All, below is the paper that Laye Saine presented in Detroit, Michigan, for
your consumption.


The Role of Education in the Gambian Diaspora and Its Potential Impact
in Restoring
Democracy and Economic Development in the Motherland
(Remarks on The Gambia’s 40th Independence Anniversary Celebration,
Detroit,
Michigan, USA, March 26, 2005)
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Good Evening:
Fellow Gambians, Friends of The Gambia, Ladies and gentleman. I have
been asked to
discuss with you briefly the role of education in a changing and
globalizing world
and its implications for The Gambia, but before I do, allow me, first,
to thank
Modou Jah, Modou Jatta, Ramou Ceesay-Gaye, specifically, and the
Gambian community
in Michigan for their kind invitation, and hospitality. My wife, Paula
and I are
honored and extremely delighted to be here and appreciate greatly the
opportunity to
be present at this celebration marking The Gambia’s independence from
Britain on
February 18, 1965. Secondly, allow me to thank Gambians in Michigan on
behalf of
all Gambians at home for the generous financial support you render your
families and
loved ones in The Gambia and elsewhere. This is support often times
rendered under
challenging financial and economic circumstances. It is a sacrifice
that our
families and all Gambians appreciate. In the aftermath of the groundnut
industry’s
collapse and mounting inflation, Gambians by and large depend on
remittances from
abroad. In fact, The Gambia Central Bank estimates that Gambians
abroad, who number
from 70,000 to 80,000, send home approximately $25 million annually.
This official
figure, however, does not include remittances conducted through
unofficial and
informal channels. In fact, the total unofficial cash flow from
Gambians abroad to
The Gambia could be as high as $50 million a year. If Gambians abroad
were to stop
sending money to their families for a few months, the APRC regime could
not survive
politically, perhaps economically for long. It is also estimated that
75 to 80
percent of pilgrims to the annual Hajj in Mecca are sponsored by
Gambians abroad.
The Gambia and your families love and appreciate you for all that you
do.

By setting aside this evening to celebrate forty years since the end of
British
colonial rule in The Gambia, you also help celebrate The Gambia’s rich
and diverse
cultural heritage maintain, sustain, and at the same time renew the
ties that bind
all Gambians in the Diaspora to this tiny but beautiful country, and
its peoples.
In celebrating The Gambia, and its peoples you recognize, and highlight
the
significance and contributions of The Gambia to a world of economic
interconnectedness and interrelated cultures. In setting aside this
evening to
celebrate The Gambia, Gambians in Michigan showcase to the larger
community, The
Gambia in all its beauty, majesty and, yes, its contradictions. And
contrary to the
presumption that globalization has the inevitable effect of undermining
many
non-Western cultures, this evening in Detroit, Michigan reaffirms the
historic
resilience and changing nature of Gambian culture and its peoples.

This enduring, yet changing nature of Gambian culture in particular,
has to do in
part, with The Gambia’s geographic and cultural location, which lies at
the
confluence of three major cultural civilizations- African, Islamic, and
European.
These civilizations have together shaped and continue to shape Gambian
culture.
Thus, ours is a mixed one with the African and Islamic strands being
the most
dominant. In other words, we live in a world where cultures are not
static but
open, and permeable. Trade, technology, information, travel, and ideas
such as
democracy and human rights integrate the world. And while we are all
aware of the
potential negative effects of globalization, as Gambians in the
Diaspora, we must
position ourselves and likewise embrace the opportunities that
globalization offers
rather than retreat from them.
An assured way to position and harness the opportunities that
globalization affords
us is to acquire a good education for ourselves and our children. A
good education
is no longer a luxury reserved for the wealthy- it is a necessity for
upward
mobility in the U.S. and all other societies for that matter in this
age of
globalization. Yet by education, I do not mean formal education alone.
Living in a
post-industrial democracy such as the U.S.A. gives us the opportunity
to participate
both formally and informally in a democratic society. I, therefore,
commend my
Gambian brothers and sisters who work at factories, gas stations,
restaurants as
bus-boys, hotels as maids, and nursing and private homes as nurse’s
assistants,
because in their stay in the U.S.A., these Gambians have developed or
are developing
valuable skills and a strong work and service ethic that could greatly
benefit The
Gambia in the future. I applaud you, and likewise, encourage you to
enroll in
school. Enrolling in school would, however, require making difficult
choices, but
choices well worth it in the end. I also applaud and encourage
Gambians already in
school to pursue their educational goals to the highest degree. Though
sometimes
difficult, it is ultimately a very rewarding path. Most importantly, I
also
encourage our mature women folk, younger women and girls to be
especially relentless
in pursuing an education because as the saying goes, “when you educate
a man, you
educate a person, and when you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”
All Gambians
in the Diaspora and especially those that live in the U.S. Europe and
other
democratic societies must continue to develop and embrace the
democratic values of
debate and tolerance of different points of view. We must also learn
to disagree
without being necessarily disagreeable. These are democratic values we
will all
need to rebuild once many return to The Gambia.
However, education just for the sake of education or education without
social
responsibility has little or no redeeming value. Therefore, we must be
humbled by
our education to enable us to use it for the improvement not only of
ourselves and
our families, but our communities, our country of origin and humanity
as a whole.
This also means that as sojourners we must remain engaged in the
societies we live
in as well as in The Gambia. Gambians abroad and those in the great
state of
Michigan in particular, are engaged in all kinds of fruitful ventures
to improve
themselves, Michigan, the U.S.A., and The Gambia. In particular, your
effort to
raise funds to help in purchasing a community center to empower the
Gambian
community and others is admirable. Also, in Atlanta, Georgia and other
states in
this great union, Europe and elsewhere, Gambians are contributing
needed funds to a
non-profit, tax-exempt, non-governmental international organization to
support the
restoration of democracy and the rule of law in The Gambia. This
organization is
none other than “Save The Gambia Democracy Project.” Please contribute
generously
to this worthy cause through Jim Gaye who is the coordinator of Save
The Gambia
Democracy Project in Michigan. For those of a different political
persuasion,
Atlanta is also home to a pro-APRC organization. Support them
generously as well,
even if I personally disagree with them and the APRC regime they
support. This is
all part of building a future democratic culture based on tolerance for
political
difference. Because in the end, the education and other skills that we
have or hope
to acquire in the U.S. and other countries would be of little use if
The Gambia
continues to be ruled by a military dictatorship under a democratic
veneer where the
human rights of Gambians are consistently violated.

As the Burmese political activist, and Nobel laureate, Aug San Suu Kyi
argued so
eloquently, “the national culture can become a bizarre graft of
carefully selected
and distorted social values intended to justify the politics and
actions of those in
power.” This is the state of affairs in our homeland as we speak. To
avoid this,
Aug San Suu Kyi contends that it is possible to conceive of rights
“which place
human worth above power and liberation over control.” I urge all of
you to get
engaged in the current political discourse in The Gambia, engage others
in debate
and discussion over modalities of establishing a true democracy in The
Gambia in
order to end military tyranny.

This evening’s celebration of The Gambia’s 40th independence
anniversary in Detroit,
Michigan is reaffirmation that this tiny country whose viability at
independence
forty years ago was in question has survived in spite of the odds. Yet
survival
alone is not enough. We must, together, rebuild a country in which we,
as well as
future generations of Gambians can take pride in and be inspired to
serve. That we
in the U.S.A. and Michigan, specifically, joining hands with women and
men in The
Gambia must work toward a day when true freedom and democracy reign in
our
motherland. Too much is at risk when we are indifferent and/ or
complacent to what
is going on in The Gambia.

In conclusion, I commend the Gambian community of Michigan, their
friends, and
neighbors and implore you to work together in gaining good educational
and technical
skills for the restoration of democracy and the reconstruction of our
beloved
country which lies ahead. After a decade of misrule, corruption and
countless
deaths, the task is indeed a daunting one. The point is that all of us
count- by
voting, writing and/ or signing petitions, demonstrating, joining
issue-oriented
groups, donating money, and if possible our time to the party of your
choice. The
reality is that few individual actions are dramatic, and by themselves
few
significantly would change politics in The Gambia, but the sum of many
small actions
can and does make a difference. Do not consider politics a spectator
sport. It is
more important than that. It is not too presumptuous to argue,
therefore, that we
have arrived at a crucial crossroads in the paths by which we organize
and conduct
politics in The Gambia. Contemplation of that junction brings to mind
Robert Frost
and his famous poem, The Road not Taken. It is time to take that
political path.
Finally, I wish to share with you words of the late Senator Benjamin
Hill Jr. who
said: “Who saves his country saves himself, saves all things, and all
things saved
do bless him. Who lets his country die, lets all things die, dies
himself ignobly,
and all things dying curse him. (1893).

In closing allow me to bring to your attention a newly published book I
co-authored
with two colleagues called Not Yet Democracy: West Africa’s Slow
Farewell to
Authoritarianism. Should you be interested in looking at it, please
talk to me
after my remarks.

Publisher: Carolina Academic Press, (700 Kent Street, Durham, NC
27701);
www.cap-press.com; Email:[log in to unmask]; Tel: 919-489-7486.

Thank you.
Abdoulaye Saine
Oxford, OH 45056
USA

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