Alpha,

Pls fwd my reply to the List. Thanks.

Saul


>From: alpha <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Closing the Saul Khan chapter
>Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 23:50:36 +0100
>
>Gambia-L,
>
>I sent Saul Khan's message to the list so that people can scrutinise it.
>I was particularly interested in knowing whether there were others on
>the list who felt the same as Saul. Indeed people on this list have
>demonstrated that they can distinguish between what is genuine and what
>is not.
>
>If Saul had simply written to say that Gambian society is not
>homogeneous and raise issues which can potentially divide us, he could
>have started an interesting debate which could have stimulated us to
>discuss along those lines with a view to map a way to contribute towards
>abating such negative influences. Unfortunately Saul did not do that.
>Instead, he started by asking me a question and even without hearing my
>answer he went on to conclude that I was directly referring to the UDP
>group, as he calls it, and in particular Ousainou Darboe. How he arrived
>at this conclusion is still a mystery to me. What suggested that I was
>only referring to one group is still not clear to me, since I wrote in
>black and white that "ANY ACTION BY ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE, BE THEY A
>POLITICAL GROUPING OR NOT, BE THEY THE PARTY RULING THE COUNTRY OR NOT,
>SHOULD BE UNANIMOUSLY CONDEMNED WITH A UNITED UNCOMPROMISING VOICE." But
>Saul even went further to accuse me of holding all Madinkas responsible
>for ethnic bias or "tribalism".
>
>When people who are somewhat different, by virtue of belief, ethnic
>difference, colour, caste, rural/urban origin etc. come together there
>is a tendency for those who "belong" together to come closer. However,
>past experiences have shown that under certain circumstances like
>economic hardship, unclear political atmosphere etc. elements from one
>group or the other do sometimes exploit these differences to instil
>uncertainty, fear, or hatred in their kind and push them to feel that
>they have to act as a group against the other group or groups, even
>where the actual problem lies elsewhere.
>
>The issues which can potentially divide us are not only restricted to
>ethnicity. Until recently people from one caste could hardly marry into
>another cast, even today this problem has not completely disappeared.
>How many marriages have failed to take place because the family of one
>party considered the other party to be from a poor background? How many
>marriages were foiled by religious differences? So even the ethnic
>groups are not homogeneous.
>
>So no one is denying that there are things which can potentially divide
>us and ethnicity is one of them. In fact it is in recognition of this
>fact that I proposed that we should promote an agenda of National unity.
>Why did I not mention race; black and white for example? That would have
>been absurd because black and white is hardly an issue in The Gambia.
>But because Gambia is composed of different ethnic groups and because
>there are signs of people trying to use this to achieve personal gains,
>I thought we should be concerned. Saying nothing about it, not raising
>any concerns at all would have actually constituted sweeping things
>under the carpet.
>
>Saul challenged me to name the people who "..were campaigning on
>ethnicity in 1996? And more importantly, what ethnic group are they
>saying should/must rule the Gambia?".The reason why I did not answer
>these questions is that they bear no relevance to the matter in hand. I
>tried as much as I could not to be personal in my mail. I did not see
>the need to be personal. The point I wanted to make was driven home and
>that was my only intention at this juncture. When the time comes to name
>names, names will be named without fear or favour. The simple point here
>was that people who want to represent the Gambian people, people who
>will, before assuming office, swear to defend the laws of the Gambia and
>serve the Gambian people cannot use ethnicity or any other divisive vice
>to assume power. Not only will that divide us, it contradicts the
>supreme laws of the Gambia, according to which any Gambian can assume
>any public office to serve the interests of all Gambians. This in my
>opinion is counterproductive and does not contribute to providing
>enlightenment, rice and peace to our people.
>
>Extrapolating beyond the imaginable Saul wrote "So, I get really pissed
>when people throw this tribalist crap out against Mandingo people". Even
>if one assumes that I was referring to the UDP group, how could this be
>equated with throwing this tribalist crap against Mandinkas?. If Saul
>can write "I have as much contempt for most Mandingo politicians as you
>may have, but to hold a whole group of people responsible for our
>nation's decay is criminal", then it means that he also sees something
>wrong with some Mandinka politicians. So why extend what might be an
>attack on some Mandinka politicians, according to him, to holding "a
>whole group responsible for our nation's decay"? So using Saul's flawed
>reasoning, does it mean that when non-Mandinkas accuse some Mandinka
>politicians they are automatically indicting all Mandinkas?
>
>Saul went on to draw parallels by stating "What you said in your piece
>is identical to what some lawyer (Caryol?) said in an interview w/ the
>Observer just before the elections - only  he was more direct. And
>Grey-Johnson, the former ambassador to the US said the same thing in an
>advertisement in the Washington Times early last year: "during Jawara's
>era, it was the dominant tribe against everybody else." I still have a
>copy if you want to read it. So I'm not jumping at shadows". And yet he
>states "I have vowed not to let anyone get away with perpetuating such
>stereotypes - however subtly they put it" Let me ask, who is
>perpetuating stereotypes? Why can we not judge each according to his or
>her own record? I was waiting for Saul to quote statements from me or
>actions indicting me to back his allegations, but alas Saul decided to
>stick his head in the sand.
>
>To state that I have had friends across the whole ethnic spectrum is so
>trivial that I will refrain from doing so.
>
>In his final onslaught, he wrote to Yeks Drammeh " What do you know
>about Alpha other than the fact that he was supposed to be the firebrand
>Head Boy of GHS who caused a raucous at that school in the mid-80s? Or
>the equally controversial fracas he was involved in China in '89". Since
>not everyone in this forum knows about these incidents I will say a few
>words to straighten the records.
>
>Sitting in my cell with temperatures below zero in a Chinese prison in
>December 1988 my shivering hands managed to scribble the following:
>  " Write Alpha write! Write! Write...what do I write? Where do I start
>from? The best thing would have been to tear my chest apart and pull out
>that beating organ. It knows it all, it feels it all, it is my witness,
>my only witness it is. Where is the barrel of the pen? Where are the
>words? I do remember thinking of Steve Biko, Mandela, Ngugi, Gandhi and
>all those people who stood resolutely in defence of humanity and
>justice. I remember thinking and visualising my whole life in a state of
>half-coma and my hungry brain searching for words and the most basic
>sense of justice, while that organ kept pounding in my chest, its anger
>raging and ebbing at intervals, sometimes feeling as if it has missed
>its normal rhythm. Those were the moments when only your heart wants to
>accept that your skin is pigmented in that natural way that makes it
>black, the simple biological phenomenon of which causes the wrongful
>incrimination of your body and soul....".
>
>The reason why I was sitting in that cell was simple. I was the
>secretary general of the General Union of African Students
>(GUASC)-Nanjing branch. GUASC challenged the Chinese authorities to
>treat Africans as human beings who deserve dignity. The drama which led
>to my arrest together with five other people involved Africans from more
>than twenty African countries, speaking more than thirty different
>African languages. On that unforgettable day of December 25th all
>African students in the city of Nanjing left their universities to meet
>at the train station in order to finally leave for Beijing where the
>African Embassies were located, hoping that once we get there the wrongs
>done to us will finally be redressed.
>
>The Chinese students of Nanjing university surrounded the foreign
>students' dormitories throwing whatever they could lay their hands on;
>stones, bottles, logs of wood, bricks, you name it, shouting: "kill,
>kill, kill". As every situation creates its leaders, I rose to assume
>leadership together with other students, at that critical juncture.
>Anyone who knows how brutal Chinese authorities can be, especially when
>their authority is challenged, will not find it difficult to see that
>this was no dinner party. It was a struggle of life and death.
>
>That all African students in the city of Nanjing were involved bears
>testimony to the fact that we were not engaged in any adventure or
>controversial fracas, to borrow from Saul. There were also Europeans,
>Americans and Asians who joined us in solidarity to the extent of
>surrendering their freedom for a while just to support our course.
>Honestly speaking, no one knew what was to follow next. We could have
>been poisoned while in jail, anything could have happened.
>
>What complicated matters was that contrary to what the Chinese
>authorities wanted the world to believe; that the problem was caused by
>Africans seducing Chinese women, we knew that what was happening to us
>was an extension of what was happening in Chinese society at large. The
>Chinese people, especially the young ones, were yearning for freedom in
>a new China which was beginning to discard all security hitherto enjoyed
>by them, leaving them with an uncertain future while the few, whose
>parents were established Party functionaries, were riding high in
>luxury.
>
>We were the scapegoats. We were in their eyes the darlings of the
>authorities and they knew that since they could not hit those who wield
>power directly, hitting us would have nonetheless make them feel the
>pinch. Having felt the heat of the Chinese side the authorities had to
>look for someone to blame in order to keep the Chinese out of the
>streets and who were better scapegoats than those who spoke truth into
>their faces; those who according to them were the agitators? So it was
>that the Nanjing six were victimised. The events at Tiannamen the
>following year bore testimony to this theory. This is not the place to
>elaborate on details, I only wanted to shed a bit of light on this since
>Saul mentioned it in a manner which could be easily misunderstood. I was
>not acting to be a progressive, a hero or a martyr! I was simply acting
>according to the demands of the situation, ready to face whatever it
>would take to stand dignified. Looking back, I am proud to have stood up
>against repression on behalf of all Africans.
>
>The speech I gave in 1983 as the Head boy of Gambia High school should
>likewise neither be tainted nor mystified. My main contention was that
>our curriculum was not designed to suit our needs. I asked the question,
>among other things, why we should learn about European and American
>History without learning about Gambian history? Why should we know by
>heart the types of soils in different parts of the world when the soil
>composition less than a kilometre away was still a mystery to geography
>students? Why was the number of young school girls getting pregnant
>increasing and yet we failed to discuss these things as part of our
>curriculum? Why was it that we could not even repair a fused meter, even
>though the theory of Physics was dripping from our fingertips? These
>were the types of questions I asked. It was my aim to contribute towards
>the demystification of knowledge and the status of being a sixth-former;
>to bring to the school and the public the discussions we held in our
>"Attaya Vous" and other gatherings, as young people searching for
>answers to many questions. I will leave it to those who witnessed those
>times to judge whether I have made any contribution to that effect or
>not.
>
>Let us work towards the enlightenment of our people and towards a future
>Gambia worth living in for all Gambians. Let us try to be part of the
>solution rather than adding to the confusion. Every enlightened Gambian
>is a gain for our nation, so let's stop slandering without reason. Our
>energies should be channelled where they are most needed. With that I
>close this chapter.
>
>Alpha Robinson
>
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