Dear Saiks,

Really enjoyed your piece. Brilliant submission. I hope that some members on
  the "L" can join in this brainstorming crusade. But, something I want us
to do is to unshackle ourselves of any predilections of any kind. Otherwise,
we shall have a dwarfish freedom of space only enough to swing a cat in to
manouevre. I sincerely join you in saluting our people in their honour to
live with and resist the myriad of hardship colonialism bestowed on them.
That was matured and indeed concious of them to do. We share their plight
and indeed those of others who still disown oppression of any kind.

However, my focal point of analysis does not in any way touch them. I am
looking into what factors might have led us into being colonized from an
inner perspective. That is, what our people might have been really doing
that could have indicated to have led them into been an easy prey to the
West to catch. That will measure my defination of the level of Political
Maturity. Not what happened after that when the colonizers came and our
people resisted them. Surprisingly, we will realize that even today,
Africans to a large extend can be classified as having a low level political
maturity.

So, what could be Political Maturity? This may arbitrarily be referred, at
least in the context that I am using it, to as "Awareness of ones Political
Environment both internal and external", and "How to maximise that
environment". I shall avoid to quibble over definations as it may be seen by
others as a futile exercise in semantic ambiguity.

Now, lets closely look at the probable activities of the nature of
institutions of administration of our societies during the pre-colonial
period. I am quoting no body here be it African or Western, although, our
conclusions can be similar. I am only drawing up my own picture. Yes, again
one would say, it has no fundations, etc. But, that is where I am starting
and that is one enough. The reality of the suitations I will portray will
support the argument.

I feel that the low level political maturity of our people then (remember I
am concern with pre-colonial period) that denied them the foresight to
visualize to adventure to a far land and to politically prepare their
societies for any kind of aggression or eventualities from any corner of the
World or even to take the initiative to explore inorder to acquire more
resources (both human or natural)speaks about lack of effort to acquire the
minimal knowledge about the outside world. We could have been pre-emptive.
We could have been colonisers ourselves of farer lands for various reasons.
Yes, European colonism got precipitated majorly as a result of the
industrial revolution in Europe, amongst other factors, that necessitated
their desire for newer markets. Couldn't such a revolution have occured in
Africa? I believe we need to put our houses in order first before
apportioning blame on outsiders whose only crime is to cruelly help us to
aggravate our already non-creative and non-foreward looking outlook. You
see, a wise physician would endeavor to look for symtoms to a disease first
and then try to find a cure for it. We need to analysis ourselves inorder to
correct our faults first then we can have the pleasure to condemn
colonialism.

The senario in most , if not all, African societies today are not much
different from those days when they were easily conquered by colonialism.
Most of our leaders have failed us. What are we doing to change the game? We
have seen that neither through elections nor through our senseless coups has
Africa improved in anything. What next can we do? Can't we device something
else? Facts unnimously almost indicate Africa as the home of the first human
being on earth. Studies also show the plenteous amount of natural resources
harbored by Africa. What is our problem? One will quickly point to outsiders
as responsible for the backwardness. But, why do we allow then to manipulate
us in the first place? What effort are we making to manipulate them in turn
to our advantage? You look around, you see all those International that,
International this- all structured reflecting the wishes and interests of
the West. Can't we evolve our own things for our benefit? Few examples like
Nigeria and the former Zaire will epitomise the entire picture. Perhaps a
lot of what I am saying here will not sound congenial to most of us. But, it
is imperative that we do some soul-searching.

When next I write, I will try to delineate the foundation of my ideal
society. Its gonna come. Don't mind. What I will do then, to repeat, is to
show how a balance can occur between the leader and the led in politics to
their mutual benefit and interest. Lets stay together. We may even wish to
apply it in the Gambian context.  We shall make it clear. What is important
as at now, which we have agreed on, is to have that ideal type of society.
Thats a milestone.

Thanks again for your most enligthening pieces.

Blessings

Alieu


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