Manneh,
I see that you are mixing two very different issues here, so perhaps I should
have made myself very clear when I commented on this issue. Please let me
make it emphatically clear that i am not discussing this land because I am
trying to defend Taf being given the land in Brufut. That is what started
this debate, but the Taf affair is a mess created by the Jammeh regime in
that they took land that was previously allocated to him for whatever
underhanded reason, and they are now trying to clean up that mess, or at
least make it appear so by giving him this land in Brufut. I am not defending
any of that at all. I actually do not condone handing over any land that
others have been living on or farming without consulting them.
Likewise, I also do not condone the underhanded tactics of the Jammeh regime
as far as this whole Taf affair is concerned in relation to the first piece
of land that was taken away from him.
If Jammeh is engaged in some pre-election PR and trying to remedy this
situation by shooting from the hip as usual, that is their affair.
However, this issue about who the land belongs to is the debate that was
sparked by that whole discussion, and land ownership in The Gambia as it is
now is what concerns me, and what I am trying to address.
What i am commenting on here is the fact that some Gambians have land that
they claim belongs to their klan and is therefore their's, while othersl,
like myself for example, cannot make this claim. As someone whose klan does
not have self procalimed title to any large piece of land where a parcel can
be given to me without paying for it, if I need land, I have to have the
money to pay for it and I find that to be grossly unfair.
You say that since my father is originally from Senegal, there must be land
there that our ancestors have claim to. Well, is that not the same point I
tried to make when I asked why you wanted to know where I am from.
You say that it was just a question, and yet, you have used the answer to
tell me where I can go and claim land, Senegal, when I am Gambia born and
bred and very much a Gambian by this single fact alone. If this is the case,
why then should I have to go to another country that is not my country to lay
claim to land there? Clearly, this was the reason you asked the question
regarding family origin in the first place.
You asked why there are countries if people did not own land. Well, this is
elementary and does not follow the same logic. Countries are organized around
groups of people who have something or want something in common, and then
within that parcel of land that constitutes the country, individuals have a
system whereby they can acquire land, which is a fundamental part of being a
citizen, and this system should not be inequitable as it is in The Gambia.
Therefore, it stands to logic then that everyone who calls themselves a
citizen of that country should be entitled to acquire land there and the
acquisition of such land should be uniform, either everyone buys land, or
everyone can make claim to some land without buying it. Any other method is
unfair and inequitable.
There cannot be some of the people who say the land is their's just because
they got there first, and their ancestors cut down the trees. It would be
total chaos in the whole World if this were the case.
These ancestors may have cleared the farmland when they first got there
because it was what was necessary in order for them to be able to use the
land. However, what we now have is a country where there is supposed to be a
demoratic system in place, or at least that is what we say we are fignting
for. This system is a system of laws that protect everyone's interest, and it
is the advantage of enjoying this protection as a society, a group, that
brings people together to form a country.
Once this happens, everything should then be decided on an equitable
footing.One cannot say we are all gambians, but at the same time say to the
rest of those who form this unit called a country, "sorry, but most of this
land was already mine, so let's just say we have a country together, but not
when it comes to land."
When countries are organized, laws are put into place for the protection of
the rights of every citizen. Therefore, we cannot operate on systems that
were the norm before the country was organized, or by systems that were put
into place or reinforced by our colonial masters whose only interest was to
pacify us while they extracted what they wanted from our lands.
If one wants to follow an old system of land ownership, then perhaps it would
have been more suitable to have stayed in those communities that they cleared
and farmed, and not look to have both the advantage of belonging to an
organized country and still enjoy the priviledges of not adopting a system of
land ownership that is fair to the country as a whole.
What we are talking about here is simple logic. it is utterly ridiculous to
say that one owns large tracts of land in a country simply by virtue of the
fact that ones ancestors cleared and farmed it long before the country was
organized. We are talking about a fair and equitable and uniform system of
land allocation that is suitable for a democratic country, and one in which
every citizen wants to be treated with fairness and equality in every aspect
of life. One cannot aspire for and expect fairness if some aspects of the
system are clearly unfair. Whether one wants to face this issue and discuss
and resolve it or not, it is not one that will just go away because someone
says that their ancestors cleared the land.
Pennsylvania was land given to Willaim Penn by the king of England in
pre-independence days. Likewise, families in the Southern part of the United
States held huge parcels of land during the time of slavery and up to the
civil war. There were also other families who held very large pieces of land
here in the U.S. In general, all people in the World cleared new and virgin
lands they went to settlle.These people do not control all this land now.
The Native Americans do not have the sole right to the land here, and
arrogantly appoint themselves the "giver" of land to other groups or
individuals even though they were here before, and i am sure their ancestors
cleared a forest or two. If land ownership should be based on who cleared
which piece of land, then there is still a good bit of land in Gambia that is
thick forest, and yielding a machete does not make it one's private property.
Is it logical that one should divide a country up among klans, especially
when there are other groups in the same country who do not have the same
priviledge?
I do not think so.
You wrote:
"There were tiny kingdoms, like the Kombo, Niumi, Badibu kingdoms etc, and
within these kingdoms we had clans. So if you are taking to task the
traditional way of land ownership, then maybe you shouldtravel back in time
and change the way Africans had always lived their lives."
Well Mr Manneh, what I can say to this is that, what we now have here, or are
attempting to have is a democracy , and not a kingdom. A democracy where each
of us expects fairness, peace and prosperity, and this calls for the
revisiting of certain ways of doing things for the greater good of the
society as a whole. Again, we cannot expect to benefit by a system and yet
not contribute to it's sustainance at the same time. One cannot have it both
ways.
Have a good weekend.
Auntie Jabou Joh
In a message dated 7/6/2001 2:53:52 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
Mrs Joh,
Why do you resent the question I asked of where you were born? There is
nothing sinister in it,
just a simple straight forward question. I asked it merely because I had a
chance to speak
to my dad, and he reassured me that, anyone from a farming community
understands what land
ownership is all about? If I had wanted to ask you otherwise, rest assured I
shall ask you it in simple
and straightforward manner.
I learnt that you were born in Janjangburreh, but is it not also true that
in fact your dad actually
originated
from Senegal. If you were to make enquiries am sure you will realize that
his clan/family too owned l
and. ( I am a cousin to your nieces and nephews, so you see we are all one
big family here).
If your argument that land should belong to everyone is to be taken
seriously by me, then I ask
this: why do do we have countries? Why cannot we move freely from one place
to the other?
That is a principle which would be great but we live in the real world, and
as such people have
claims to things, yes, even land. I am not at all ashamed of fighting for my
cousins' rights to house
their families, I will not apologize for it either.
"However, i also want to say that in our fight for justice, let us not be
selective. If we seek justice, we must be prepared to seek it in every
aspect pf Gambian life. It has become too easy for folks to just try to
use
the word tribalism as a scare tactic to shut others up because they think
that everyone will consider it politically incorrect and run and hide."
The justice to be fought here is quite simple really. Land has been divided
up among young men
so as build houses for their young families. Due to Brufut's proximity to
the Tourist Development
Area, some selfish businessman thinks that actually he needs the land more
than they do, even
though he and his family are comfortably housed somewhere else. He needs the
land to build houses
to sell at a Dmill or more. So now you tell me, where is this justice you
are talking about?
Lets for instance forget about this Traditional land ownership, do you think
it fair and even humane for
one man's eagerness to make himself even richer override the need of some
poor villagers to house themselves
and their families? If there is a need for concerted effort for justice then
nothing deserves
it more than this. Today, the 6th July 2001, could become a very sad day for
us, as today is the day that
the military will go ahead and demolish the simple mud houses some of them
have scraped for to build.
Why, because their rights to housing is not as important as Taf's eagerness
to make more millions.
So please remember in them your prayers today, for I know they are not going
to stand helplessly and
see their houses razed to the ground. Where is the justice, you tell me
people of the L!!
I think the tribalistic tendencies should be much more appropriately taken
up with Mr Nyang.
I cannot speak for any other family with regards to Traditional Land
Ownership, but I can speak for
mine. We came to own our land because our forebears broke their backs to cut
down the forests
and turned it into farmlands centuries ago. If some other clan was busy
doing something else and as
such their families down the line do not have land to farm or live on, then
I suggest they go back in
time and sort it out with their forebears.
"We have to be careful about being very
eager to address only those wrongs that are not to our advantage and
try to
ignore, cover up or pass over those that directly involve our
personal or
family, or group interests. One cannot afford to seem to give the
imptession
of being cunning at the expense of other people."
I am not trying to address this issue because it affects my family, I was
sick to my guts because
the greed of a single man and his readiness to rob people of that most
fundamental of human
rights, a place to live in. No one is trying to be cunning here, not from my
side I can assure you.
You live in the USA, have you ever asked the Indians why they always argue
that they own the land?
Am sure there are a lot of people who are Americans by birth too, does it
mean that they can build
and farm anywhere they like. It so is not the case here in the UK. There
still are traditional land
owners here (or as they call them land lords. They lease out their land to
farmers)
" Am I to believe that my Gambian brothers and sisters whose klans, groups,
etc
can lay claim to land and other groups are not entitled to the same
priviledge actually consider that just? If we are all Gambians, then I think
we need to revisit this land issue and make sure we put a fair system in
place where every Gambian can acquire land in a uniform manner. I cannot see
myself as comrades to people who say they abhor injustice and are fighting
for justice with me, but who at the same time conveniently chuck this land
issueto tribalism when it is very clear that definitley not all Gambians have
equal rights when it comes to this issue."
Mrs Joh, we are very fair in the way we allocate land to people. We gave a
whole village
to Ghanaians(Ghan Town), there are countless Senegalese, Guineans (mostly
Fulas, a village
call Pa Tubey ya), Manjagoes (Yuna village), Malians and even Europeans who
my family has
given land to, and all it cost them them was the price of a kilo or so of
kola nuts. There is a village
call Madiana, on the outskirts of Brufut, my family gave it to Jolas for
free.
So if one man wants to take countless hectares of our land in his eagerness
to enrich himself even more,
I think that is what what should make any fair minded person's blood boil
"I am no tribalist, but I think that this land affair is something
that
definitely needs to be looked at. It just does not make sense to me
that some
Gambians can have claim to certain lands when this is not evenly
applied as
far as every group in Gambia is concerned.
Am I to believe that my Gambian brothers and sisters whose klans,
groups, etc
can lay claim to land and other groups are not entield to the same
priviledge actually consider that just? If we are all Gambians, then
I think
we need to revisit this land issue and make sure we put a fair
system in
place where every Gambian can acquire land in a uniform manner. I
cannot see
myself as comrades to people who say they abhor injustice and are
fighting
for justice with me, but who at the same time conveniently chuck
this land
issueto tribalism when it is very clear that definitley not all
Gambians have
equal rights when it comes to this issue."
Mrs Joh, I tell you something which am sure is deluding you here, there was
no such place as The
Gambia when we owned these lands. So how can it belong to all Gambians? Even
the white Europeans/colonialist
recognized traditional land ownership, for after all when they wanted to
settle in
the then Bathurst, they bought it form the King of Niumi( or Kombo).
There were tiny kingdoms, like the Kombo, Niumi, Badibu kingdoms etc, and
within these kingdoms
we had clans. So if you are taking to task the traditional way of land
ownership, then maybe you should
travel back in time and change the way Africans had always lived their
lives. Lord people could be born in
the UK, but they still do not have right to land. Land was and is still
owned by traditional owners here.
There is a plague at my former university saying how the land it stands on
was donated in 1862 by
Lord Henry Robinson Hartley whose family has since time immemorial owned
that part of Southampton.
Have a good day
Manneh >>
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