DISAPPOINTING INTELLECTUALS OF THE GAMBIA
On a fairly warm December afternoon in 1990 when vultures were gyrating
beneath the cobalt shades of the pregnant skies, a dozen of armed Tamil
Tiger rebels stormed an isolated twelve bedroom mansion indiscriminately
bursting grenades and whistling bullets in a frenzy of madness no writer can
describe. Stretched on the mansion's graphically carpeted balcony after the
attack were the charred remains of a pot-bellied man reputed as Srilanka's
most hated intellectual. The decision to kill this man in such a horrendous
manner (obviously there are many ways of killing a cat than choking it with
cream) was a reaction to his "intellectual barbarism".
But while intellectual inertia is common in Africa, its frosty tentacles and
mingy outlook are becoming a sojourned problem in this Atlantic seated West
African state of the Gambia. As opposed to the usually jampacked Yossou
N'Dour musical shows or Tam Tam's lively Ladies Night, there is virtually no
vibrant platform for the intellectual lubrication of minds and thoughts. Yet
intellectuals are within our midst and brag to be called by their titular
names.
CULTURE OF SILENCE
From the kabilos of Brikama to the kundas of Badibou and kiang, right
through Banjul's narrow mosquito-governed streets, a register of
intellectuals with unflatteringly presentable credentials storable in the
files of Oxford and Harvard, can be digitalised and heaped up large enough
to download a computer disket. But ask for their whereabouts and
achievements, and a sudden impulse of pain,regret and disappointment would
trail through your spine. Though we should not and cannot entertain a
replica of Srilanka's brutal retributive petulence, our intellectual
heavyweights must not however, continue to placidly and silently wallow in
the luxury of ignorance, threshold of sanctuary and pomposity, especially
after having known the benefits and power of formal education.
Moreoften than not, debatable topics of national concern stem up in public
galaxy, demanding a healthy cross-fertilisation of ideas. Unfortunately,
most of the contributors are normally people with a speck of practical
knowledge and social conscience such as students or sometimes unemployed
youngsters frustrated by performing daily pilgrimage to the public service
commission. Such debates therefore, end unceremoniously, explicitly devoid
of a fine academic flare of any sort, thanks to the apparent hoity-toity
personality of our intellectuals whose preference to wallow in the murderous
lunacy of silence, makes them as expressionless as an iguana. One need not
stretch the muscles of the mind to gather examples. Just attend a panel
discussion and find out that half of the panelists invited are absent
without a communicated excuse. The "good ones" that turn up would come five
minutes to the end of the discussion. Remember this is 1999, 34 years after
independence - few months short of the millennium!
Ironically, the Gambia had, with all its ramifications an active
intellectual forum during the pre-independence days albeit the
hyper-creeping rate of illiteracy at the time. The model of decorum and
razor-sharp vision of the ledendary Edward Francis Small coupled with the
leadership prowess demonstrated by M E Jallow and others catapulted the
Gambia from the nadir of frivolity (Mecca for clapping and dancing) to an
enviable zenith of recognition moreso during the 1924 maiden meeting of the
National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA). These trusted Gambian
gentlemen opposed colonialism to its core and eventually spent a greater
cantle of their time writing protest letters to the colonial administration
and in some instances leading civil disobedience marches. Despite
intermittent threats by the governor, EF Small pressed the needs of the
people he aimed to serve eventually provided more speedily and
satisfactorily, the elements that brought him honourable and enduring
success in the struggle for a better Gambia. This is why people continue to
judge him by his spectacular ideals, methods and achievements. Athough some
of his ideas may be imperfect, others impracticable, but a man who, in the
1920s and 30s had done so much and contemplated such impressive designs
cannot be truncated to a forgotten stand.
After independence however, a new brand of intellectuals with a fabulous
variety of hues and shadings emerged, often puncturing the balloon of
delusion. The situation became lachrymose when the PPP moulded a system that
relegated education. The absence of a university and an institution worthy
of the name was Jawara's cardinal political tactic to govern a massively
illiterate country. Notwithstanding, Gambians went far and near in pursuit
of higher education. But after decades of cross-continent education, where
are our intellectuals?
VILLAINS AND SELL-OUTS
In his application for admission to Lincoln University in 1935, Kwame
Nkrumah wrote: "So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things
to be". These poetic lines of Alfred Tennyson cannot be more apt to the
Gambian situation than it is today. With a population of little over a
million, the Gambia has produced intellectuals as it has in stock of rice
and onions. But while most of them are scattered in the world, the very ones
that stayed in the country stood by and watch the PPP and its politically
impotent leadership ravage and loot the economy, government machinery and
social justice. Morally and financially, the country became paralysed and
shrouded in darkness by a collection of people, Gambians and indeed Africa
would always love to hate. Some of these intellectuals reprobates and
egoistic personalities joined the bandwagon to plunder scarce resources
spindled by a peanut-based economy - honestly sweated for by farmers.
The July 22, 1994 military coup was supposed to be a turning point in
Gambia's political history as it booted out a defenceless government whose
synonymous acronym was the institutionalisation of poverty, illiteracy and
corruption. Again, the intellectuals betrayed the country as a five man
military council remote-controlled the lives of both rich and poor,
illiterate and literate. Few dared say anything for fear of being molested
by military propelled decrees. The noisy personalities that were in the
country jabbering sweaty exotic allure of partisan politics went on
"holidays" and kept mute like a dead truck battery. The other cowards that
fled like summer goats narrated wild stories unmerited for inclusion even in
the best book of fiction. Indeed.... "so much to do, so little done"!
Evidently, in a situation where intellectuals went through school but did
not allow school to go through them, disappointment was surely bound to
follow. And this came in bundles during the two-year transition to civilian
rule. The inauguration of the National Consultative Committe and later the
Constituional Review Commission were opportune moments for our academic
heavyweights to capitalise on. Sadly, they were still slumberous, thus NCC
meetings continued to be dominated by farmers and ordinary people.
Perhaps the most insulting of these imbroglios was the almost insignificant
participation of our technocrats and professionals particularly so
lawyers,in the proceedings of the Constitutional Review Commission. The
commission's deliberations were often deserted with the exception of the
daily attendance of high school students. But if most of Gambia's legal
luminaries decided to be silent caliphs, a constitution with mammoth
loopholes like the absence of a presidential term limit, was inevitably a
destined probability.
HEROES AND PATRIOTS
Two kinds of men have influenced the course of history. There are those who
through the magnetism of their personality and the power of their ideas have
been able to mould events to their own course. There are those who, lacking
in originality themselves have nevertheless being able to get things done.
Halifa Sallah, Pastor Forbes and Mangum Ceesay, whose biographies read like
the widest fantasies of a romantic novelist, are supreme examples of men of
action. If ever intellectuals deserve their success, these are undoubtedly
Halifa, Forbes and Mangum. They have a tantalising sense of decorum,
proportion and design lacked by too many contemporary intellectuals in the
Gambia and beyond. They are committed men who believe that it is their duty
to serve society in whatever legitimate way possible. Halifa and Sidia in
particular, have shown the world the true values of a patriot, manifesting
this in numerous occasions but moreso during their open defiance to decree
No 4. Their fortitude and steadfastness has made them legends that history
would continue to honour.
Indefatigable patriots like Henry Carrol and Emanuel Joof of the AG
Chambers, unionist Pa Modou Faal, poets and novelists Lenrie Peters and
Gabriel Roberts, Bishop Michael Ceary, SHM Jones, DA Jawo, Baba Galleh
Jallow, Baboucarr Gaye, James Abraham and Cherno Baba Jallow have
individually contributed galore to the maintenance and promotion of sanity
and understanding, consciousness and co-operation. These are invaluable
humdingers who worked in propinquity to exude a lucrative fragance of
patriotism and good governance, amidst a lingering aroma of political
uncertainty and sometimes unpredictable moves by Gambia's dark spectacled
CIA equivalents.
As the galloping progreses with frightening velocity into the second
millennium, an aggressively transclucent transformation of our intellectuals
need to cascade, if the axiom: "to whom much is given, much is expected" is
considered a yielding parable. Therefore, our briefcase-trotting professors
in the disapora such as Lamin Sanneh of Yale should have a more sense of
belonging than authoring over seventy books of which none is sold or shelved
in any of our bookshops or libraries. But the recent "home coming of
professors Muhammad and Jainaba Kah was a rapturous spasm of
self-righteousness, determination and courage..., "such things to be".
So, Gambia mother Gambia, ever be our pride, in pain and joy all must bear,
peace and love on we ride, state and press all on sight, freedom and justice
is our kite, for duties of state cannot be a fright.
Abou Jeng
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