Monsieur Oko D, Cultural Ambassador,

Just the other day,  Fye Niamorkorno posted an opinion by Lie Nbamba Faal on
the L addressing a similar phenomenon: West African marabouts with fake
credentials prouncing the Swedish superstition market, administering
ineffective potions crafted from wrong diagnosis.
My position is that both your opinions are neither balanced nor objective
and are biased against our African Marabouts.

I think maraboutism as the practice of using spiritual means to effect
worldly events in ones favour is an offshoot of religious practice almost
everywhere; even perhaps a remnant of magic, witchcraft, and superstition
now modernised to suit the demands of the times. It also reflects the old
struggle between science and religion, between modern rationalism and
traditional belief systems.

First of all, while I think that education and economic advancement in West
Africa would gradually marginalise the role of marabouts and witch doctors,
they may by no means make their practice extinct. Even in modern western
societies, we witness a happy coexistence between superstition and science
on a daily basis. New Age gurus, astrologers or zodiac experts, crystal
gazers, mediums, tarot readers, palmisters are all in the business of
superstition. In Swedish television, the cell phone numbers of tarot readers
are regular inputs during commercial breaks. Throughout Europe, scores of
fake mystic healers are arrested for swindling millions from hapless
Europeans anxious about a cancer or some chronic ailment. Exposing these
European witch doctors have now become the object of popular tv shows. If an
unregistered marabout or witch doctor happens to be African, why should that
be a huge deal? Trained medical practitioners even in the best hospitals in
the West including the United States are yearly responsible for thousands of
deaths as a result of wrong diagnosis and /or administering wrong dosages of
prescription drugs.

Secondly there is no significant difference in attitutdes towards
superstitious practice in most societies. A Japanese nuclear scientist would
hurry to the nearest shinto shrine after work to perform an incense offering
for a promotion or for protection against another  impending round of
lay-offs just as a South African computer engineer would be seen diving in
the bushes with coat and tie and briefcase to the hideout of a medican man
to obtain the best charm against the gaze of ill-wishers who might have
planted a bad luck charm at his place of work. Infact I see no difference
between George Bush's fervent prayer trips to church and Yahya Jammeh's
exhibitionist Friday performances or Churchill Baldeh's trip to the marabout
in Casamance (or was it Guinea he said) to pray for the Gambia; and just
like the farmers' offering to the "Jalang" or idol, they are all based on
faith, and not science.
Most of us pray to Allah and God for good luck, good health and prosperity
just as we pray for protection against enemies. For some people it is just
more pragmatic to pay for the services of a fortune-teller whose work may or
may not work, than to wait on Allah's indeterminate response. In spite of
constant prayer in churches and mosques, Africans are the people who die the
most, relative to population, on the entire planet.

Thirdly, your claim that "voodoo, witchcraft and cannibalsim are too common
in the Gambia" bespeaks an objective observation. If these are observable
cultural practices, then it is up to lawmakers to determine the harm they
cause society so as to provide a bases to ban them. These practices and the
casting of spells, and hatching mystical plots and other backward practices
such as female genettal mutilation are symptoms of cultural retardation.
They are effects and not causes of our socio-economic predicament.

Finally, I believe that helping marabouts to operate registered businesses
not just for the purpose of taxation and to make them answerable to breaches
of contracts with customers, but to also lay a foundation for the effective
and modern use of traditional medicine is a sensible way forward.
Traditional healers and medicine men are an interesting feature of the South
African medical and pharmaceutical industry. In fact it is becoming an
important tourist attraction. Rather than condemning their practices
outright, I think we would do better in incorporating their skills and
knowledge into the national medical data bank for both research and
production. This, especially given that these medicine men enjoy more
traditional legitimacy than all Gambian doctors put together!

In conclusion, I think it could be futile to legislate against these
practices without adressing their social and economic foundations. A frontal
assault on illiteracy at all levels of society, raising political and
cultural awareness, investing in basic health care, a concerted public
investment effort in agriculture to raise the living standards of the poor
are some of the ways your own ministry can advocate as themes for a broader
national campaign against all forms of superstition.
Besides, what practice is indeed more superstitious than that of a regime
which, inspite of the awesome social and economic morass it governs, breaks
all rules of human common sense and organises the king of all parties amidst
a see of decay?

Many Thanks Oko D,

Sidibeh.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Oko Drammeh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2004 12:28 PM
Subject: Preacher banned from Baddibu mosque/Daily observer 24/07


> Long live the preacher who stood up to the premitive and anti- social
> behavior of Marabouts.
>
> by saying that : AMULETS REPRESENT PAGAN SYMBOLS.
>
> The Gambian Opium
>
> By Oko
>
> We Gambians are not pagans. We should hold on to our beliefs and come
> clean off the closet. Juju is witchcraft.
>
> Africans are under fire for our under-developement because of our laid-
> back attitude to life and endless spiritual predictions of the future.
>
> Vooodoo, witchcraft and cannibalism  are too common in The Gambia. This
> it is not permitted by Islam and Christianity. We have to make it
unlawful.
>
> Every one you talk to in The Gambia will talk about a MARABOUT ,a KORTEH
> or a JAMFA to put inflicted on someone mostly friends and family.
>
> It becomes a way-out of the PRESSURE of poverty by fantasinig the
> destruction of your dislikes or enenies or dreaming about their past
> time paradise.
>
> But there is no excuse to these wicked marabouts not being able bring
> Bill Gates to The Gambia to invest in employment or send our teams to
> the world cup and the Olympics or bring in Quincy Jones to market "Roots
> "and and improve our artistic and musical scene .Tthe people of the
> Gambia want some kind of change and developement.What can they do to
> help in the present state of the country?
>
> Do the marabouts pay tax? Because they ask for a lot of dollars and they
> may earn more money each month than  Teachers or  Farmers.
>
> I think that this is practice must be put to The Parliament and made
> illegal and Banned with severe concequences for offenders.
>
>  This is the Opium ,the Gambia LSD Drug.
>
> The future is Education, scientic developement and economic prosperity.
>
>
> There is Superstitution !!!
>
> Oko Drammeh
>
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