It is a huge tragedy, a great loss, an unprecedented rude awakening. During
President Jawara's rule, we used to believe that our very size and the
relative absence of anonimity ruled out state sponsorship of political
assasination. Well, that era is dead, and gone. We must have seen it
coming,
and there is little doubt it will get worse. Everyone is fair game, except
those whose consciences are softened by fat dreams for power:
well-"educated" people who believe that a decadent and schizophrenic engine
of repression can be safely steered to safer shores, can be persuaded into
peacefully cohabiting a national democratic space.
Where do we go from here? Perhaps Joe Sambou's opinion may spark some
inspiring debate. But perhaps many of us have become too weary of engaging
in emotionally draining exchanges that, as by a quirk of fate, always run
into personalised tiffs. Gambia suffers from the consequences of its
colonial geography. With all the patriotic cant aside, there is a dearth of
a history of popular resistance to tyranny. There is no rich tradition of
organised struggle that we can lean back on; the very reason why the
intelligentsia has a pivotal role in shaping our history.
The Killing of Koto Deyda Hydara, is a cowardly act of terrorism. The
Gambian state can only exonerate itself if it swiftly brings to justice
those guilty of this most heinous of crimes. We should simply kick out the
old trick of begging the public for information by the very authorities who
control all the resources (!) for obtaining information. That is a tired
old horse, that like the ministry of information and the NIA, need to be
scrapped at once. Since this is one of Africa's most security sensitive
regimes, robust at protecting itself and fox-quick at destroying soldiers
it
perceives as threats, we must rigthfully ask why it so singularly fails to
nab killer zombies who have taken to torching newspapers houses, shooting
lawyers, and assasinating journalists.
And this is the tragedy. While the rest of the world, even formally
colonised millions are scrambling upwards to provide for their people a
somewhat dignified existence, most of Africa's leaders are busy perfecting
the art of stealing an entire continent, leaving in their tracts, trails of
blood and agonising miseries, accelerating the process of
self-destruction.
May Deyda Hydara's Soul Rest in Perfect Peace.
The Struggle Continues.
Sidibeh
--
Anv鄚der Operas banbrytande e-postklient: http://www.opera.com/m2/
中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中
|
