Momodou Sidibeh,

Thank you for your insightful and carefully considered posting. It was good
to read you again on the Gambia-L after your months of absence. I know that
you have a busy schedule, and I can understand this well myself. But keep
writing when the time and opportunity permit you.

I am suffering from a particularly heavy cold, so my own contributions to
the Gambia-L at the moment are scant.  However, once I recover fully, I
shall endeavour to catch up.

You raised some issues in your posting, most particularly those concerned
with the nature of "APRC support amongst ordinary Gambians", who consider
that building schools, hospitals and roads etc. etc. are the be-all and
end-all of the needs of our country.

These people tend to disregard the blatant and massive human rights
violations; they turn a blind eye to governmental corruption; they ignore
the chronic state of our health service, our education service, our
country’s infrastructure; they do not apparently notice the government’s
interference with the judiciary and its continual harassment of the
independent media.

If I understand you correctly, you suggested that we need to be articulating
a persuasive and sustainable campaign against the autocracy (in The Gambia).
  This is a valid point, and one which many contributors to the Gambia-L
have tried to address. I do agree that yet more remains to be done however.

To understand the political situation in The Gambia (and West Africa) and
why our people "support" incumbents even when they are certain that their
leaders are corrupt and brutal, it seems to me that we need to be
researching the matters of patrimonialism and politics of the personality,
and how these impact on ordinary citizens' perceptions and expectations of
government.

Even where there are blatant human rights abuses and widespread corruption,
the public often turns a blind eye precisely because of our African history
of patrimonial practices of patrons and their networks. (I'll expand on this
- as soon as possible - to make myself clearer)

Initially, it was difficult for me to truly understand the African
situation, and why our people would turn a blind eye to the realities of
everyday life, and fail to vote out of office these despotic leaders.

Looking at the literature on democratisation and governance in Africa, there
are very good scholars such as Hutchful, Luckham, Huntington and Decalo who
postulate theories and models of democratisation, but fail, in my view, to
explain and interpret why we Africans tend to "worship" our leaders (even
the worst of them) and maintain them in office.

Even though many of our leaders are corrupt and they cheat the electoral
process, there are still people in large numbers who will vote for them.
Some of the aforementioned big-name scholars have tended to fail to explain
this phenomenon, but there is a group of academics (Patrick Chabal,
Jean-Pascal Daloz, Jeffrey Herbst, Naomi Chazan, Henry Bienen) who are
really trying to make sense of the "African condition".

They do not come up with solutions to our problems, but they have identified
the problems themselves, and their books/studies are really worthwhile
reading if one wants to start to make sense of the enigma of African
politics.

What I therefore intend to do, once I clear my desk for the summer, is to
précis and share their perspectives on Gambia-L, so that we can start to
understand precisely why we continue to have the Yahya Jammehs of this world
holding onto power and also to work out a blueprint which would stand a
chance of getting Africa out of the mess in which it finds itself today.

In the interim, I thoroughly recommend two books in particular, that those
of us who want change on our continent, would do well to buy or borrow from
the library.  The books are written in a style that is easy to read although
scholarly in nature.

1. "Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument" written by Patrick
Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz  (1999) ISBN 0-253-21287-1 (£9.95)


2. "States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and
Control" written by Jeffrey Herbst (2000) ISBN  0-691-01027-7

It is incumbent on all of us to do our best to understand the African
condition, and to place this in a world context.  We have to develop the art
of critical reading and thinking, in order to take our ideas and insights
forwards.

Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.


PS

It was kind of you to suggest my name as a list manager, but I would be
content just being one of the readers and contributors.

And I shall do my best to continue my vigilance in providing information to
the L from my sources in  The Gambia, and to try and help break down some of
the complex issues which face our country.




>From: Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: More on the G-Lers' talkback
>Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 23:43:05 +0200
>
>Hi brother Malanding and everyone else,


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