Beran

Many thanks for forwarding us this article. This
article seems to have omitted a lot of information
about Women in Politics.

Firstly, It erred when it stated that Nyimasatta
Sanneh-Bojang never contested the 1987. Unless I was
living in another planet,but I could still remember
when Nyimasatta had to defend her seat against the
likes of Abdou Karim Jatta of NCP. The article also
failed to highlight that in 1987 GPP's sponored
candidate for the Kombo Central Constituency was a
woman Ya Fatou Sonko. In fact during 1992 General
Elections, GPP'S sponsored candidate for Kombo South
was a female.
Secondly, this article has failed to highlight the
role Mrs St-Clair Joof played as a nominated member of
the House of Representatives during the Colonial
period.

Thirdly, Ms Dabo wrote;

"This was however a short lived phenomenon as the
other parliamentary elections that followed 1965, 1966
1977 up to 1982 never saw a woman candidate"

Well for the benefit of the records, let the author of
this article know that in 1977 a By-Election was  held
for the Banjul Central Constituency and one of the
candidates was a female known as Aunti Lily of Picton
Street. In fact this woman polled 30 votes out of
2,780 votes casts in that crucial bye-election.

Fourthly, I wonder how she could fail to mention the
role played by Amie Sillah of PDOIS. This woman
contested for the Banjul South Constituency in 1992


TO BE CONTINUED.

Have a wonderful day

Sanusi Owens




--- Beran jeng <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I
like to  quote the late Great Osagyfo Nkrumah that
> " the degree of
> development of any country can be measured by the
> political maturity of its
> women".
>
> Beran
>
>
>
>
> Women in Politics
>
>
>
> The Independent (Banjul)
>
> COLUMN
> October 5, 2001
> Posted to the web October 8, 2001
>
> Aisha Dabo
> Banjul, the Gambia
>
> Gambian women have contributed tremendously in
> charting the political
> destinies of their men-folk by helping them to be
> considered and known. But
> women themselves never really manifest political
> leadership ambitions. They
> make great politicians, they even represent 51% of
> the population, but yet
> within political parties, women are relegated.
>
> The percentage of women in the National Assembly is
> edifying enough with
> Mrs. Cecilia Cole as the lone female in the
> fifty-member legislature.
> Although Mrs. Cole is deputy speaker of the House,
> this is no consolation as
> President Jammeh nominated her based on her being a
> member of the civil
> society, rather than representing any political
> party. Since the start of
> general elections in 1960 when the Colony and the
> Provinces were finally
> given the right to vote, a woman had contested a
> seat in parliament. That
> woman was Mrs. Augusta Jawara aka Darling, first
> wife of Gambia's former
> head of state
>
> Sir. Dauda Jawara. She was a candidate for the APPP
> later renamed PPP. Mrs.
> Jawara was said to have made an affective campaign
> despite the lack of
> adequate media coverage at the time. According to
> records, she won 1, 870
> votes out of 183.000. She did not win a seat in
> parliament but the figure
> she gained was at that time very significant. The
> fact that as a woman Mrs.
> Jawara had the capability to contest for political
> office in the midst of
> men in the sixties was seen as a big step-forward
> for women.
>
> This was however a short lived phenomenon as the
> other parliamentary
> elections that followed 1965, 1966, 1972, 1977 up to
> 1982 never saw a woman
> candidate.
>
> In 1982 almost 22 years after Mrs. Augusta Jawara, a
> woman contested and won
> in the then thirty-six -member parliament. Mrs.
> Nymasata Sanneh Bojang of
> the PPP won the Kombo North constituency. She was a
> member of the PPP
> Central Committee. During the appointments, Mrs.
> Bojang was sadly enough,
> only offered the post of parliamentary secretary.
>
> In 1987 she did not contest the elections and was
> subsequently dropped by
> the PPP. Up to 1996 no woman contested.
>
> All along this period no constitution in The Gambia
> ever gave recognition to
> women.
>
> Interestingly enough, one woman played a historical
> role in the making of
> The Gambia's constitution in 1961 in London during
> what was called the
> Constitutional Conference. Mrs. Rachel Palmer is
> that woman. After the
> constitution of 1959 was rewritten by the colonial
> administration, the
> political parties of the period wanted a new
> constitution because the former
> was somehow controversial according to them. The
> conference in London was
> attended by the APP (or PPP), UP, Congress and
> Democrats. These parties
> formed two groups: that of the radicals who wanted
> an all out independence
> and those who wanted gradual independence. As these
> two parties could not
> reach any semblance of agreement for the future of
> the country, they choose
> Mrs. Palmer who was then a member of the civil
> society to be a mediator.
> According to records Mrs. Palmer's efforts
> harmonized the conference and
> brought rapprochement between the two groups. Sadly,
> even though Mrs. palmer
> was a mediator in the Constitutional Conference of
> 1961 in London, that very
> constitution had no place for women.
>
> What has really kept Gambian women and continues to
> keep them off from
> political leadership? With the colonial system,
> which favoured boys'
> education over girls, the administration worked with
> men rather than women.
>
> The British system, under the segregated Victorian
> era, had not yet given
> women equal rights back in the home country. It was
> therefore the same
> system they had brought with them into Africa.
>
> What they failed to realize was that in traditional
> Africa, although men are
> the heads of families, women had they own areas of
> authority which men dared
> not challenge.
>
> During the pre-colonial period in Africa and
> especially in the Senegambian
> region, women played a great role in chieftaincy,
> kingship and succession.
> There were Queens more courageous and brave than men
> in handling state
> matters with competence.
>
> During the colonial rule in The Gambia, Akus or
> Creoles were the ones
> predominantly sending their daughters to school.
>
> The low rate of educated women in those days, gave
> these female pioneers the
> determination to aim for high posts in the different
> political parties and
> this in-turn made women into faithful voters.
>
> Presently The Gambia has many educated women who can
> vie for political
> leadership.
>
> The main problem is that the population now accepts
> as gospel truth the
> misconception that a male leader is better than a
> female one. Even women
> nowadays seem to feel more secure with a corrupt
> male leader than a good
> female leader.
>
> For women to gain or regain population trust today,
> a campaign of
> sensitization is very necessary. Both men and women
> should contribute in
> this campaign for the betterment of all. Therefore,
> it is high time
> political parties agree with APGWA on the quota of
> women to be nominated as
> contestants in any constituency all over the
> country. It will be better if
> political parties themselves take the initiative to
> appoint women to contest
> in the coming parliamentary elections. But even
> where the quota is agreed
> upon, the issue of political demands and interests
> will arise.
>
> It is known that political parties contest elections
> to win and in-line with
> this school of thought, they put all the assets
> (human and material
> resources) on their side. Therefore the political
> demand is that to be able
> to secure the popular vote and be nominated as
> candidates, parties prefer
> male candidates to female.
>
> Except, it seems, the party wants to loose.
>
> Granted, the female youth is less prominent when it
> comes to civic and
>
=== message truncated ===


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