Malanding,
Thanks for reminding us about this day. I have made a lot of cyber friends whom
I have never met in person and look forward to meeting most of you one day.
Back in the summer of 1995 when I got my first e-mail address, I sent a mail to
the soc.culture.african newsgroup with a request that I wanted to meet Gambians
out there in Cyberspace and received responses from two people. The two were
Latir and Katim who wrote to me that they had seen my mail and that they were
Gambians too. I was informed by Katim about a mailing list that he had setup
and I was welcome to join them. The names I remember at the time on the list
were Katim Touray, Malanding Jaiteh, Sarjo Santa Bojang, Amadou Janneh, Janko
Fofana, Tony Loum and Sarian Loum.
I remember receiving mail from one Sarjo Santa Bojang of Seattle welcoming me
after sending my introduction and he told me that they were still cellebrating
the release of Windows 9% and this reminds me that we come a long way:-)
By the way, here is a mail below from Tony Loum on the First Anniversary.
May Allah bless Gambia-L and all Gambians.
Momodou Camara
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 11:39:25 -0800 (PST)
Send reply to: "A. Loum" <[log in to unmask]>
From: "A. Loum" <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-
[log in to unmask]>
Subject: First anniversary
Originally to: [log in to unmask]
Hi Everyone,
Let us take a time out for a moment from the hot and substantive debate
topics to reflect on the fact that today, January 31st is the first
anniversary of our listserv Gambia-l hosted by The University of
Washington.
Contrary to what many may have believed, I am not the original
founder of Gambia-l. That honor belongs to Dr Katim Touray of Madison,
Wisconsin. He first started a discussion group after the 1994 Jawara coup
d'etat with a few friends. I believe that Dr Amadou Janneh was among the
original few. I was introduced to Katim in 1995 by a Senegalese called
Moussa Samb whom I met in the newsgroup soc.culture.africa. I think that
I was the sixth member to join the group which Katim informally ran
through his email account at The University of Wisconsin, Madison. By the
beginning of 1996, we were informed by him that we needed a new host since
some reasons, we would not be carried past the end of January. So, the
search for a new host site started but with no luck and success. At the
last resort, I contacted my University and got a pleasant and affirmative
response. We brainstormed on the configurations that reflects the current
setup of Gambia-l which was a collective decision from the relatively few
members at the time. Those included the following: Amadou Janneh,
Malanding Jaiteh, Latjor Know, Lamin Drammeh, Roddie Cole, Sammy Bruce
Oliver, Sarian Loum, Momodou Camara, Abdou Touray, Morro Ceesay, Latjorr
Ndow, Modou Kolley, Sarjo Bojang. If I should miss anybody's name,
it is unintentional, please point that out to me and you will be
recognized. Since, we decided that we wanted to be global and be visible
world wide, we had to select a name for the list. Suggestions were
tossed around ranging from Gambia-Net to others but finally settled on
Gambia-L which was first suggested by Malanding Jaiteh, if my memory is
correct. On April 8th 1996, Katim shocked everyone by abruptly resigning
from the group over a philosohical disagreement with the rest of
the members regarding the adoption of certain rules and regulation for the
list. I was deeply saddened over his departure. He had worked so hard and did
so much with the technical configurations. I personally appealed to him to
reverse his decision and return but was not successful. Hopefully, sometimes in
the future, he might relent. That void in the technical management was
admirably taken over by Abdou Touray, who up to this date is doing an
absolutely marvellous job.
Gambia-l has come a long way from our humble beginnings. This
date, one year ago, we were less than 20 members. Today we have over 180
members enrolled. We can boast of membership in all the continents. All
praise is due to you members for your interest in becoming involved and
spreading the word of our existence to Gambians and friends of The Gambia.
As you can see, we are still growing weekly.
I am forwarding the very first posting in Gambia-l that took
place exactly one year ago today. I hope that this brief piece our history
will be of interest.
Thanks
Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum [log in to unmask]
Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice
100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax
University of Washington
Box 353200
Seattle, Wa.98195-3200
=========================================================================
PINE 3.95 MESSAGE TEXT <mail/[]> gambia-l Msg 1 of 1,208 TOP
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 18:00:24 -0800 (PST)
From: "A. Loum" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: Multiple recipients of list GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: We did it !
Hi Everyone,
Congratulations to all of us and welcome to GAMBIA-L. I have added
everybody to the list and you should all have received the standard
welcome message. We have not yet added the additional piece drafted by
Katim which will be done soon. I am taking this opportunity to take an
inventory of the list. I want to make sure that everybody has been added
on, in the event that some typos were made in the addresses. So, I am
asking that everybody responds to the list and confirms that they
received this message and the welcome. Katim and I will match it against
what we have now to ensure that everybody is properly added on.
We will finalize the administrative functions soon. So, I am
asking Katim to continue taking the lead role to ensure the smooth
functioning of GAMBIA-L.
Again, let us congratulate ourselves for sticking
together to lead ourselves to even greater heights.
Sarjo, I have made sure that Modou Kolley is included. I
will give you a call later on tonight.
Katim, I have sent you two messages on your calshp
address. I hope that you will receive them before the deadline of the
termination, otherwise I will forward them again tomorrow.
Thanks
Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum [log in to unmask]
Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice
100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax
University of Washington
Box 353200
Seattle, Wa.98195-3200
=========================================================================
------- End of forwarded message -------
*******************************************************
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http://www.gambia.dk
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