ELITES,MASSES AND WITCHCRAFT-YAHYA USES OUT DATED METHODS

What caused the end of witchcraft hysteria in the west by the late 17th
century? Did wise rulers or over zealous dictators either calm or force a
frenzied populace or did ordinary people tmeselves change their minds? One
explanation focuses on new efforts by elites,such as local magistrates to
discipline mass impulses(this happened centuries ago),instead of using a
para military that feeds of cocaine(this happened in April 2000)!
Authorities stopped believng in  demonic disruptions of natural processes
(which Idi Amin thought was right and our own mad man thinks is right)
right in 2004!
Those authorities who were here centuries ago forced an end to
persecution.From 1994 to date we have been seeing and hearing about Gambian
asylum seekers.Has persecution stopped within our unfortunate Republic?
Many ordinary people during that time! started thinking in new ways.Without
converting fully to scientifice out look,they became open to new ideas
about how to handle health problems reducing their belief in magical
remedies,they needed witches less and witchcraft became a taboo.In Kanilai
we have a witch doctor being called The Gambia's president and witches
organisin festivals and inviting entertainers from Mali.This was pure
witchcraft because tongues were being cut,eyes pulled out and a lot of
other mad things took place.Our national revenue was being slayed.No wonder
one of the so-called strong witches died and the burden was laid on the
poor Malian visitors.Many whispered that it was the Malians who cast an
evil spell on the Kanilai dancer who died because his gun fired responded
and blew his head off(laugh).
Potential witches who were living in the society that was mentioned here
above became more cautious.This decline reflected a new way of thinking
about strangeness and disruption.It involved complex interactions between
various segments of that society.It was a mixture of magistrates and
villagers,scientist and priests,husbands and widows,children with parents
and orphans,the poor and the rich.
This theme could attract our diverse perceptions to study this line of
thought and then compare these things that were taking place centuries ago
to what we have near the quadrangle in Banjul!
The transformation of certain societies in 1450! and not 2004!!!!!!!!!
raises fascinating questions about the role of elites particularly the
powerful groups creative individuals-versus the odinary people in causing
change.How about the internet fora we are using  versus public opinion back
home and  our folks in the diaspora? The time factor maybe different but
one things stays the same! that is the importance of humanbeings.They are
the most important catalyst in all these processes. If man falied to be the
maverick he has always been,we would still have been traversing thick
bushes,virgin and wild forests etc etc...
Dynousaurs disappeared but that because of the rude shock that earth
received from evolution.Those are the major aspects that are beyong man's
capacity.That apart man has always been the one responsible of shaking and
moving.Then the result is our asphalt roads,sky scrapers,trains and so on.
Fear not change my people! Fear not!
The growing importance of to social history has called attention of
ordinary people,as we have seen but it has not yet answered all the
questions about their actual role.This role varies by place and
time,ofcourse!
Some social historians tend to see ordinary people as victims of
change,pushed around by power groups,others tend to stress the positive
important role of ordinary people in partly shaping the context of their
own lives and affecting the course of history.
Is this not the historical springboard of democracy? The result of rising
dependent wage labor,tore growing minority of those communities that were
under kings etc in the past away from porverty.Science rose within the
ordinary people and ultimately influenced the then upper class to honour
the freedom of one's mind!
So power belongs to the people because the voice of the people is the voice
of God.
Our minds as people makes us different from other animals.All animals have
brains but do they all have minds? Set the minds free! and challenge
myth.There is a big difference between a free mind and  a freed
mind.Freedom is not to be bargained because we are born with it.
If Romania can chase their dictator and then his guard forced the
presidential helicopter to land and hand Chausescou to the Romanians,why
not we drag the mad man out of a squirrel hole in Kanilai and hand him over
to those judges in the Hague?
He has erected a mass grave and that is similar to what the Rwandan
ethnocentric generals and colonels were doing before the genocide
started.Today the UN is blaming itself and the rest of the world for having
failed to intervene on time.The same will happen in Gambia if we fail to
stop the madness!

Binneh S.Minteh
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
EMAIL:[log in to unmask]

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