The Power of Social Clubs in the Gambia
An unofficial history documentation by Oko Drammeh


PART ONE

THE GIFT OF THE GAMBIANS
In the absolute attempt to compensate the loss of value in our national
currency, in Agriculture, Inflation, and life in general. We have to
work harder. In under developed countries human energy is the principal
capital. We have to work like bees for the Gambia, national obligation
that bears disturbing resemblance to China, Guinea, Japan, Cuba and
Germany. Communities must organize work groups and minimize public
spending and engagement  in the fields of computer training. Keeping the
country cleaning, health care, making bricks for schools and hospitals ,
joining work groups ,youth social clubs and a few years from now you
will not be able to see a Gambian  girls half naked going out for
prostitution and boys living the Gambia for more money in Europe and
America. The Gambia is a dynamic country.

UNACCOUNTABLE TRUST
The program involves a little more than innumerable work bees. The
Gambian people always did for them selves based on word of trust and
dignified self help. Both, The former British government and the
Government of the Gambia were limited in their support to the cultural
and traditional communities in the Gambia and the social clubs had to do
it. They had to organize the cultural activities, the social feasts, the
ceremonies, dance parties, bicycle races, boat races and many many other
ceremonial activities. Almost every week there was a big occasion where
the club would organize on a large scale event ( Dance, Sabarr, Fanal,
Ndolim, etc) and this would TRICKLE down to everyone work bee in the
community to make some money. From the artists, the articles sold, the
tailors, the gold smith, the Berbers, the tie-dye people (each club had
a uniform ),the cooks, the vegetable women, the fishermen , the wood
cutters, etc etc, everyone made some income from these occasions. they
were source of income to the communities.  They gave steady unofficial
employment  to a wide range of cultural professionals. The ceremonies
included ,The  Wollof drumming, The Gambia Gumbay Boys, Mandingo-Bayeso
with Butay boy. There was also the Primet street Ball- Puserr for young
migrants coming to Banjul from Foni and Cassamance. Each evening, from
Monday to Saturday there was something to do where a lot of food and
drinks were served and desert also a doggy bag to take home. But we all
had to work collectively hard for it and made it happened.

YOUTHS OF BANJUL
Each young boy belongs to a secret society coming up based on which
circumcision mbarr you come from and your level of sophistication. There
was a ranking system in the streets of Banjul. Sometimes these high
profile elites would form a club, as well as the Ragga boys of Half die
(half die culture is original Banjul roots which has resisted the white
establishment since day one of colonialism. Police don't go to half-die
or pick a person from Half-die). There was another system that was based
on class and skin colour in the Gambia " The mulato "from Cape verde.
They made the song" Senora ak wongara- du -bena.meaning: "They had
spannish blood and were superior to the local Africans. Most of the
people employed in the establishment did not allow their kids to join in
these street games and societies. But during vacation they would join
clubs and Creole society clubs. There is no way that you can re-attend a
circumcision house of tricks (who is who in the streets) .They had to
study for a  secured job at the or whatever. Some would break the rule
and becomes an NDONGO-BOY    (brave & smart boy/a status). It was like a
modern day gang but with a cultural background. This later makes you, a
solid body composed of body and a living spirit. For us Africans, the
spirit is the thing.

NATION OF TRIBES
On the cultural front, the migrant tribes that inhabited the capital
Banjul  were known to have deep rooted spiritual magic and mystical
powers These rites and disciplines of each differs and very frightening
series of rituals. It’s about the spirits, reuniting with the village
mind. There are various original hypnotic dances and ritual masks.They
range from ; The Bambara Fatou Jamana, The Susu Bamba- Jigejah, (Susu),
Nigerian Hausau Pakin /Die-man bae'ge, Creole Hunting- ManDevils,
Fairies (Creole), Makalos (Creole)es, Ifangbondi (mandingo myth of the
flying mask ) Mam Sand'e (Wollof super Human myth). This make up your
psyche, your dreams and prayers. The myth in these folk tales will guide
us later to choose which kind of manhood society one will join later in
life. This is were some decide to go with the culture way, while others
will prefer assimilation.

UNACCOUNTABLE INNOVATIONS
It was the social clubs that brought the number one band of Africa Ryco
Jazz of Congo to the Gambia, Gerald de Pino and the Heartbeats, Bantou
Jazz. The social clubs were the backbone of the economy. Since the
colonial master could only afford to employ 10% of the population. The
youths were creative money earners. They would be treasure hunting
(grass madi) searching for coins, emeralds, pearls precious metals to
sell at the market, swimming nearer boats picking floating peanuts
(cor-fan ), selling sheep feed (dufal harr), climbing over foreign ships
and throwing timber wood over board into the sea for sale. The boys will
pledge their word of honour for mothers, widows, poor women and
religious leaders with the popular pledge word of "I will be back". They
will always honour their word and come back with the part of the sold
items and these women can go to the market and buy food to eat. Lying
was a stigma, a very anti-social behaviour in the Gambia. No one lies
when they promise things like fish money, market money, school fees,
school funds, etc and many other urgent social needs. A promise was
worth more than gold in the Gambia.

THE YOUTH CLUBS
In Banjul in the 50's and 70's we had many social clubs of many
categories with social status , dress codes and social class. There was
a big class struggle in Banjul. If you don't have going to England in
your mind your parents will call you AIMLESS because England was our
spiritual home. So for your dreams to come true you have to make it to
England. Whatever you study doesn’t matter but you have to prove
yourself in Banjul with the way you talk, the way you walk and the way
you dress. This activity was only in Banjul because this was the
colonial period and in the colony included only Banjul, Sere Kunda and
Bakau In Bakau there were mostly foreigners from Guineas and they only
work as cooks, watchmen, army and police offers, field force working for
the British and the Royal Army Force there was no development in Bakau
and Serekunda. Serekunda had the yellow streetlights and one way traffic
to Sukuta. In Banjul there were streets and street lights cars and
government wharf. The vessel Apapa (Ship) would come to Banjul and the
ship Areole from all over West Africa and England to Banjul. Banjul was
a thriving city and the Senegalese called it Batis. This is imperialism
and THIS IS THE PLANTED SEED OF TRIBAL WAR BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN IN
AFRICA.

PART TWO – Nation of Tribes

THE CLASS STRUGGLE
Each street in Banjul would have a small social club which will
eventually be a big club later. All clubs would initiate a junior boys
club But in each district were settlers live in a tight community  (we
called them towns), e.g: the Portuguese- Africans were at Jollof
&Portuguese (Leman &Picton street) and the RAF (royal air force soilders
) from  Seirra Leone, Nigerian and Ghana  were at soldier town (sa-
jete-wun) and so on. Only one part of Banjul was original Gambians and
that was Half-die. This was fanal (Famara awal- nee) territory and
Makalo Sara community. Half-die boys were not welcomed in the houses of
migrant homes. Always under suspicion! These communities of the
half-Gambian African guests in the Gambians had many gossip songs back
then against the Gambians. They had dogs and most of their compound
gates had weights and locks on with heavy car spare parts. So local
Gambians started to gather together in youth groups and started to label
themselves as Been-To's as well, (been to England) and started to move
away from the divine mbarr culture This became the cornerstone of social
clubs in Banjul. This was also how false life came to the Gambia.
Rampant Lies came to the Gambia in 1965.There was a Seirra Leonean band
that sang it." 1965 false life cam na ton". (The super Combo band)

INTRODUCTION OF SOCIAL CLUBS IN THE KOMBOS
Later there were clubs in Serekunda when B.O.Janneh started the dancing
hall at DippaKunda, Ryco Jazz played there as well as Gerald di Pino and
the Heartbeats. Later on in Fajara there were in house social clubs and
in within the civil service the club fever went all the way to the
secretarty General's office. It works like a MAFFIA on this level,
because they can refuse you employment. They will take money, goat,
sheep, oranges, mangoes, milk, plots of land as bribe to give a
government paid job with a secured pension. There was a certain quota
that the religious owned school can accept each year, large number of
Muslims dominated the school system but the Muslims did'nt have a high
school. So each year small number of Muslims will be accept  to a high
school ( 8 Muslim a year/ 4 to GHS a & 4 to SAHS )and  were allowed in
Christian high school. The Muslims didn’t have a place to go. So we
(myself) went to Crab Island School, were there were no FORMS but
STANDARDS all the way to standard to 7and later standard 8. But Adult
school was worst and later called BCC school. It was hard to be at BCC
and join a social club. At the police depot your standard 7 certificate
don't win you respect. Later there were social clubs in the villages of
gungur, sukuta, brikama and throughout the Gambia which followed the
same trend and maintained the cultural integrity of the community.

CLUB ELITES BECAME HAND PICKED PPOLITICIANS
The local clubs of half die were more specialized in ballet, football
and theater, they had : At half-die they had :  The Lineans Vous,  Los
Amigos , The Half Die Invincible, The Kent Street Vous and Hyde park
vous. In soldier town, they had Carolina vous, Comot-Behind-me vous,
Meta youths, Feista vous. Rosalina Elizebthan ,etc,.The clubs like
Realetts of Leman & Cameroun street (was a Janneh kunda vous and moved
to Leman street)  Marouns house and later Cave night club. They were
mainly Gambian and Lebanese but bent on Colonial practices like cricket,
occasional picnics dance parties with European flavours, sandwiches,
country and western music. The social status of some of the individuals
in the various clubs were becoming nation wide and house- hold names.
Some developed pop star look alike (suits and ties) and others like
revolutionaries, with "The communist block" beards and dark glasses.

For example The Kent street vous was a revolutionary vous whilst the
Realetts were a civil servant's club, but there were very progressive
social clubs. Kent street brought us Stokley Carmicheal & Miriam Makeba
to the Gambia and the PanAfrican Revolution. They also brought us the
Tonya Newspaper. The politicians took advantage of these boys and turned
them into agents of their political groups and later employed them the
civil service with an iron fist bourgeoisie development orientation.
Many amongst the Kent street vous guys went to Ghana under the Kwame
Nkumarah scholarship program but a few from the right wing social club
didn’t go to Ghana. They went to England, Scotland and Ireland. They
were the ones who use d to say that a degree from America was not a real
degree. The government used to resend people to England after studying
in America for British educational orientation Some parents didn’t want
their children to go to Ghana. The British called it the communist trip.
It was arranged by Garba Jahumpa and Kwame Nkumah. Later the British
fought and finished off Garba Jahumpa (Gambia), Abdul Gamal Nasser
(Egypt) and Osagefo Dr. Nkumarah Nkumarah I.M..Garba Jahumpa brought
political education to the Gambia and Pan African Movement. He also
attended the Pan African Conference in Manchester in 1945 with Marcus
Garvey.

FROM THEN TILL NOW
The younger (10 friends) Deux copines , The Honey bees, Hamilton, The
Raith Rovers, The Beatles, Soto Koto, Most of the social events in the
Gambia were organised and paid for by these clubs. The clubs were the
economic back bone huge human resource and the source of talents for
our, youth leaders, politicians, union leaders, sports clubs, and, music
bands and ballet groups. Each week a club would produce something quiet
massive. This time in Africa we don't know much about western pop music.
All the music we listen to was Swahili from Kenya, Congolese music,
Latin music and Highlife from Ghana and Nigeria.. So if you have brother
or a sister in England (on scholarship an Anglican or Muslim student)
you will introduce to British music ,the scholarship Catholics students
would go to Ireland ,but there was no music scene this time in Ireland.
So the introduction of western pop music culture was in the hands of
these Londoner - Gambians who brought to Africa their Gramophones,
Country and western music, Chelsea boots, suits and ties and  record
albums They were the suppliers of the western entertainment. The entire
community would use their Gramophones and records before we have dance
bands in The Gambia.

Every one had a purpose.


Oko Drammeh
"Extracts from The upcoming book "My Ndongo Life "

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