For over two decades now, Gambians and non-Gambians alike have been inundated with an imagery of Dictator Yahya Jammeh that on the surface presents a bravado of audacious bravery, tenderness and a history of family linage deeply rooted among the Jammeh’-s of Kanilai, his supposed “birth village.”
On our national media, on billboards, on sponsored posters and even on paid news advertorials, everything on and about Jammeh is deliberately tailored to devoid the accidentals of history that all of us are in one or the other falls victims of. But expect for Gambia’s tiny and lonely dictator.
Even in the tightly cramped rooms of the Gambia’s national museum, Gambians and other visitors to the museum are presented with an image of a dictator that shows his bravery and devotion to Islam.
Some of the historical artifacts on the dictator’s name include a pair of scandals (locally call slippers) that they claimed he wore on the day “he led” mutinous soldiers on 22nd July 1994 to overthrow the democratically elected government of former President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara.
But weeks of investigations by Fatu Radio has revealed another side of the history of the dictator that by all accounts Yahya Jammeh and his cabal are doing everything to hide from the public or what one Jammeh loyalist referred to as “outsiders.”
The Dictator cultivates a vast empire designed for systematic abuse of citizens.
Since 1994, a number of dastardly crimes have been associated with Jammeh, his cabal, his hang-arounds, his militia, his security forces and even ordinary people seeking favours from the dictator. Most Gambians who are old enough to understand the difference between what life was like under Sir Dawda’s administration and that of Jammeh always react with puzzle response anytime they hear about the heinous crimes associated with the current Gambian government.
Many of these crimes were and are still being committed against the unsuspecting populace by a vast layer of willing mobs and volunteers, of course under the direction and control of Dictator Yahya Jammeh himself, tacitly to enforce his sadistic believe that people have to be forced to like him.
This and other reasons motivated Fatu Radio to dig a bit deeper into Jammeh, his childhood life and everything about his background including his family background. Our investigations have landed on some very interesting information that came from scores of sources from within Kanilai itself, his acquaintances, some of his batch mates in the army and of course some supposed family members.
Dictator Jammeh not from the famous Jammeh clan of Kanilai
First thing first: our investigations have revealed that dictator Jammeh’s father Junkung Jammeh travelled with his dad, Jammeh’s grandfather from a village called ‘Mundei’ in Cassamance. They settled first in a place called ‘Kanfungda’, and (Not Kangfenda) in the Gambia. Kanfungda is an old settlement between Kanilai and Unorr.
It is documented that Unor is a village where Yahya Jammeh’s militia, the junglers, used to throw bodies of people they’ve killed in a disused lined-well. By accident, Yahya Jammeh’s grandfather while in Kanfungda bumped into some old friends Masanneh and Bukari Jammeh who are indigenes of Kanilai. Both Masanneh and Bukari are brothers. Bukari was married to Kumbaring Colley and they had three children, Harona, Jalamang and Masey Jammeh
There is no trace of a Sulayman, a Jamus, and a Abdul Aziz in Dictator Jammeh’s family linage
As history would have it, Masanneh and Bukari Jammeh while coming back to Kanilai, requested their friend (Jammeh’s grandfather) to leave Junkung Jammeh with them so he can help run errands for them especially in bringing them food and water from the house to the farm land. This kind of high-minded benevolence is common in many rural areas in Gambia and Senegal where parents give their children away to other family members and or friends to bring them up.
Interestingly, our sources which include some elderly people of Kanilai have told us that there was never a time in the history of Jammeh that “a Sulaymen,” “a Jamus,” and “a Abdul Aziz” was traced in Dictator Jammeh’s family linage. A lot of people believe that the dictator added some of these seemingly recognizable Arab names as title to his long list of names to mainly attract funding from the unsuspecting Arab nations at the early stage of the coup when Gambia’s traditional partners had already stopped funding to his government.
One of our sources said “this dictator you called Jammeh has always suffered an inferiority complex from childhood. And he is good at drumming up sympathy towards him.” As part of such schemes our source said, the dictator started dressing like the desert Shaikhs in the early days of the coup in 1994/95, covering his head with a turban to appear like a religious person. It was at the same time that our source said that the dictator added “a Sulaymen,” and “a Abdul Aziz” to his name.
Asombie Bojang (the dictator’s mother), his stepmothers and a broken history of abandonment
As history would have, dictator Jammeh’s father Junkung was brought well by his adopted brothers: Bukari and Masanneh Jammeh, who looked after him as their own sibling from the same mother and father. According to our sources Masanneh and Bukari brought up Jammeh’s dad Junkung, took him through the rites of passage for men and gave him wives to settle in Kanilai.
By the time Junkung was old enough, the bond of fraternity between him and Bukari and Masanneh Jammeh was so strong that he decided to stay permanently in Kanilai never to return to his native Cassamance until death stroke him…which we will come to later in this piece.
Junkung the father of dictator Jammeh had three wives, Fanta Colley, Asombie Bojang and Yassin, Ansumana Jammeh’s mum. However our investigations revealed that Asombie who gave us this dictator, never loved Jammeh’s father in the first place.
Our sources have told us that the dislike for the old Junkung was so strong that when Asombie discovered that she was an expectant mother, she insisted on aborting the pregnancy but was persuaded against the idea by her relatives.
The reluctant Asombie however kept the pregnancy but as soon as little Yaya (that’s what his name used to be spelled and not as in today’s Yahya) was three months old, Asombie left him in Kanilai with her co-wives never to have any bonds of motherly relations with the dictator again. Dictator Jammeh was brought up by Fanta Colley, Araba Jammeh’s mum, a ‘kanyileng’ and his mother’s co wife.
Since childhood, the dictator is said to miss what it takes for a motherly love. One source told us that this is one of the reasons why dictator Jammeh has always been bitter. “The guy has never had a kind of parental love from the beginning so it’s been hurting him from inside. It leads him to disrespect other people’s parents and he is never happy to see people working hard to bring up a happy family.”
Around 1976/77, Jammeh’s dad fell after he was trying to tie his goats and broke bones. He was taken to ”Kunjumore a village in Cassamance, where he later died. After his death, Jammeh and his family thought he was eaten by witches hence Jammeh’s obsession with witches.
Early signs of the dictator’s betrayal schemes leading to the killing of own relatives
It is now clear that dictator Jammeh’s dad was brought up by Bukari and Masanneh Jammeh. It happened Bukari Jammeh is the father of Harona and Masey Jammeh, a brother and a sister who both disappeared many years ago after they were picked up by Jammeh’s junglers and are believed to have been summarily executed following some family feud related to witchcraft.
Other members of the Jammeh family tree especially those who have shown tenderness and kindness to the young Yahya Jammeh have also equally been treated badly by the dictator. People like Ben Jammeh, former director of the National Drugs Enforcement Agency, David Colley, Director General of Prisons Services and many others have all suffered similar fates of betrayal by the dictator. Currently as we put this investigative piece together, dictator Jammeh has arrested his half-brother Ansumana for about a week now and he is being investigated on a mining related issue. It has been confirmed that Ansumana’s mother greatly contributed in the upbringing of the dictator when his mother abandoned him in the village.
Both of the dictator’s parents are from Cassamance.
Like his father, dictator Jammeh’s mother, Asombie Bojang is from the village of ‘Suelle’ in Cassamance confirming that both his parents came from Cassamance. Jammeh was however born in The Gambia in 1961/62 and NOT 65 as he claimed. He was in Bwiam when his father died. It was at Saint Edwards Primary school where he sat to his Common Entrance Examination since that was the only primary school that had a qualified teacher, John P Bojang whom the dictator appointed Minister of Trade after the 1994 coup. Jammeh sat to the common entrance examination with one Lebach Bojang and both had a ‘pass mark’ for high school.
Jammeh’s dad was only known as Junkung and his name was spelt as YAYA. Two of Jammeh’s brothers ‘Nyandor and Senen, a qualified teacher both died of cancer after they were said to have been diagnosed by The Medical Research Council in Banjul. Nyandor died in 1987 and Senen in 1993.
