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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
 Posted - 16 Nov 2006 : 22:45:39
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quote:
Originally posted by mbay
go and tell this to a Gambians who was living in Sierra Leon around 1974-76!
What happened in Sierraleone then? |
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mbay
Germany
1007 Posts |
Posted - 16 Nov 2006 : 23:01:20
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he went there and cheat our peoples so when they makes him trouble then as if it is enough go back around 1976 and try to over roll them to the sierra leon government i real don't want to talk about this too much if you know what i means.
but this man can never stand to my uncle or to gambians who know him well around that time and talk to them a face to face !
quote:
Originally posted by kondorong
What happened in Sierraleone then?
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Edited by - mbay on 16 Nov 2006 23:10:46 |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 17 Nov 2006 : 16:42:33
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quote:
Originally posted by kondorong
I will it here for now. I dont think it was sheriff who was the reason why PS Njie gave up politics. The two were in opposing camps and their ideas never converged and also because UP was mainly based in Banjul.
Rememeber elections were only held in Banjul and the Kombos. The protectorate only became enfranchised after 1961 if my memeory serves me right.
The first party was formed in 1951 by J.C. Fayea lmost 12 years before PPP. Representative Government was only in Banjul. Hence when the protectorate was opened up, and because UP never saw it coming, the Protectorate People's Party was born as a result of the anger of disenfranchisement of the people of the Protectorate. Because there were more peole in the protectorate, UP became gradually irrelevant as it appealed to the colony people rather than the whole country. It was a strategic mistake they never saw coming.
PS Njies father was a successful business man and his father's uncle Semu Joof was the last king of Saloum. This confirms my theory that Banjul is manily populated by people with origins in Saloum, St. Loius and Goree after 1816 and partly during the Colony of Senegambia when the British Governor was based in St. Loius. Banjul was not habited in 1816. Business men from Goree and St. Loius came with Captain Grant in 1816 to populate the town because then St. Loius and Goree were under British rule(Colony oF Senegambia).
Kondorong,
I have a different story about the PPP. My father was a strong UP supporter. He was also a good friend of Tamba Jammeh, Touray Sanyang, Landing Barabali Bojang, Cherno Bandeh and many other chiefs. The elections were only restricted to Banjul and Kombo St. Marys by the colonial masters. PPP came because of the difference between PS Njie and the British rule. PS Njie was said to be selling the Gambia to Senegal by the British rulere because of the cordial relationship he had with Wal Djojo Ndiayé of Senegal. It was the Crown that started the PPP . First it was Dr. Marenah they contacted but he was not intrested and refered them to DK Jawara at the vet camp. I remembered "" SIKO GAMBIA AT KAMPO TO". I was seen as the son of UPKEBBA. Do you fully remember the promise the PPP gave to the people in the countryside? Our house was chjosen by people we did not know. They said we were to move out because ppp has won the elections. The promise was if the party wins , all people of Banjul will move out and be replaced by people from the countryside. There were many chiefs who were still loyal to Per Sarr Njie up to the time of independance.
The only thing I have heard as a story was when PS Njie won his case at the Queens Council. He was a great man as we remembered him. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 17 Nov 2006 : 18:38:48
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quote:
Originally posted by AlhassanKondorong,
I have a different story about the PPP. My father was a strong UP supporter. He was also a good friend of Tamba Jammeh, Touray Sanyang, Landing Barabali Bojang, Cherno Bandeh and many other chiefs. The elections were only restricted to Banjul and Kombo St. Marys by the colonial masters. PPP came because of the difference between PS Njie and the British rule. PS Njie was said to be selling the Gambia to Senegal by the British rulere because of the cordial relationship he had with Wal Djojo Ndiayé of Senegal. It was the Crown that started the PPP . First it was Dr. Marenah they contacted but he was not intrested and refered them to DK Jawara at the vet camp. I remembered "" SIKO GAMBIA AT KAMPO TO". I was seen as the son of UPKEBBA. Do you fully remember the promise the PPP gave to the people in the countryside? Our house was chjosen by people we did not know. They said we were to move out because ppp has won the elections. The promise was if the party wins , all people of Banjul will move out and be replaced by people from the countryside. There were many chiefs who were still loyal to Per Sarr Njie up to the time of independance.
The only thing I have heard as a story was when PS Njie won his case at the Queens Council. He was a great man as we remembered him.
Points of correction.
1. Pierre Njie never won his case as far as I know. May be I am wrong or there were many cases. The case started before he became chief minister and by the time it was over, he was already head of Government (Chief Minister). The colonialist did not want to create any constitutional crisis by dragging the first African leader of a country to serve his term. I have a quotation from a colonial official about the case. So it was all propaganda. I now know why this book by Rice Berkley was banned in the Gambia. The statements of the colonial official can be found on page 337.
His firm the Njie Brothers was Patent and Trademark lawyers and worked on the Daimler Benz, Coca Cola and Planters Punch trademarks. As a compromise, Njie was disbarred from practicing law but saved his office as Chief Minister. In fact UP lost three of its MPs who left for the PPP and they were Janneh, Jones and Jagana. The two brothers Sheriff Aidara Njie and Ebrima Dawda Njie MP and also a one-time minister were doing most of the work of the firm.
Please check page 337 of this book for a confirmation. May be there was another case different from the one I was talking about. You will be surprised what you would find on page 338 on tribal issues. I am certainly not proud of our history from 1951 to 1970. It was the darkest hour of Gambian political evolution. I hope not to be reminded about this period.
2. The reason why the chiefs favored Mr. Njie was because with Independence, the chiefs role had to be curtailed under a republican status. During colonial rule, the principle was Indirect Rule introduced by Lord Luggard. This decline in their power was one reason why the Chiefs supported Njie not because of anything but to preserved their authority, which unfortunately even Njie could not guarantee. It was based on the old principle of my friend's enemy is my enemy.
3. The story that provincial people were to take over the whole of Banjul was a political ploy labeled against PPP. It was never a PPP strategy. In fact, there were graffiti on many walls in Banjul that read: D.K JAWARA GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY perhaps as a result of fear instilled in people of banjul to the "take-over" of their homes. Which country did Jawara come from other than Gambia. An angry opposition member who then thought the Protectorate was a different country may have written this. Such ignorance will lay on the doors of the colonial administration who saw no interest in educating her subjects.
4. PPP did win 28 seats and the opposition had 4 seats in parliament. So if the allegation that PPP was to ask the rural people to take your house, then they had a clear mandate to do that. Its not true. It was POLITIKI NAHATEH (politics by deceit). Halifa Sallah was right and this politics of deceit is still practiced today. Instilling fear to gain votes.
In fact in the 1966 elections PPP lost four seats in parliament but still had 24 seats whilst the opposition had 8. This was the only story of its kind in Africa where a sitting government has lost seats in an election. No Party ever managed to have a true and fair election even though we were the last to be independent on the west coast and for Africa except for Zimbabwe. The loss of four seats was still a clear outright majority and yet no house was taken in Banjul. This bad blood in politics is what delayed our Republican status for five years. Gambians were their own enemies.
4. In 1965, about half of MPs in the house have some form of criminal records or have been charged with conduct unbecoming of a memeber of the legislature or served some jail terms which disqualified them for public office. That is the reason why Gambia never had bankruptcy legislation because; it was practically going to close the house of Parliament as no bill would have passed because no quorum would have been achieved.
5. In the referendum that PPP lost was actually by all accounts not a serious loss. Of a total of 93,489 ballots cast, 61,568 voted yes for a Republic and only 31,921 voted against. The constitutional requirements then were a two third majority, which they lost by 1%. By the rules of engagement in 2006, this was a clear victory since the APRC party changed the constitution for a simple majority.
Its safe to say that PPP did not loose the referendum of 1966. The PPP party moved the resolution for a republican status, but actually it was gambia as a country that lost true independence. To say PPP lost the referendum is to believe that only the PPP wanted true independence whilst the rest wanted monarchical rule from Buckingham
Again another history was recorded in African politics by Gambia, being very recent into independence yet never "made up for the votes” as done by other countries. No challenge to the results ever found its way to the courts, a remarkable achievement that many international print media congratulated us for. We proofed to be the beacon of stability and good governance right from the start in post independence Africa. POLITIKI NAHATEH is what led to the confusions and some parties survived by pursuing this strategy. In the end every party joined the bandwagon just to get votes and clearly very few honest strategies were ever used. It was a question of if you cant defeat them join them.
NO PEOPLE IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD CHOOSE SUBJUGATION, DESTITUTE OVER INDEPENDENCE. THE REASON WHY THE REFERENDUM FAILED IN 1966, WAS BECAUSE OF SELFISH AND PERSONAL AGGRANDISEMENTS RATHER THAN NATIONAL INTEREST.
This reminds me of Youssou Ndour when he said: LEKO CHI NDABLI, NGELLAH BUCHI KOOPA SOOF. (If you think you are not eating or you have had enough, please don’t pour sand in the food and spoil it for others.) Gambian politics up to and after independence really took this attitude of, if not for me then not for anyone else.
But like Halifa Sallah said, when people begin to take charge of their destinies, no one can fool them. Halifa should have been in politics in 1951. What an opportunity we have missed to have Halifa , Sedia and Edward Francis Small in one party.
The only true Gambian force by 1962 and up to independence was M.E. Jalllow that you don’t hear in our political and social evolution. He defended the rights of the down trodden and engaged the police, Field force in riots in Banjul until troop re-enforcements had to be flown in from Sierra Leone.
There are many unsung heroes in the Gambia. But as long as I live, I have taken this role to help rewrite our history. Hopefully, I will go back to the classroom that I had always enjoyed.
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