

……………………………………………..

Madi Jobarteh

Skype: madi.jobarteh

Twitter: @jobartehmadi

LinkedIn: Madi Jobarteh

Phone: +220 9995093

It is important that Gambians remind ourselves that after all this country is 49 years old today since we gained Independent in 1970. In 2016 the Gambia Bureau of Statistics released figures to indicate that poverty increased in the country from 48.1% in 2010 to 48.6% in 2015. The United Nations Development Programme in its human development index 2018 report ranked the Gambia as the 174^th poorest country in the world with more than 60% of the population living below the poverty line.

One does not need to refer to any study to realise that more than half of the Gambian population cannot read or write with widespread unemployment. The fact that thousands of Gambians have to find their way out of the country and the money they send back amount to more than 20% of our GDP manifest that indeed this country has very little opportunity and capacity to grow. I need not tell anyone that not only taxes are high in this country but cost of living is equally so high while the country’s debt takes much of the taxes we generate. Paradoxically the more loans the Government takes the more impoverished the country becomes such that we cannot even pay back our loans!

It is obvious that the vast majority of the homes, villages and towns in the Gambia do not enjoy basic social amenities such as water and electricity supply which remain largely erratic and expensive. One can count on your fingers the number of tarred roads in Banjul or Kanifing Municipality or Brikama or Farafeni or Basse which are among the biggest towns in the Gambia! Even those tarred roads are poor quality without drainage and streetlights or even adequate road signs!

In 1920 Edward Francis Small fought the colonialists that Gambians must have a say in how our tax money was spent and by who when he cried, ‘No Taxation Without Representation’. In those days Gambians do not elect individuals to serve as representatives of the country. Rather a foreign power constituted a government by itself and without our consent and then imposed taxes on the people without giving back to the people any social services or economic opportunities.

Exactly one hundred years later in 2019, Gambians now have the independence to elect their own representatives as President, National Assembly Members, Mayors, Area councillors and Chairpersons. We pay taxes to them and in our name, they take loans and receive grants from around the world. Despite paying taxes to these representatives who are in charge of our institutions of governance and development our people receive only very limited and usually very poor, expensive and erratic social services. Where is our tax money then? Where are the loans? Where are the grants?  In 2019 the Gambia’s national budget is 25 billion dalasi and we are only 2 million people. Where is this money?

According to the Local Government Act and the Finance and Audit Act the area councils are expected to share their budget estimates with residents by pasting them in each and every ward for public scrutiny. The law said 60% of all the revenue of the local government area must be spent on development projects and only 40% should be spent on operational costs. Furthermore, the law said the Central Government should give 25% of the development budget (i.e. 60%) to the local government areas to add to their development budget. Is this been done? Never!

Who has ever seen the published budget estimates of BCC or KMC or BAC or Basse or Janjanbureh or Kerewan or Kuntaur or Mansa Konko area council? I have never seen them publish their budget estimates in each and every ward for public scrutiny as required by law? Did anyone of us ever hear a mayor or chairperson or governor publicly announce how much money his or her local government area or city or municipality collected in a month or in a year? Yet one will always hear these area council officials complain that lot of residents don’t pay compound rates or that the rates are not enough. But they never tell us how much they collected from compound rates?

Therefore, the path that #OccupyBAC is pursuing is the path each and every Gambian must pursue if we wish to see real change and development in our lives in our lifetime. Our local government areas are our primary agencies of development. We cannot take the majority of our people our of poverty and create high standard of living so long as our area councils are not transparent, efficient and accountable.

There is so much money in the Gambia being generated by our central and local governments, yet our people live in subhuman conditions. Go to any community in the Gambia – from Banjul to Fatoto – to realise the immense poverty, underdevelopment and disorganization in which we live. For how long?

Those of us insulting protesters are not helping ourselves and our country. Let us rise above tribal, party and other sectarian biases to realise the high stakes. The state of affairs in this country after almost five decades of independence is disgraceful. This is not what we deserve, and we must rise up to ensure that our lives change for the better during our lifetime.

In a democracy one of the most effective weapons for change and progress in the hands of citizens are demonstrations. This is what we see in every democratic society of the world where there is progress. For example, in these recent weeks we saw citizens of Hong Kong protest until their government backed down from making a law that will allow them to extradite anyone to China. These past 10 days we also saw how people in Puerto Rico force their governor to resign just for saying some unpleasant words. We also saw how Pres. Macron of France was forced to abandon some economic measures because of the protests by citizens in yellow shirts. The examples are many around the world. Why therefore should the Gambia be different?

I don’t know about you, but I am fed up! We cannot continue to have central and local governments to whom we pay tax and they take expensive loans and fat grants in our name only for the majority of our people to continue to live in poverty and still paying back that loan. Why? There are numerous communities in this country which live in such appalling conditions that you would think that they do not belong to the Gambia.

We must all occupy our area councils to demand meaningful development. We must demand transparency and accountability. We must demand efficient delivery of quality, affordable and consistent social services that must be accessible and available to all. In 2019 no Gambian community or home should exist without 24 hours uninterrupted water and electricity supply and high-quality roads. If so, either our central and local governments are corrupt, inefficient and lacking vision or that our citizens are dormant, uninformed and equally corrupt or that both our governments and citizens are all corrupt and lazy without vision.

For the Gambia Our Homeland

This week, testimony in The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) provided details surrounding the direct involvement of former President Jammeh in the disappearance of American Citizens Alhaji M. Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe in 2013.  The United States welcomes the additional information that has come to light as this provides an opportunity to renew our investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

We will pursue a close partnership with Gambian authorities based on these new revelations to continue to investigate the disappearance of these American citizens.

The United States Government expresses our heartfelt condolences to the families of Alhaji M. Ceesay, Ebrima Jobe, and of all other victims of crimes that are being revealed by the continued work of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission.  We express our gratitude to the TRRC for undertaking this important work for accountability, justice, and national reconciliation.

The Gambia Police Force must be informed that they have no authority to deny citizens from holding public institutions and public officials accountable. Brikama Area Council is a public institution and the Governor, Chairperson, Councillors and Staffs of Brikama Area Council are public servants. For that matter any resident of West Coast Region who feels dissatisfied by the performance of the Brikama Area Council has a right to express himself or herself or protest or go to court to address his or her grievance.

The right to freedom of expression, assembly, association and petition are entrenched clauses guaranteed in our Constitution. Hence residents of West Coast Region have a right to protest against the Area Council and indeed about any issue in their region. The Gambia Police Force must not prevent residents from holding the Area Council accountable.

It is clear that Brikama Area Council has failed to deliver adequate, quality and efficient public goods and services to the people of West Coast Region. For example, the poor hygiene conditions in markets across the region and the poor roads as well as the limited utility services provided by the Council deserves public outcry. The Brikama Area Council has not been transparent to the people of West Coast Region by telling them the amount of revenue it collects and how much it invests back to the people. Hence the people of West Coast Region have a right to protest against the leadership and management of Brikama Area Council.

The Gambia Police Force and the IGP in particular have no authority whatsoever to deny the people to hold their elected and appointed public officials accountable. What is expected of the IGP is to provide the necessary security for the protesters and other citizens so that there is peace and order. But the IGP has no reason whatsoever to prevent citizens from protesting. There is no security situation in any part of the Gambia such that protests cannot take place in any part of the Gambia. If so, let the IGP say it loud and clear.

I urge the people of West Coast Region to totally ignore the IGP and continue with their protest with or without a permit. It is your constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully! Let the IGP arrest all of West Coast Region and see what the rest of Gambia citizens will do.

In fact, according to the Public Order Act, it is not the IGFP who should grant a permit for protests in the regions. Section 5 stipulates that it is the Governor of the Region to do so. Therefore, withdraw your application from the IGP because he has no authority to grant permit for a demonstration outside of the Banjul City and Kanifing Municipality. Therefore, ignore any denial posed by the IGP!

I wish to put it to the IGP Alagie Mamour Jobe that he does not own West Coast Region neither Brikama Area Council and certainly he does not own the people of the Gambia such that he would arrogate to himself the power to determine what citizens can do or cannot do. Alagie Mamour Jobe is just a mere appointed public servant who is mandated to uphold the Constitution of the Republic of the Gambia which has guaranteed the rights of Gambians. Hence Alagie Mamour Jobe has no power or authority in anyway to flout our Constitution and our sovereign rights.

Therefore, let IGP Alagie Mamour Jobe and the Gambia Police Force not injure our democracy and undermine good governance. The Gambia Police Force must not disregard our Constitution rather it must be seen to uphold and enforce the Constitution. That is the only job for the Gambia Police Force. By denying citizens to protest so that they can hold public institutions accountable it means IGP Alagie Mamour Jobe is covering up, aiding and abetting abuse, corruption and waste by our public institutions. This is unacceptable.

We, The Citizens, must not ever again allow any public institution or public official to abuse our rights and flout our Constitution. This country belongs to citizens and not to the President or the IGP or the Governor or the Chairperson. These elected and appointed public servants must be seen to protect the rights of citizens as specified in our Constitution. The Constitution has guaranteed our rights and we must not allow any so-called public official to deny us that right. We have a right to protest and the Gambia Government has a duty to protect that right and not to stop it.

I hereby warn the IGP to desist from any action that will harm the rights and the person of those protesters. I hereby warn the IGP to give full protection to the protesters and other citizens who are not part of the protest. If the IGP arrests anyone for protesting that will constitute unlawful arrest for which I and like-minded citizens will sue the IGP. The time has come for citizens to take up their citizenship duty as per the Constitution. No to Dictatorship.

For the Gambia Our Homeland

Former Secretary General and Minister of Presidential Affairs Momodou Sabally has further emphasised his criticism of plans to transform The Gambia Technical Training Institute, GTTI, into a university of Science and Technology as recently announced by government.

Speaking to graduating students and the audience including the National Assembly Member for the area, the Chief and other local authorities,  assembled at Somita Senior Secondary School on Sunday July 21, 2019, Sabally harped on the need for government to get its priorities right; and to focus on improving the quality of basic and secondary education rather than dispersing scarce resources on the creation of a new university while our only University, UTG remains underfunded and ill-equipped. His remarks dovetailed into the school principal‘s report which highlighted that the school’s laboratories have not been equipped yet.

Sabally further advised the graduates to proceed to tertiary institutions and to get further training, and implored them to“Seek the means to improve your talents and skills on a continuous basis, and develop the habit of life-long learning. Education is your golden key to the gates of bliss and fortune in this Information Age that is gradually cementing the blocks of the knowledge economy that the world is running on.”

In a graduation speech a few days earlier at Jiboroh Upper Basic School, Sabally addressed students on the topic of discipline and asserted that in order for our societies to effectively combat the problem of indiscipline, “government needs to lead the process of reviving our cultural institutions like circumcision rites so that we can rebuild what we lost in terms of our sacred, sanctifying and edifying cultural practices.”

“Whatever I have achieved in life today, by the grace of Allah, could not have been attained without the disciplinary regime I went through with my teachers during the early period of my education. But all this disciplinary regime at school was based on the foundation of our cultural institutions of discipline – rites of passage: Circumcision and it’s myriad processes of instilling discipline.

“Alas, we have thrown away these cultural institutions in pursuit of our so called modern civilisation and now look at where we stand!

As young people I implore you to obey your school rules, respect your teachers and remain focused on your education. Life is not easy, has never been easy. Therefore discipline is your insurance against the inevitable turbulences you have to go through to make it in life.”

In other commencement speeches he delivered during the past two weeks, Sabally spoke to graduates of New Covenant School on the importance of formal education on July 19, in Faji Kunda and also dwelled on the importance of the education of the girl child when he addressed the community of Kerr Auldi in the Central River Region on July 13, 2019.

With Gambia as a former British colony, it was virtually natural for Gambians to emigrate to Britain during the colonial period and after our independence. There was a sense of familiarity and we understood their ways a bit after dealing with them during the colonial days. The connection was already there. The United States and Scandinavia followed after independence too. Today, you will find large numbers of Gambians in all these places that have settled for decades and have families there. In rare cases, you will find third generation Gambians in some of these places, but it’s mostly first and second generations, since we started emigrating in significant numbers.

Given this backdrop, one would assume that by now, we would have had solid and cohesive Gambian communities in most of the places we have chosen to emigrate to in substantial numbers. But that’s not the case, judging by how fragmented we are regardless of our population in a particular area. The fragmentation is born out of the unhealthy and unnecessary competition that exist among us, in my opinion. Instead of collaborating to help and support one another, we unnecessarily compete on all fronts for individual achievements. We are too busy trying to outshine each other on the individual level, that we are oblivious about the big picture of community and the strength it can bring.

The number of Gambians in London and other major cities in England is pretty considerable given The Gambia’s population, but I am not aware of a Gambian Community Center in any of those cities set up by Gambians to help orientate and integrate new arrivals by assisting them with training, job search, or educational opportunities. The same could be said for major cities here in the United States with a noteworthy Gambian presence too, such as Atlanta, Maryland, Raleigh, Seattle and New York. On the other hand, I am aware of such Community Centers established by other immigrants in cities, such as the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota. They provide educational programs for Somali students of all ages, develop talent, and provide a comprehensive workforce and technical training to build job skills. They also do immigration advocacy when community members get caught by the “Immigration Net.” I am also aware of an Ethiopian Community and Cultural Center right here in Oakland and many other cities, including London, that does the same things.

There is strength in numbers, and a united community will benefit all. But for us (Gambians), an individual is first and community last. We are consumed by the “teyki competition” to see the big picture of community. The more we can isolate ourselves from the community the better, and we are now proud and virtually brag about our kids not liking our food or understanding and speaking our languages. What you now hear is “hai, kee morm daygut Olof deh” or “kee morm like-gut sunge laka yee, hamga hamut bopam.” Our kids don’t like our food so we buy them Chinese food? The Chinese kids that were born in the west do eat Chinese food (their food), but our kids who were born in the west don’t eat our food? This is neither cute nor wise, and we need to snap out of it and refuse to enable this pattern of robbing our own kids of their identity.

Here in San Francisco, every time there is a Chinese parade or cultural event, the performances are filled with third and fourth generation young Chinese kids, they are the ones inside those big dragons in the parades and they are the ones beating the drums. They have been taught the Chinese culture and they are carrying on the traditions with pride, despite never even been to China, for many of them. The same could be said about other immigrant communities too, such as the Japanese and Mexican communities. Regardless of where one is in this global world, it is important to be able to know and accept your identity because it is an integral part of humanity, and food and language play a big role in that. Lots of other people go to Gambia to learn about our languages and enjoy our food as part of their human experience, yet some of us are denying our children the opportunity to lean our own languages and appreciate our food. What an irony!

Irrespective of where you find yourself, you should still value and appreciate your identity. And if we deny that to our children, we would have done them a huge disservice. Knowing and accepting their identity will strengthen them so they too can appreciate Gambia and be able to give back, as we embark on this arduous journey of trying to build Gambia.