Recent debates about the hopelessness of the economic situation of blacks in
general and Africans in particular has prompted me to write about some of my
own observations about our country, The Gambia.

A few days back it was reported in the local papers that the prospects of
The Gambia having a bumper tourist season this year seem particularly good.
This view was given further credence when it was reported, a few days back,
that The Gambia won the award for the best futures stand at the world’s
second largest tourism trade fare.

As we all know, tourism has and still plays a major role in our economy. It
is said to be the second largest contributor to our GDP and that it employs
over 10,000 Gambians. It is also said that tens of thousands others benefit
directly or indirectly from it. What is however disturbing is that much we
are not getting our fair share of the revenues from tourism? Most of the
money generated within the industry does not even get us. Some justify this
by pointing to our lack of Gambian ownership of the major hotels, poor
quality of product, over dependence on foreign tour operators etc, etc. As I
don’t much about the industry, I am inclined to accept these explanations,
as they seem very plausible. The question one is tempted to ask is, can we
do much about it all or do we just accept the status quo.

In recent years Gambia has been attracting all sorts of tourists to the
country. One breed however seem to be growing very fast and this what they
call the eco-tourists. The number of resorts along the banks of the river
Gambian is on the increase and so is the need for river transport. It is
however very unfortunate that this is almost totally dominated by
foreigners. One cannot help but notice that the majority of the dozens of
boats moored at Denton Bridge are of the local “Serer” type. It is however
lamentable that almost all of them are owned and operated by foreigners.
They organize boat trips ranging from dolphin watching, bird watching, sport
fishing etc, etc. For such trips their charges can be as high as D500.00 per
person for trips lasting only a few hours at a time. Those who specialize in
taking tourists for sport fishing can also be seen selling their catch of
the day to restaurant owners for additional profit. Some tell their clients
that the fishes are given to needy families to help them cope with the
poverty in the country when we all know that that is not the case. There are
others who own and rent out jet skies to tourists for as much as D150.00 an
hour! How much of this goes to Gambians I keep asking myself. Perhaps some
of you may have an idea.

Recently I approached a very respectable and highly experienced banker for
advise about what one needed to do to qualify for a substantial loan to go
into fishing. He first asked me whether I was considering venturing into
that line of business and I replied that I was dead serious about it. What
followed left me totally bewildered. He told me “ suma raka, if you came to
my bank with this type of proposal I will not even listen to you”. When I
told him that I had done a significant amount of research about it and that
I was convinced I could repay the money in much less than the time frame we
were talking about, he asked me if I wanted to quit my job. I told him that
I hadn’t thought about it, and asked him what that had to do with me wanting
to try fishing. He told me that he would rather give a loan for such a
project to a fishing family with less collateral than some one whose family
are not fishermen. I told him that he was not making much sense to me and he
needed to come with something better than that. He explained that for any
Gambian to benefit from fishing he must be prepared to go out to sea himself
to make sure all catches land at his/her place of choice. He told me that he
himself had toyed with idea earlier on and came to the conclusion that he
would be wasting his money if he ventured into it. He further explained that
some of the fishes that some Gambians don’t eat are in fact delicacies in
other parts of the world and that these fetch good money. H told me that
these fishes, when caught, are sold out at sea to foreign fishing vessels
for considerable sums of money. He also gave me the example of someone whose
fishing vessel was impounded for some time by the Senegalese authorities
following complaints by a union of some Cassamance fishermen. The owner of
the vessel had no idea that sometimes when he is told that fishes were
scarce, they were in fact selling them to certain dealers in Cassamance and
Guinea Bissau. He gave the example of black snapper (choff) that, he said is
sold in Gambia for less than US $2.00 per Kilo being sold for about US $5.00
in the open seas and for about US $3.00 when sold to dealers in Senegal or
Guinea Bissau. If you consider the fact that a good local pirogue fitted
with an outboard engine costs less than US $8,000.00 and that these boats
can bring in several thousand Kilos of fish, it will give you some idea of
the potential fishing has. Unfortunately very few Gambians are benefiting
from these resources. In fact what is worst is the fact that European and
Asian fishing boats enter our territorial waters, illegally catch what ever
they want without us even knowing about it.

There is an aerial surveillance team and some support from the Gambia navy.
However these don’t have the overall capability to stop this daylight
robbery and pillage of one of the very few natural resources we have. Till I
think of something again, I hope Gambians will think about these.

Have a good day, Gassa.




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