Ebrima, my dear. As I read your letter, I am once
again reminded why I have come to gain so much respect
for you, a man I have never met. And why everytime I
feel despair, due to the state of affairs back home, I
somehow find hope for the future again. For how can I
not be hopeful, when Gambia boasts of sons like you?
How indeed can I not be hopeful? I pray that God, the
Almighty, will preserve your love for humanity and
your quest for justice. I pray that Allah, the
omnipotent, will bless you and bestow on you long life
and good health, so that you may live amongst us for
years and years to come. That way, we will always
have someone to inspire us and someone to help us
ascertain democracy in our country, and peace and
freedom for all our people. Happy New Year and Happy
Eid to you, your family members, and all who are dear
to you.
--- Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
<HR>
<html><DIV></DIV>
<P> </P>
<P>Gambia-L: </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Please read below the explanatory e-mail I
sent to Dr A. J Stovall, in connection with Yankuba
Touray’s and Tombong Saidy’s forthcoming visit to Rust
College.
<P>Ebrima Ceesay </P>
<DIV></DIV>Birmingham, UK
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>__________________________________________________________________________
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P> </P>
<P>Dr A.J. Stovall,</P>
<P>Division of Social Science, </P>
<P>Rust College, </P>
<P>Holly Springs, </P>
<DIV></DIV>Mississippi.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P> </P>
<P><STRONG>Dear Dr Stovall, </STRONG></P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Let me please introduce myself to you. I am
a Gambian Journalist (formerly an Editor of the
Gambia’s Daily Observer newspaper). I am currently
undertaking Post Graduate Research at the Centre of
West African Studies at the University of Birmingham,
UK. My research interests lie in Third World politics,
development issues in Africa, and the African military
and democratisation on the continent. Specifically, I
am researching democratisation in The Gambia under
Yayha Jammeh. I have been living and working in the UK
since I left The Gambia in December 1996, after two
years of harassment at the hands of the AFPRC regime
of Yahya Jammeh.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>During the coup period and until the time that I
left The Gambia, I was also the BBC Gambia
Correspondent. I provided daily reporting and analysis
of political, economic and social events as they
unfolded in The Gambia. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>I am not giving you these biographical
details to impress you or other readers of this
letter: rather to present my credentials and
qualifications which equip me to write to you about
the issue of Yankuba Touray and Tombong Saidy who are
due to make a presentation to students at Rust College
on January 12-13th.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>I note that the Mission Statement of the National
African American Student Leadership Conference reads:
</P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>“To address issues of liberation,
and provide analysis of progressive African </STRONG>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>leadership models, past and
present, and outline revolutionary leadership
</STRONG>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>paradigms of the future.” </STRONG>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Since the Alex Haley book <STRONG>“ROOTS”
</STRONG>was published, African Americans have
developed a huge interest in Africa in general, West
Africa more specifically and The Gambia in particular,
since this was the country to which Haley apparently
traced his ancestors. For African Americans to return
to the African continent in order to trace their own
roots and to build up kinship ties on the continent,
has become a deeply significant act. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>We who are African born, and those of
African heritage born in the Diaspora share powerful
connecting links, and there is much we can do together
for the betterment of our black people hood in general
– through education, trade, health, culture, sports
etc.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>In those centuries when our black ancestors were
forcibly taken from their homeland as slaves, the
immediate, physical links with “home” might have been
severed, but those deeper links of ancestry, blood
lines and kinship bonds remain to this day and into
the future. There is therefore a genuine case to be
made for fostering mutual understanding, discussion
and other links with each other: we are still truly
brothers and sisters. The NAASL Conference has a duty
to foster these connections and to do all in its power
to forge meaningful bonds between black people
wherever they may have been born. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>But it has to be said though that Africa
has produced many tyrants who have, through force of
arms, become our leaders. These tyrants have nothing
to offer their people except violence, intimidation,
fear and repression. They have even less to offer to
our African American brothers and sisters. Some of
these African leaders are as repressive as the white
slave masters of old. Diasporan-born Africans should
cement their links with continental born Africans, BUT
they have to be discriminating in the links they wish
to foster.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Now, specifically on Gambian issues: one of the
most repressive and draconian regimes to be found
today in the whole of Africa lies in the tiny nation
of The Gambia. A recent study cited the regime of
Yayha Jammeh in The Gambia as one of the six most
repressive in Africa, along with Sudan and Liberia.
There are also many other international reports and
studies which detail the levels of repression evident
in today’s Gambia (the independent country reports of
both Amnesty International, and of the US State
Department make powerful and disturbing reading). </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Dr Stovall, Yahya Jammeh’s Pan Africanism
is based on opportunistic rhetoric: he lacks sincerity
in all that he says and does. This is the man who
during his rule has so far deported more than 60 West
Africans, the majority of whom are educationists,
journalists or human rights activists. This is the man
who just last month deported six Senegalese brothers
(people who share our language, our cultural heritage
and kinship ties).
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>This is the man who deported the Sierra Leonean
journalist, Cherno Ojuku Ceesay, who had fled to exile
from his home country to The Gambia, back into the
hands of his military opponents in Sierra Leone, in
gross violation of International Law. This is the man
who deported Kenneth Best, one of Africa’s most
respected journalists, back to his war torn country of
Liberia (Mr Best took me personally under his tutelage
in The Gambia and he is my Mentor). </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Today, the Jammeh regime represents all
that is bad in politics. Six years have elapsed since
Jammeh seized power, and our wonderful nation is now a
travesty of its former self: murder, repression, fear,
violence, violation of human rights and freedoms,
kidnap, detention incommunicado without charge or
trial, greed and injustice are the order of the day.
Levels of poverty, of maternal and infant mortality,
of unemployment and of crime rates are all escalating
out of control.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>The regime uses its “secret police”, the National
Intelligence Agency, to arrest without warrant, to
detain without charge, to harass and persecute and
even to murder. This is a regime where the Minister of
the Interior has been given the power through Decree
to detain any person for as is wished and to do so
without reason. This is a regime which has arbitrarily
sacked civil servants who have given sterling service
over the years. This is the regime which has exiled,
either directly or indirectly, more than 5000
Gambians. This is a regime which makes its civil and
legislative appointments on the basis of nepotism and
favouritism. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>This is a regime whose greed is naked: it
takes reserves directly from the Central Bank of The
Gambia whensoever it chooses. Within six short years,
Jammeh has transformed himself on the backs of the
struggling Gambian citizenship, into a
multi-millionaire with bank accounts in Dubai and
Switzerland. The man now owns and runs a private jet,
and is on record as having boasted that he, his
children and his grandchildren will never suffer in
life because of the wealth he has accumulated. This is
a regime which has interfered with the judiciary to
the extent that its independence is now totally
compromised.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>This is a regime which for no just reason,
deliberately and cold-bloodedly killed 14
peacefully-demonstrating students on the streets of
Serrekunda on April 10th/11th this year. No one has
been brought to justice, nor are they likely to be,
for these awful murders of young innocents (one a
child of three years old, and another a Red Cross
worker/journalist struggling to bring first aid and
comfort to dying kids on Red Cross premises). </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>This is a regime which represses the
independent media, even now threatening to deport true
Gambian-born editors of the Independent Newspaper.
Citizen FM radio station was summarily closed down for
two years for carrying reports critical of Jammeh and
his regime (and even when the Courts ordered
restoration to the owners, the regime prevaricated).
Radio One FM, which has earned the reputation of being
an important independent voice in the Gambia, has
recently had its staff attacked and its premises
burned.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Just last week, the United Nations issued a damning
report, citing The Gambia in the involvement of the
“blood diamond” trafficking, and of illegal arms
dealing in the sub-region. The Gambia’s role in the
illegal hard drugs trade and of being a hard drugs
haven is growing and investigations will surely soon
follow the accusations. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>The name and reputation of The Gambia as a
country of reasonable Human and Civil Rights
protection for the whole of West Africa and indeed,
the Continent, have been brought into such
international disrepute: the country is now derided
and has become a laughing stock on the world stage.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Both Yankuba Touray and Tombong Saidy are active
players in and beneficiaries of this awful regime.
They are directly (or indirectly) implicated and
involved in the repression, the illegality, the
tyranny. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Yankuba Touray is a man of limited
educational background and intellectual capacity.
Gambians at home and abroad will wonder why this man
has been asked to speak about African culture, and its
theory and practice. Calling this man a
“distinguished” Gambian is an affront to his fellow
countrymen.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>This is the man who on the even of the 1996
Presidential Election in The Gambia directly gave
orders to the security forces to beat up and torture
Opposition supporters (mainly from the United
Democratic Party) at Denton Bridge on the outskirts of
Banjul. 36 people were injured and hospitalised, and 3
of these later died (including a pregnant woman). This
is the man who openly boasts that the regime of Yahya
Jammeh will never be ousted from power, not even by
democratic electoral process. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>This is a man with a reputation for liking
“young girls”: for searching them out and using them
for his own purposes. This is a man who was among
Council Members who gave direct orders that some 30
soldiers implicated in an alleged coup attempt on
November 11th 1994, be put to death without pity or
recourse to the law. This is the man who is the most
vocal of the current regime: known as Jammeh’s
“praise-singer”. This is the man who has grown rich,
and now owns many of the properties seized from former
PPP officials and ministers.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Yankuba Touray is no-one’s role model:
particularly, he is not one for young African
Americans wanting to learn something of their
continent of origin. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>As for Tombong Saidy, he runs one of the
most repressive and one-sided media outfits in the
history of Africa. His Gambia Radio and Television
Service (GRTS) is the mouthpiece for this murderous
regime, and Tombong heads it up in true Jammeh-regime
style. He is dictatorial, and appoints and promotes
only on nepotistic/favouritism bases. Many of the fine
young journalists and broadcasters have left already
because of his leadership style.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Tombong Saidy was The Gambia’s Charge d’Affairs to
the USA in the transition period, but was declared
personal non-grata by the American government after he
severely beat up his own wife. He was then transferred
to the UK, but the British government after some
lobbying by Gambians in the UK, asked him to return
back to The Gambia, where he was then chosen to head
up the GRTS. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Neither Touray nor Saidy have anything of
worth to offer the student body at Rust College. By
associating yourself and the NAASLC with men of this
ilk, you are not only violating the principles of your
charter, you are also tacitly aiding and abetting the
oppressive Gambian regime of Yahya Jammeh. This will
be a betrayal of all that you stand for and what
African Americans have fought for and stood up for
over the years: that is, freedom from oppression,
civil liberties and justice.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>History now asks that you and Rust College
disassociate itself from these members of a tyrannical
and murderous regime. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>I urge you to take the following measures:
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P><STRONG>1. Sever or cut all links with the Jammeh
regime in The Gambia </STRONG></P>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>2. Cancel the visit of Yankuba
Touray and Tombong Saidy </STRONG>
<DIV></DIV>
<P><STRONG>3. Retract your statement referring to
these two men as “distinguished” Gambians
</STRONG></P>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>4. Prevail upon Yahya Jammeh to
improve his record on human rights, and to ensure free
and fair elections in 2001 </STRONG>
<DIV></DIV>
<P><STRONG>5. Lobby all African Americans to inform
them of the true nature of the Gambian regime
</STRONG></P>
<DIV></DIV><STRONG>6. Work with progressive Gambians
who have the country’s best interests at heart. There
are many competent Gambians who would be pleased to be
invited to speak to your student body about Gambian
and African culture. </STRONG>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Contact Professor Sulayman Nyang at Howard
University in Washington DC or Professor Abdoulaye
Saine at Miami University in Ohio. Both these men are
distinguished Gambian scholars and fine speakers. </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>I also ask you to research further
information on The Gambia since the 1994 coup in order
to substantiate the contents of my letter. See:
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>John Wiseman, “Military Rule in The Gambia: an
interim assessment” in Third World Quarterly Vol 17
1996 </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>John Wiseman, “The Gambia: From Coup to
Elections” in Journal of Democracy Vol 9 No 2 April
1998
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>John Wiseman, “The July 1994 Coup d’Etat in The
Gambia – the end of an era” in Round Table Journal
1995 </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Abdoulaye Saine, “The Military’s Managed
Transition to Civilian Rule in The Gambia”. Journal of
Political and Military Sociology. No 26 Winter 1998
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Arnold Hughes, “Democratisation under the Military
in The Gambia 1994-2000,” Journal of Commonwealth and
Comparative Politics. November 2000-12-27 </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>I am also working on a pamphlet myself
entitled “The Case Against Jammeh and his regime” and
shall send this to you upon completion early in
January.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
</P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Yours sincerely,
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Ebrima Ceesay </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>Birmingham, UK </P>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Copy: Gambia-L Mailing List
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