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Momodou
Denmark
11744 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 10:32:32
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THE DEBATE ON TRIBE AND POLITICAL OUTCOMES IN THE GAMBIA
Foroyaa Editorial: Published on Thursday, 24 October 2013
THE FETISHISM OF ETHNO-LINGISTIC ORIGIN
It is strange that after five decades of Nationhood, Africans in their various countries are still making reference to tribe in determining National political outcomes. The Office of the President is occupied by one person who does not share his or her income with members of his ethno- linguistic origin. In the Gambia, the offices of Ministers are 18 in number. Those who occupy it do not share their income with members of their ethno-linguistic origin. The position of Permanent Secretaries and Directors could be counted. Hence the top bureaucrats constitute a miniscule of the population. The vast Majority of people, irrespective of ethno-linguistic origins, depend not on Government posts to survive.
Those people depend on agricultural, industrial and service sector policies to be able to live middle income lives. No ethno-linguistic group has secrets of how to limit development in agriculture, industry and the services to its own kind. Hence, if Africa is to move forward, we must move from the level of an ethno linguistic sense of belonging to a National sense of belonging to a Country; and International sense of belonging to a world. We need to build the sovereign community of sovereign citizens that transcends ethno-linguistic, religious, cast and gender barriers that all could call a homeland where each receives what one merits without any discrimination. There is no doubt that the Gambian state is larger than any single ethno-linguistic group within it. Hence, belonging to a Country goes with more grandeur than belonging to a tribe.
This, however, could only be if the country provides protection to the integrity, self worth and welfare of each. Any country that cannot provide this to each must disintegrate into antagonistic factions that may perpetrate genocide against each other. As we shape a new era in AFRICA, the young should be taught from childhood to learn to speak all the languages found in a given country as each moves towards a National language so as to preserve all our cultural treasures, one of which is language.
Nothing is more sophisticated than language. Furthermore, the young must be told that there is no ethno- linguistic pass port, taxation system, Central Bank, treasury, budget, health system, education system, road and transport network, tourism sector and so on and so forth. In delivering or receiving services, one does not receive or give them to one’s own ethno-linguistic group.
Hence, ethno linguistic origin is like a cultural dress that one puts on for identification purposes and which could be put on and off depending on what is favourable at each given stage. Let us call on those who occupy the positions of National responsibility and service, in particular, and all citizens, in general, to defend the integrity, dignity, self worth and welfare of people belonging to diverse groups in order to unite our diverse people to prove our nationhood. Only those who are free from sectionalist sentiments are fit to unite and lead a nation as one people.
Source: Foroyaa Editorial
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 14:09:13
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"THE FETISHISM OF ETHNO-LINGISTIC ORIGIN"
Errrrrrrrrr Right ?..........this is NOT the sort of Language to use when trying to relate to the average person,the whole article is formed like a lecture which would be given to a gathering of eminent academic professors each of whome has studied for many years and is an expert on the topic, this is an article in a newspaper. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 24 Oct 2013 14:11:10 |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2013 : 11:36:37
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Toubab 1020. YOU GOT A POINT AND I AGREE WITH YOUR OBSERVATION POINTED OUT  |
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2013 : 12:55:19
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I can get something right sometimes then !
Thanks. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 25 Oct 2013 12:55:54 |
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Momodou
Denmark
11744 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 13:41:10
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The term "Ethno-lingistic" makes the subject very confusing. Language groups I believe is more suitable. |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 16:47:27
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Exactly,clear and simple  and understood by the average person
quote:
Originally posted by Momodou
The term "Ethno-lingistic" makes the subject very confusing. Language groups I believe is more suitable.
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 26 Oct 2013 16:48:15 |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2013 : 15:53:20
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Thanks, Momodou
I prefer "language groups" as a perspective; hence, it encourages us to seek deeper connections in our understanding and descriptions. Whiles words like ethnicity, tribe (which I use at times) limit our scope of understanding the depth of the relationship between language groups. Because, they are new words coined at a very later part of our history. They leave out everything that happened hundreds of years before the invention of the terms; they do not have the capacity to explore the complexity of our society.
However, ETHNO-LINGISTIC ORIGIN is even more distancing; sounds more like “logic theory” than a reference to our language groups, and do not explain our condition but complicate it. Especially the term ORIGIN, reminds one of the Darwinian “origins of the species” and all it entails.
Secondly, the editorial implies that people who speak different languages have different cultures a generalization that is barely applicable to the Gambian case. Where we are culturally identical and share the same cultural values not only due to the lengthy coexistence but have intermarried since time immemorial.
Who is a pure blood of this or that language group, what are the criterions that qualifies or disqualifies membership in a language group?
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
Edited by - Janko on 27 Oct 2013 16:13:17 |
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2013 : 16:13:57
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Janko,
Very deep, why on earth can you not write something clear and understandable like this:
I totally disagree with your view that, "Language groups I believe is more suitable."
You are obviously free to communicate in which ever way you wish,if your aim is to communicate your thoughts and opinions to as many people as you can then surely those people must be able to understand the words that you use.?
Could it be that you do not think that "clear and simple language" is a form of communication that should be used by politicians who IN MY OPINION thrive on convoluted, confusing and unnecessary wordy language to communicate when they; write articles for publication in the media,answer questions,make polices,statements,or speeches?
You have written:
"Whiles words like ethnicity, tribe (which I use at times) limit our scope of understanding the depth of the relationship between language groups. Because, they are new words coined at a very later part of our history. They leave out everything that happened hundreds of years before the invention of the terms; they do not have the capacity to explore the complexity of our society."
The date,1765 is modern?
<a href=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnicity /> |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 27 Oct 2013 16:27:47 |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2013 : 16:29:59
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toubab, thanks,
I agree with your "clear and simple language" thing.
I will do my best to be clear and simple next time.
The Enlightenment, was not a Gambian project nor could it explain the Gambian condition better than the languages in the Gambia
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2013 : 18:07:46
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Thanks Janko,I hope I did not offend you with my opinion,that was not my intention,however something that I did not consider was that English although the official language of the Gambia is not the mother tongue of Gambians,therefore meanings of words are unclear something ( you can express feelings by words,those perhaps are not translatable) when translated from one language to another,for that I apoligise,sorry.
Maybe that is why so many politicians use so many words that are interpreted by a native English speaker to be unnecessary and cumbersome.
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 27 Oct 2013 18:10:13 |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 30 Oct 2013 : 09:14:39
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toubab,
why should I be offended, I am not.
I would be more than happy to explain the part of my text you did not understand. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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