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Nyancho
Switzerland
22 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Dec 2005 : 22:28:50
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It is by now clear to all and sundry that the APRC government are the least worried by the daily hardship of the people.Since the last few years,due to bad economic policies and poor financial management,life has become for the majority of gambians, unbearable.At Yahyas coup dètat,price of rice(our staple food)was almost D200(now D5-600),today even bonga along with all other commodities have simply become a luxury.While civil servants have enjoyed probably less than 20% payrise over the years,cost of transportation,schoolfees,medication,housing,are all heading towards Yahyas "sky is the limit".One would think there ends the suffering,no, thats just the tip of the iceberg lest we forget about the exploitive nature of GAMTEL and NAWEC.These two parastatals were from the inception of the coup till now,the milking tools for Yahyas government.Gamtel however is a bit better than Nawec for it atleast tries to offer something for the costly services they charge its consumers.Nawec on the other hand is rendering zero services to the public while at the end of the day,customers are served unbearable bills.Nawecs performance shouldn`t doubt anyone,the man himself is overseeing it.Just read that petrol has also been increased by D3 per litre,well sad as it all sound,gambians seemed not to be galvanised,I can`t say whether out of MASLAHAH or SUBMISSION.
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Amna
Gambia
76 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 07:34:14
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| Dear Brother, lately the cyber bantaba is filled with only sad and discouraging news from home. Almost all Gambians and even the so called APRC, except the "ju kensengs" [san culottes] are dispairing. Everywhere, there are mutterings and complaints about the bleakness of the situation and a sense of impending doom unless something changes and something will change. The Junkung government failed from day 1. He has lied, deceived, cheated, betrayed everyone and destroyed every insitition and dirtied and sullied our society. Junkung has defamed Islam, disabused Christianity and corrupted even the traditional religious practices. This person is the worst of all people, a hypocrite. He has given the Jola people a bad name and nowhere in The Gambia, have our people been more oppressed, abused, used, disrespected and had their human and civil rights been more abused than Kanilai, Bwiam and the Fonis. I fervently believe that there are no other people who have suffered more under Junkung than his own ethnic group, who he has repeatedly abused, he takes for granted and have been reduced to serfs and clowns for the entertainment of this upstart from Kanilai. Junkung suffers a perennial inferiority complex and is inflicting in his mind "revenge" of people who he believes in his mind think that "they are better than him" - all in his mind. But it is his words, deeds and actions that have made him the inferior person that he is. But the end is nigh. All the people who rightly or wrongly supported the July 22 putsch now regret it. Except the Bala Gayes, Saul Mboobs and the recent "join the bandwagon", it is apparent that July 22 was a tragedy for the Gambia. An old man friend of mine once told me " you know a person can make a mistake, for example kill someone in anger, a compound can make a mistake, say, attack a neighbour and say kill him" and he said " and so can a country". He concluded that July 22 was The Gambia's mistake, but it will pass. I have no doubts that if we all keep up the pressure, the next elections will be held to standard and Junkung will lose as I believe he lost and stole all the elections since 1996. Noone has been immune from Junkung's treachery from the young men betrayed and murdered on Nov 11 1994, to Abdoulie Kujabi, 13 Badgie, Samba Bah, Fafa Mbye, Tilewa Johnson and Gabby Roberts, all used and rubbished. So my advice as always is "not to despair". Yaya is neither god nor superman, just a sick b*stard whose day is coming. And The Gambia will survive him, like Central Africa -Bokassa, Liberia - Doe and Taylor, Nigeria - Abacha or Iraq - Saddam Hussein. Junkung will also be history too, sooner by God's Grace rather than later. |
Amna |
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Nyancho
Switzerland
22 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 11:28:24
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| How true your assertion that nothing significant has changed for the JOLAS under Yahya,instead their situation as you said has been reduced to been an entity for entertainment.Having lived at the time of the coup in a community where there were more jola watchmen and maids living and working under deplorable and hostile conditions,i thought Yahya would have put up certain legislations to protect the rights and dignities of his kin,but knowing the man as he today is,i believe he cares less about what any gambian for that matter is going through. |
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Amna
Gambia
76 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 13:18:32
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| My brother Nyancho, some four or so years ago, I met an elder Jola friend of mine, from our old days of trekking, he recognized me and it took me a while to recongnize him. After extended greetings, we started chatting and I teased him about the Jola Mansa..it is an old joke that all Jola men are mansas..[rooted in the fact that Jola community/society is one of the most egalitarian in the world with men and women enjoying apparent equal rights - even the now frowned upon FUTAMPAFU where men and women had equal right and access to partner with anyone of their choice, highly un-islamic or unchristian but reflective of great sexual freedom compared to then European, Arab or Asian cultures where women were considered chattel, property], any I digress, he shook his head sadly and answered me by my last name "--------, while this Nation is crying, we the Jola have died, this solima has reduced us to nothing, our wives, daughters and sisters are his dancers, prostitutes for his soldiers and if anyone protests, his thugs of soldiers arrest and beat the hell out of you". This, he told me in late 2000 early 2001, today, events in Bwiam, Dobong have revealed the truth. NIA actions, Junkungs' guards actions in the Foni's are unrivalled and unparalleled anywhere in the Gambia or our history. His futampafus are orgies of sex and wanton waste. This solima is accursed, cursed by all, his own and others. He lives in his devil inspired world of animal and rumoured human sacrifice, haunted, despised and feared [by those around him] including his Vice and Ministers. Junkung's fetihism have led to a belief that he has supernatural powers, but it is nothing but the illusive power of evil and the devil. Inshallah, by God's Grace, the end for this monster is nigh. An Amerigo Liberian friend of mine, related to one of Charles Taylor's ex wives, Ms Jewel Taylor, told me that the marriage was mostly Taylor getting anything or anyone he wanted, they lived separately after Jewel discovered Taylor bathing in blood, believed to be of a virgin. Junkung joined this bandwagon and I dont put anything beyond him. I am an old man and have experienced and seen things that defy logic or commonsense. I know that evil exists and has its practitioners just like good, I also know that ultimately good will triump but only if good people rise up. I urge all to be wary of the evil of Junkung, and pray always in addition to all our other efforts for Almighty God to Guide, Protect and Bless our nation. Taylor will end up in jail for the rest of his life, he is already a crazed tormented soul just like Foday Sankoh before him and similarly will Junkung end, by God's Grace. Death will be a mercy. Peace |
Amna |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 14:45:10
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I am interested to know why the Jola philosophy on life is different to Mandinka or Wolof. Who are the 'best' muslims???
I have been told by Jola men that their women arent faithful. Is that true? Why?
I am English and the English IDEAL is monogomy and faithfulness. Thou we often fail to achieve this, it is what most people want. A partner for life.
Inflationary prices in Gambian are making life hard for ordinary Gambians. Alot of tourists believe in a low wage economy then prices will be cheap too. But rice in Gambia is expensive compared to average wages. Petrol is going up too. Wages need to rise in line with these increases. |
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sidat49@hotmail.com
Gambia
1 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 15:17:50
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Bev i have now understanding it you say YAHYA SQUEEZING GAMBIAN DRY.that is a very important topic.
Because we the gambian we don't know where we are heading to if we know it we will start to fight our right and our need but u can do that when u say your views the next minutes u will see N.I.A vechicle stand and wait for u is that democracy bev?
Demecoracy means people government and without those people can u be elected as a president so we have to get up and fight for our right in a simple way without and violence   |
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somita
United Kingdom
163 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 16:55:13
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The poor jola man ....
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mostly half literate,
mostly farmers or market women,
a symbol of poverty in Gambia.
their children go to the most run down school,
where there is any or madrasas,
if they can ever be called schools.
often they leave school without a qualification,
if a girl end up working as a maid,
if lucky marries at 17yr
if a boy, end up working as security guard
and marry at 20yr (slight improvement)
those that can read end up in the police
and those that struck gold end up in the army
they are loyal supporter and worshiper of masters
that including high class jolas
they are extremely loyal,
a trophy often associated with poverty
they are often betrayed by the people they worship
but certainly god will not betray them only if they worship him
The jola man ... the man loyal
to the murderer of his own son.
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Nyancho
Switzerland
22 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2005 : 22:24:02
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| SOMITA,not only did your prose depitch the hard fact Jolas find themselves in,i must also admit that SOMITA(Jarra and Kombo) awakes in me some kind of nostalgia running back to more than a decade.Beautiful place and wonderful people,hope to visit there again once am in gambia. |
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Amna
Gambia
76 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2005 : 09:18:48
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| Somita, I really am not too keen on your poem on the Jola man. It is stereotypical and like all stereotypes including this statement, wrong. Anyway, the Jola whose name is AJAMATAU or Fellop or FLOUP are only found [based on language] in lower bank of The River Gambia [Foni, Southern Senegal -Casamance and parts of Guinea Bissau]. Physically, they are of negroid stock, close to the Bete of Ivory Coast. Historically, they seem to be the original inhabitants of the said areas as history records the arrival of Mandinkas, Fulas and others like the Sarahule from the Mali Songhay empires, the Serers, Toucolors, Wollof and Jahanka seem to associated to the Fulbe/Fulas liguistically and probably are the offshoot of the Ethiopic/Nilotic Fulbe mixing with other peoples, hence the "KAL or JOKING RELATIONS" betweem them. Now asking who is more Islamic among the Fula, Mandinka and Jola is not a very good question [Am sorry to say] in my opinion. 1/ Islam is an alien religion like Christianity and from a different culture. As it spread and passed on, some of the Arab cultural prejudices were also passed on and some of the indigenous cultures adapted and adopted within the Islamic framework. Historically, in West Africa, the Fula brought or spread Islam mostly peacefully but at times violently [through Jihad and War]. 2] The Manding people upon becoming Muslim also used the cover of Islam to spread their empire, the Manding are called a Hamitic people racially, but the main occupation seemed to be trading, admistration and war before farming hence the name Dyula or JULA for Mandings which literally means trader. The Manding upon conquering and dominating the FELLOP in the Senegambia region gave them the name "JOLA"..which means payer or one who pays. The JOLA were renowned for hard work and honesty and ease of living, spontaneous and easily given to song and dance, just a purely African and happy people and the least materially driven. Even though a Muslim, I have immense love and regard for JOLAs and their historical society as probably more typically African. 3] As times, cultures, societies impact and evolve, they change and today, our society's are an amalgamation of 3 historical cultures, indegene African, Western and Islamic/Arabicized. Hence, our inherent African values of openness, equality and kindness, individual freedom with high social responsibility, our Western values of individuality, system of governance and education including materialism and thirdly for those of us who are Muslim, Islamic religion marked by belief in pre-destination, Oneness of God, strict control of sexual freedom and sexes [an Arabic/Asian feature of Islam]. Now different peoples, ethnic groups and in different times have synthesized these three civilizations and ways of life differently and the resulting mix varies from individuals, to societies, tribes, nations et cetera. There is one Imam Gibril Badgie, a Jola in Talinding who professes and propagates a strict Wahabi form of Islam and is highly critical of the Jolas for their dancing and futampafus while the dominant tariqa of tijanniya in Senegambia has been largely tolerant and tends to overlook the cultural practices of the people while appealing and teaching Islam and the Quran. I believe more in the latter appproach than the hell and brimstone, God WILL BURN AND PUNISH you approach for I believe that ultimately GOD SEES AND JUDGES OUR HEARTS and its CLEANLINESS OR LACK OF EVIL OR MALICE and largely the JOLA were never a MALICIOUS people. Of course, times and people change and our current Western Capitalist system is no respecter of persons and only recognizes MATERIAL value, promotes 'Dog eat Dog" and "get rich anyway you can". This culture from the Western is at odds with historical African values of ease of life and living as is the Arab/Islamic anti-sex, male chauvinist and male oriented culture to our open, free sexual and equality of sexes African female centered [matriachal] societies [historically]. Sorry for long answer but these are/were never easy questions as it goes to the core of the value systems and we modern Africans have 3 distinct value systems which we try to synthesize. Prof Ali Mazrui wrote a great treatise on this in the 1980s called the New African and in fact, my psuedonym AMNA derives from Ali Mazrui's New African, which talks about how the African is trying or has been able to internalize and synthesize these three heritages. Peace |
Amna |
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Amna
Gambia
76 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2005 : 09:46:09
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| Gambia Bev, I am sorry if I have failed to answer your question directly as I try to respiond across the board. On economics of The Gambia and the third world in particular, I have written a lot on what I call our legacy systems. In Management Information Systems, we define a Legacy System as one built on an existing one, a fine example is flow of information in an office, before hand written memos gave way to typed memos, hand to type writers then word processors and now computers. The memo is the same, only the mode of transfer has changed. Blue tooth technology and mobiles are now replacing the computer as the mode of sending a memo/reminder. Similarly, our economies are unreal, they derive from what I call the "slave mercantilist" model, where from humans being trapped and sold as slaves /chattel, then our raw produce and labour as cheap sources of resource for the colonial masters and now self governing units of the same sources of cheap labour and resource. The worst thing in our economies is called the monoculture introduced at the abolition and prohibition of slavery. Groundnuts was introduced to The Gambia and Senegal, Cocoa to Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire and Coffee to say Ethiopia. In very similar conditions as pertained in the cotton and sugar slave plantations in the American South and Caribbean, these crops were produced for the colonial master markets and almost 170 years after the abolition of slavery and 50 years of so called Independence, we continue to produce goods we dont need for a market that increasingly does not need it but it takes too much planning, courage to break the bond, like a drug addict and his drugs. The Gambia continues to try to grow grndnuts for a market that does not need it, groundnuts is environmentally unfriendly and unsuited for our sahel savannah where the few trees have to be cut for the cultivation of groundnuts. Same as Ethiopia where deforestation and loss of top soil is catalyzed by coffee cultivation increasing the harsh ness of the cycles of droughts and floods that they are historically known for. So The Gambia had its best economic performance in 1967 when low population, good harvest and bumper price of groundnuts and low oil prices coupled with low industrialization [very little power generation limited to urban centres, few roads, fewer cars] gave rise to a budget surplus. By 1974, drought, OPEC oil shocks, Western market hardening, poor produce, expansion of industrial base all together started the budget deficits and gave a start to loans to balance consumption. Today, all the external factors are negative, a mellow system of governance with little understanding/appreciation of the legacy system and how to break it has given in to a brutal dictator with even less respect and appreciation for intellect or economics and the poverty cylces continues and accelerates. THIS GOVT DOES NOT EVEN HAVE THE MINIMUM CAPACITY TO READ, REFLECT AND CORRECT THE SITUATION. At the best of times, changing fundamentally a legacy system is difficult and at the worst of times as in The Gambia, IMPOSSIBLE. Gambia Bev, too often I have been accused of racism or harking back to history to give excuses but I am not, I always say unless we understand fully the problem and diagnose it properly, it cannot be cured. You did not enslave, colonize, rape or pillage my people, nor have I been enslaved [I was colonized] but not the others. Yet, both of us inherited systems and I have reason to want to change the system and I believe it is not your desire to exploit me [and the system is built on exploitation] so you are have a desire to correct that system. I hope you understand me in that context. Sorry for assuming that you will misunderstand and I appreciate your time. Peace |
Amna |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2005 : 09:56:25
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| I agree. It is VERYcomplex and we need to try to understand History in order to move forward and not make the same mistakes. |
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somita
United Kingdom
163 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2005 : 11:57:09
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AMNA, I admire your mastering of Gambians history but with all due respect i dont think you understood my poem. Well firstly i am not a poet and dont claim to be one, it was just one of those things that pops up in ones mind and i feel oblige to share it with the forum. Its of course open to different interpretation like other poems in history because of its provocative nature and deliberate myopicness, but init there is facts, undisputeable facts that can stand the test of the courts.
Isnt it true that lot of people in Gambia today see Jolas through the prism of Jammeh and a couple of few high class Jola's mentioned in my poem? Isnt it true that most Jolas still live in object poverty like the rest of other Gambians? its it true that most jola's scramble for the basic of live like most ordinary Gambians?
Firstly I can claim to be Jola, so I dont have any reason to sterotype myself. Infact reading throught your piece, I am surprise that you did not counter my "insertions" at any point. I agree that most of those statements could apply to average Gambian family but its very typical of jolas, which makes sterotypical but true. Lets put political correctness in a leaking ship to America for a moment and be pacifist and realistic.
I know from personal experiences that the Jola's currently situation is partly their own making, they one batch of people that reluctant to evolve with time. In away this good, they are able to keep the family, cultural and traditional value, but like other floating values in the world, like so call democracy, one has to evolve into them to be accepted, its shame but true. The Jola's are stuck in history. I'm not saying they should embrace Islam or Christian or any other religion but rather the common element in all regilion, infact i would love them to reject them outright.
Now that the leaking ship of political correctness is recovered, shall i say Merry Christmas to you all. Until then folks enjoy whatever you are doing. |
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Amna
Gambia
76 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2005 : 13:43:45
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| My brother, thanks for response and compliments and I honestly appreciate the candour. Your poem is actually not to bad, a bit of a satire but our Jola cousins have had a terrible recent history. We the Mandinkas and Fulas dealt them a bad card, forcible conquest and conversion, gave them Mandinka names, mandinkanized them, then after colonialism, made them second class citizens and servant class until recently when the term JOLA was synonymous with "MAID". Most urban Gambians would say "JOLA" when they meant "MIDAN" or MAID. Then came AJJ, the evil destroyer to destroy the last vestiges of love and respect we held for them. Over the last 10 years I have argued why Jolas had right to feel some ethnic pride in Junkung just as most Black and African people felt the stirring of pride in Muhammad Ali or Mandela. A downtrodden people always try to find heros and role models. Sadly Junkung not only deceived them, used them and let them down but almost managed to alienate all other Gambians from them. Their nobility, implicit trust and simplicity [and almost complete indifference to material gain] because naivete and stupidity. But thank God for Shyngle Nyassi who fought, campaigned and suffered more than any one else under Junkung, a full blood Jola, the Ajamatau people of The Gambia have the right to hold their heads high. Poverty is the worst human affliction, it strips one of dignity, honor and respect and lastly of your humanity. The biggest whores are our so called educated elite who sing Junkung's praises, dance for him and help him loot, govern and hold our nation in thralldom. They are the ones deserving of scorn. Anyway, I thank you all for the discourse and the opportunity to share. I salute you all and bid you peace and a Blessed Christmas to our Christian brothers and sisters. |
Amna |
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