Deyda,
Good to see you here and this great piece of yours.The issues that Malick
took up here are of great significance in discussing Senghore.Malick was a
student of literature at high school and at one time he was asked to compare
and contrast two different poems "Night in Sine" of Senghore with "Night"
of Soyenka.Two different poems discussing the same subject,both of them are
great poems.But only one of them is speaking the truth about what is the
real villager life like in dark nights of Africa.Had it been that night in
the village, is so sweet,is in so much conformity with nature,I dont think
you would have pointed to some of us the "Teeth of the Sea",do you remember
that evening.Senghore chose that life because it is more comfortable.This is
all what Negritude is about,speaking of the sweetness of the village life
and yet choose to live the comfortable life so distant from reality.It is
very false,because there is no African villager who would not choose the
comfort enjoyed by the West,no African Villager will say no to a bright
village,a refrigerator,etc,all of the struggle is about a better life for us
and for the future and not to fall in love with our terrible poverty and
decadency.
You might consider Seng to be a democrat,but he was far from that,in my
opinion.You know better than I do what happened to,among others, our good
friend Ceesay whiles Senghore was the president of Senegal and for what
reason ?such would have been a head line as a typical character of a
dictatorial regime,freedom of speech ,freedom of expression was scarce in
Sengs Senegal.It was also Seng who banned all other political parties in
Senegal,except that of his own and two other opposition parties,it was not
until Abdou Joof took over power that LDMPT,Ade-Jeff etc were able to take
up open political work without fear of prosecution.We know what these
parties have contributed and are contributing to the democratic process in
Senegal.
You are right that Seng spoke for the Independence of certain African
countries,but Seng never spoke for Guinea Conakry and Why ?He even worked
very hard against an Independent Gambia,he wanted us to be part of Senegal
against the will of the Gambian people,a democrat would have think
otherwise.He was among the very few African leaders who never supported the
Liberation struggle in Guinea Bissau.In fact he worked very hard against it
and gave the most reactionary forces in Guinea Bissau, protection and ground
to sabotage the independent struggle of Guinea Bissau.He forced enrolled his
opponents into the Army and sent them to the frontline to fight against the
PAIGC liberation army.Among those who had to experience such brutal
nightmare was Abdoulie Bachilly,who is today serving the Senegalese people
in parliament and in government.Senegal has never in its history been more
democratic as it is today.
Seng was a great intellectual and contributed greatly to that end,but his
vision of Africa and the African was very terrible and I see it to be the
greatest hindrance why Seng will and can never be placed together with other
past great African leaders like Nkrumah.Even though I am no follower of
Nkrumah,I will never buy any explanation that he was a Dictator.Here is a
great man,who laboured to carve,not only theory, that is indigenous and so
needed by then but also worked hard for the development and progress of the
continent,he read Marx,he read Ghandi,he read the bible and so on to come to
a conclusion,yes he made terrible mistakes,but these were not out of want of
power but that of progress.If you take the trade Union question you will see
his mistakes today and argued that our own Jallow Jallow made the greatest
contribution on this issue.But Nkurumah on many other issues was far beyond
that of his counterparts,had there been any serious approach to some of the
questions that Nkrumah raised and work very sincerely for,there is no doubt
that we would have been at another stage.Whiles Seng was working hard
against the Independence of the Little Gambia,Nkurumah was busy given
Gambians Scholarship as a way of preparing Gambians for the independence
which he knew was certainly on the way coming ,among those who benefited
from that scholarship are Gambians who have contributed greatly and are
still contributing to all aspect of the Gambian society and he did not do
this only for the Gambians but also for other African countries.A dictator
will never contribute to the freedom of the other with so much passion as
that of Nkrumah.
For Freedom
Saiks
> >Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
> >http://www.hotmail.com
> >
> ><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
> >
> >To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
> >at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
> >To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> ><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
> http://www.hotmail.com
>
> <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
>
> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
> at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> [log in to unmask]
>
> <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
>
>
<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
|
