Katim, thanks for your valuable information. The folks at the University
got the sense that many disapproved of their guestlist and have decided to
suppress info. about guest confirmations. I like the idea of us coming up
with a fact sheet about Croc Jammeh. That is all I need and the rest is all
action. I think someone, maybe Ebou Colley had once put up a list. So,
Ebou, if that's the case please confirm. We can start from there. I urge
all Gambians in the Chicagoland area to participate in this noble cause.
This is not the time to talk but to act.
Chi Jaama
Joe Sambou
>From: "Katim S. Touray" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: President Jammeh's trip to Chicago State Univ
>Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 22:19:05 -0800
>
>Hi folks,
>
>I am writing to bring you up to speed on some leg work I've been doing
>about the
>reported visit by President Jammeh, and also ask if anyone can help with
>information about whether the trip is indeed confirmed.
>
>As you might recall, we received information that President Jammeh was
>going to
>visit Chicago State Univ. (CSU - http://www.csu.edu) later this month.
>However,
>to the best of my knowledge, we are yet to receive any confirmation of the
>trip.
>Be that as it may, I thought I should see what I could find on the Web, and
>using the plain old phone.
>
>I visited the CSU a number of times in the past few days, and found that
>they
>have the first in the Adulsalami A. Abubakar Distinguished Lecture Series
>(http://www.csu.edu/SpEvents/) coming up next week, Fri. Feb. 23. The
>series is
>in honor of the former President of Nigeria, and the Keynote Speaker for
>this
>first lecture will be Prof. Ali A. Mazrui, the well-known Kenyan, and
>presently
>teaching at the State University of New York, Binghamton, NY
>(http://africana.binghamton.edu/). Prof. Mazrui's lecture is entitled
>""Pan-African, Democracy and Leadership in Africa: The Continuing Legacy
>for the
>New Millennium.", and will be free and open to the public. The lecture
>will be
>followed in the evening by a dinner later in the evening.
>
>I called CSU last Fri (Feb. 9) to find out if President Jammeh's attendance
>was
>confirmed, and also to inform them of plans to protest his presence there
>in the
>event he shows up. I called their Public Affairs office, but was
>transferred to
>their Office of International Programs (OIP). I could not get the person I
>was
>supposed to talk to, and left a message. My call was returned by Dr.
>Hassan
>Wahab, who incidentally is from Ghana. He asked me what I wanted, and I
>started
>telling him the background to my call: namely information sent to Gambia-L
>that
>Jammeh was going to be visiting their school.
>
>I must say our conversation started a bit rocky, and rough given that, in
>my
>mind, he was talking to me in the rather condescending manner that God
>gave
>only to Africans with Ph.Ds. At any rate, this settled down a bit, after I
>informed him that I, too, have a Ph.D. And we then went on to have a nice
>conversation, and ended with no feelings bruised.
>
>In essence, our conversation went thus: I explained to him that many
>Gambians
>are upset at President Jammeh's rule, and would not appreciate his being a
>guest
>at CSU. For this reason, I wanted information about whether Jammeh's
>attendance
>was confirmed or not, and if so, if it would be possible for CSU to
>consider
>cancelling the invitation. Dr. Wahab explained to me that they would not
>know
>whether or not President Jammeh would be coming at all because of the sheer
>number of invitations they sent out. Furthermore, he said, they had a
>right to
>invite whoever they wanted to their school, especially given all the rights
>that
>people have in this country (something along those lines).
>
>I told him that I totally agreed with all that. However, what I was trying
>to
>point out that in the event they were going to have Jammeh as their guest,
>that
>we wanted to provide them with information about what kind of a President
>they
>are inviting to attend a lecture that honors a champion of democracy, and
>will
>be discussing democracy and leadership in Africa. I made it clear to him
>that
>as far as I am concerned, no one was planning to, or had the right to deny
>them
>their rights of association, we just wanted to make sure that President
>Jammeh
>was exposed for the person his record shows that he is: an undemocratic,
>autocratic, and corrupt leader. Precisely the kind that sets Africa back,
>rather than forward. We ended our conversation in an agreable manner. I
>thanked him for his time, and wished him well.
>
>My next call was to Binghamton, NY, to Prof. Mazrui's office. I called
>their
>last year, and indeed exchanged e-mail with their Secretary about
>interviewing
>Prof. Mazrui (along with Prof. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard Univ.) on my
>call-in
>talk radio program I hosted then. The interview never materialized (they
>were
>travelling or in meetings all the time), but at least the exchange of
>e-mail
>made it much easier for me to find what I was looking for.
>
>It was their Secretary, Barbara I talked with again, and explained to her
>why I
>called, namely, to contact Prof. Mazrui about the lecture he will be giving
>next
>week in Chicago. She told me that he was not in, but she would be happy to
>pass
>on any information I send to Prof. Mazrui. I told her that essentially,
>the
>idea was to inform Prof. Mazrui about President Jammeh's record, especially
>so
>he can bear that in mind as he prepares his lecture, and also if President
>Jammeh is going to be at the lecture. I told her that I was not sure
>whether or
>not President Jammeh would attend the lecture, but if he did, I would send
>her
>an e-mail on the matter.
>
>I called CSU again today, again the Public Affairs Office, to find out if
>they
>had received any word on President Jammeh's visit. Again, I was
>transferred to
>their OIP because the lady at Public Affairs told me that her list of
>attendants
>might not be up-to-date. I was again transferred to Dr. Wahab at OIP, and
>I
>identified myself as the one who called him last week. I asked him if he
>had
>any update on whether or not President Jammeh was going to attend, but he
>told
>me that he would not know. He told me that my best bet would be the
>Gambian
>embassy in DC.
>
>I also asked him about the dinner later that evening following the lecture,
>and
>he told me that the ticket for that would be $150.00 (one hundred and fifty
>dollars per person). The dinner by the way will be held at the Hyatt
>Regency
>Hotel (a hotel I stayed in when I first visited Chicago way back in 1985).
>While that might be a bit expensive for many I know (including myself), I
>would
>recommend it for those who can afford it because it's all for a good cause
>(check out more information on that at
>http://www.csu.edu/SpEvents/page4.htm)
>
>In light of the above information, here's what I suggest we do:
>
>1. Get someone to get us a confirmation on whether or not President Jammeh
>will
>attend the lecture and dinner.
>
>2. If he will attend, then I suggest we proceed thus:
>
>a) draft a one page flier on President Jammeh's record, and distribute this
>without any fanfare at both the lecture and the dinner. The idea would be
>that
>those who attend both functions should know exactly what The Gambia has
>suffered
>under Jammeh's rule.
>
>b) prepare an e-mail petition to Prof. Mazrui to brief him about President
>Jammeh's rule, and express our wish that he in his lecture and/or thoughts
>consider the plight of Gambians who have suffered under Jammeh, and how
>detrimental the Jammeh years have been to democracry and good governance in
>The
>Gambia.
>
>c) copy the e-mail to the CSU President, the Public Affairs Office, and
>also
>OIP.
>
>d) if possible, send a press release to Chicago area media outlets (we can
>work
>on drafting the PR once we have confirmed that President Jammeh will be
>coming
>to Chicago.
>
>3) If President Jammeh would not attend, I contact Barbara at Prof.
>Mazrui's
>office, and tell her that we are calling off the e-mail I said I was going
>to
>send her. I had told her that I would draft a petition and have people
>sign it
>before I send it out, but if President Jammeh is not going to attend, then
>there
>is no need to spend our capital now. We can always contact Prof. Mazrui at
>some
>other time.
>
>Please note that nowhere in the above e-mail do I suggest that we have a
>massive
>demonstration or protest in Chicago. This time I think we can be just as
>effective with a few strategically placed messages. I suggest we try
>speaking
>up smart, by which I mean that we try to be heard not by screaming, but by
>choosing to speak when people are listening. For this reason, we will
>probably
>need no more than 3 or so people to hand out fliers at both the lecture and
>the
>dinner (if at all Jammeh makes it to town).
>
>The plan would be to have a few people at the door to the lecture hall,
>and/or
>hotel handing out the fliers to attendants as they walk in. This way, we
>would
>excercise our basic rights to free speech, and at the same time respect
>other
>people's rights to assembly. And we would not ruin their lecture or dinner
>for
>them.
>
>I will try to contact CSU again to enquire about rules they have for people
>who
>want to hand out fliers at public meetings. In addition, I will contact
>Hyatt
>Regency to find out if they have any rules for people being at or near
>their
>premises handing out fliers. By the way, if we have any one in the Chicago
>area
>and/or at CSU who would like to contact Hyatt and CSU, please let me know.
>
>I will leave it at that for now. Please let's hear what other ideas and
>opinions there are about how to handle the Jammeh trip, if indeed it
>happens.
>Also, I would like to endorse the posting from Saul Mbenga or whoever it
>was
>that sent the MRDG posting, as well as what Jabou Joh and others have said:
>let's stay focused and not get distracted. I realize this Alieu Keita thing
>is
>becoming very irritating, and have been thinking maybe we should try other
>alternatives, but for now, I think we should work on these more
>time-sensitive
>issues.
>
>Have a great week, and best wishes.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Katim
>
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