Suntou, great write up but clearly a miss opportunity to do a broader
research on Armitage and its culture. It appears that you spoke to some ex
students and picked a negative narration of the institution and make it
look like "a breeding ground for Alcoholism and prostitution" aka girls
dressing badly.
There are certainly thousands of Ex Armitage students on this forum who
will vehemently disagree with your assertions. I am not interested in
defending Armitage as my Alma-mata, but simply setting the records straight
or broadening the discussion. First, the section of students you referenced
who frequents or make the "Mansuwan Kunda" a habitual place represent a
very small section of the student population. In fact if your sources were
open to you, they would have told you that these are mostly students who
struggle in their academics and many of them end up failing and repeating
their classes, some expelled, some transfer to freer schools. This is the
same group that runs away from regular five day prayers, night studies and
against rules of staying on campus. This group does not reflect the larger
student body who are overwhelmingly pious and hardworking...
Second, if you research Armitage and the institutional set up, you would
have realized that there were strict rules separating boys quarters with
girls' dormitories. In fact some spent five years in Armitage without ever
visiting the girls quarters which was locked 24/7... So were the girls
restricted in visiting boys quarters. Of course as a co-eduational
institution students were allowed to have musical nights were girls and
boys mixed. But to characterize girls in Armitage as flouting or dressing
sexual is to not know about Armitage and probably never visited the
school...
Clearly, you missed a great opportunity to touch on the strict religious
schedules and teachings at Armitage where students are woken up at 5am to
pray dawn every single day 7 days a week. The five daily prayers were
stricter than that of Mecca if you ask me. This includes both boys and
girls. Girls are locked during prayers... (almost like Sariah law).. This
is something that even parents cannot maintain for their kids. By the way
students who were Christians were also forced to go to Church on Sundays...
You should have seen Friday prayer time when the whole school will assemble
and march to the Juma prayers without deviation.
Finally, the discipline the Armitage institution teaches its students is a
classic example that our regular transitional families teaches their
children at home. Almost 95% of Armitage students greatly benefits from
this routines and are greatly appreciative of being part of a culture that
treats every student equally. At Armitage during my days of course, it
doesn't matter what your family background was. We all ate the same food,
wear the same clothes and of course bitten by the same mosquitoes..
In short, I think in terms of religious training, academic rigor, social
norm of respect for seniors and the elderly, restriction on gender
commingling, and routine schedules, Armitage is a classic example. In fact
students who spent five years at Armitage will forever appreciate being
part of an institution that never discriminates and teaches basic
fundamentals of social upbringing...
I hope you will have another chance to do more research on Armitage and the
idea of these institutions being breeding grounds for secularism.
Keep up the good work..
Demba
On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 8:11 AM, suntou touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> A great response Joe. Thanks. Actually, it in the spirit of examining a
> collective mindset and how the collective body embrace the secular
> construct. I am providing a small examination as per some discussions I
> heard with former students of this two institution.
> I agree, many within the Gambia elites patronize the Julbrew, this a fact.
> However, the discussion is relevant in highlighting a road some deemed as
> the catalyst for framing offspring. I know, Armitage former students are
> overwhelming tag with the 'mansuwan kunda' wine brewing thing. With the
> 'Dry Dance' i heard of the ring leaders who use to organise the night dance
> 'party' which came under attack from students, it was later stop. But many
> other institutions played a major role..you did well by highlighting some
> interesting stuffs. Thanks
> Suntou
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Joe Joe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Suntou, thanks for your take on the issue. However, don't you think you
>> are according more blame on the two insitutions and sparing the rest of
>> Gambian high schools, secondary schools, and the University as well?
>> Julbrew/Banjul Breweries has been known to run out of stock in a country
>> that is 85% to 90% Muslim. Who is drinking all that alcohol? Certainly not
>> the 10% with almost 100% not knowing where Armitage is located. The output
>> of Julbrew far out number the combined Daakaa output in the country. So,
>> who has contributed more to the consumption of alcohol in the country?
>> Also, have you not seen the students of SAHS, GHS, Muslim High, Nusrat,
>> etc. at the clubs and beaches tilting the bottle and smoking weed among
>> other things? How about the rate of teenage pregnancies in the urban areas?
>> I would venture that what happened/is happening in the urban areas far
>> outweigh what went/or is going on at say, Amitage. SAHS used to go to
>> Armitage every year and at the time the place was quite restrictive for
>> some of us. When we have a dance, it ended up being attended by the
>> outsiders for the most part and we played cat and mouse with the Principals
>> trying to play around the curfew, with the local student heads to report
>> local students that ventured out pass the deadline or tried to join the
>> party.
>>
>> Let us also not forget that the Gambian state is a secular state and the
>> constitution is the people. I do not think secularity is the issue. Are you
>> trying to push for a Theocracy? Because due to our multi religion, tribe,
>> and other persuasions I think a secular state is best for us and each to be
>> free to practice their religion without hindrance. You live in the UK, do
>> you know how many Gambians who are Muslims drink alcohol for instance and
>> they did not pick up the habit in the Gambia or an Armitage? And so, like
>> many of our affairs, we are masters at looking the other way.
>>
>> I will extend the conversation to venture into prostitution in the
>> Gambia. Our target of choice for blame is "The Foreigners" (Sierra
>> Leoneans, Senegalese, Nigerians, Bissau Guineans, etc.). We all know that a
>> great deal of prostitutes in the Gambia are our fellow Gambians (you and my
>> neighbor, relative, etc.). There are various kinds of prostitutes, female,
>> male, open, covert, etc. and Gambians have the lion share.
>>
>> I will also add the case of homosexuality. Is there any place in our
>> globe that humans habitat and you do not have homosexuals? There isn't. So,
>> why do Africans pretend that we never had homosexuals in Africa,
>> and specifically, Gambia. How many of us can honestly say we do not know of
>> a homosexual, growing up in Gambia? And so, who are we fooling? Yes, the
>> culture was/is hostile to homosexuals, driving them underground. However,
>> we have some that came out even back in the 70s and 80s with their drumming
>> sessions and entertainment of their counterparts in say Senegal and to this
>> day they are homosexuals where ever they are in the world. Homosexuality is
>> not a European creation but part of humanity. There was time that white and
>> black marriages were prohibited/frowned upon in the UK, US, Rhodesia, SA,
>> and countless other places around the world and many black folks were
>> murdered for it. Today interracial marriage is a fact of life, and so will
>> we come to a stage that accepting our brothers and sisters for who they are
>> will be a fact of life. A question for you, if you have a son/daughter that
>> told you they feel different from their apparent gender, what will you say
>> or do to them? Yes, you can wish it away, pray on it all you want, but you
>> had easier raise a person from the dead than make them feel otherwise. I
>> have heard Gambians that swore by the heavens that they will use their bare
>> hands and kill that child of they reveal their humanity as such. So, Yaya
>> is not the only one out there. However, I will put it to those Gambians
>> that, that is just talk. It is very hard to look your child in the face and
>> kill them just because of their sexual orientation. Those that will follow
>> through can go ahead as long as they know they will rot in jail for the
>> rest of their life and as faith would have it, if a man, may be forcefully
>> made another man's wife. That is also a fact of life in jail too. Daaw Be
>> Mbokou! :-)!
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 00:33:36 +0100
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [G_L] Dry dance and Alcohol : Gambia College and Armitage
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>> The secularising process.
>>
>> http://suntoumana.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/bastion-of-secular-gambiadry-dance-and.html
>>
>> Suntou
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> www.suntoumana.blogspot.com
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