Asbjorn,

First, there is only one official language in The
Gambia, and that is English. This will never ever
change in that country. All the other different
languages that the different tribes speak are "native
languages". The major native languages spoken in the
country are Mandinka, Wolloff and Fulani. This means
that if you can speak any of these languages, you can
difinitely mingle in The Gambia.

Most people in Gambia are not tribalist, but their are
some that are very tibalist. These people isolate
themselves from other tribes and only believe in their
own rituals if I may say. They marry nobody but
someone from their own tribe, and do things according
to their own tribal ways. They may even never want
their children to speak any other native tongues.
These people identify themselves as fulani-gambians,
mandinka-gambians or Wolloff-gambians. We have a few
of those just like they have the racist in the US.

Some of these tribalist people when in office, takes
advantage of other tribes even if they are not
tribalistic people. They may hire or put their own
tribal people close to them and let go others. This
tribalist problem happens in politics, the army but
none that I knew of with teachers in the schools. May
be it is going there these days...especially if the
Miniter of Education or one of the heads in the
Department of Education is tribalist.

Asbjorn, I guest these are natural things that happens
all over the world, and they are very difficult to
fix. There are always some bad fruits on every tree.
One can't prevent that from happening.

Over 80% of married couples in The Gambia are from
different tribes. This should tell you how the
majority of the people don't care about these tribal
lines. It still exist, but it never wins.

I hope that I've given you a little bit more insight
to your question. If not may be, someone else can make
it alot more clear for both of us.

Gibby.


--- Asbjørn Nordam <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Friends ,
> one of you wrote this the other day. I forgot who,
> sorry.
> If it´s right, that there is no fracturing gambians
> along strict tribal
> lines, why is it that there is still so many
> gambians who, when I ask, tells
> me that they belong to this or that tribe. I´m
> ignorant when it comes to
> tribes, so it´s very very seldom I ask. It´s only if
> I see a rite or
> tradition I have not seen before, or when it comes
> to very very close
> friendships. What will happen to the 10-12 different
> languages if you are
> right, that people are so mixed as they see
> themselves more as gambians than
> as fulani-gambian, mandinka-gambian ? Will there one
> day be one/two official
> gambian language ?
> And if it´s true that there are tribal lines, but
> nobody cares, then you
> should be able to make a statistical review of f.in.
> public jobs. Among the
> teachers the different tribes should be represented
> according to the
> dispersion in the total population, or amongst the
> national army-officers,
> or in the parliament ?
> Please try and elaborate a bit for me, to enlighten
> me. Because when I
> travel The Gambia it´s my impression that the people
> themselves stress the
> tribal lines.
> Regards Asbjørn Nordam
>
> >Every student of Gambian politics understands that
> any attempt to gain
> >political mileage out of fracturing Gambians along
> tribal lines is a loosing
> >proposition in that the people cannot be readily
> categorized along strict
> >tribal lines because relationships have long
> transcended tribes. My mother is a
> >Fula ,my dad is a mandingo and I grew up with
> wollofs and Mansuwankas. I am the
> >typical Gambian in this sense and like most of  our
> people i view myself as
> >part of this enduring mosaic. I do not recognise
> any difference amongst members
> >of my community and would be foolish to try
> rupturing this unique situation for
> >any reason because it would not any serve purposes
> regardless of what they are.
>
>
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