FWD Independent Critic: Juffureh Loses Roots Festival To Kanilai The Independent <http://www.qanet.gm/Independent/independent.html> (Banjul) June 12, 2000 By D.A. Jawo Banjul - The Roots Homecoming Festival is a direct consequence of tracing back to the small village of Juffureh the ancestral home of an African-American author Alex Haley in the mid 1970s. Therefore, the natural home of the festival should be Juffureh and nowhere else. It was therefore a surprise to many people when the epicentre of the festival seemed to have been moved over to Kanilai, leaving Juffureh virtually relegated to insignificance. It is indeed a shame on the part of the Department of State for Tourism and Culture and the National Council for Arts and Culture to apparently allow the programme to be hijacked by a few sycophants, whose objective may be is to please President Jammeh and ultimately capture his attention for their own personal aggrandisement. By willingly taking the festival to Kanilai and giving President Jammeh the impression that his people have the purest culture in this country, their institution have failed the people of The Gambia. More and more people are wondering why the centre of activities for the festival should be moved to Kanilai instead of its natural home of Juffureh. Why should 'Sindola culture' be displayed to our visitors from the Diaspora as the only authentic culture in this country? Obviously, somebody somewhere seems to be playing a clever trick on the psyche of the people of this country, probably as part of the scheme to transform Kanilai from an obscure border village to the most important settlement in this country. However, it is certainly quite unfair to snatch the 'Roots' limelight from the people of Juffureh its rightful owners and take it to Kanilai which has absolutely nothing to do with it, but apparently only because President Jammeh hails from there. Therefore, the Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture Susan Waffa- Ogoo and her specially selected Roots committee members should heed the concern of the people and organise the festival according to its original idea, which is to use the 'Roots' concept to entice our brothers and sisters from the Diaspora on an annual basis. If however, Mrs Ogoo really wants her 'brother' to actively participate in the festivities or to even lead the mumbo jumbo activities, she should invite him to go to Juffureh but certainly not to relocate the festival to Kanilai for any purpose. I am sure most of our visitors from the Diaspora would prefer going to Juffureh the ancestral home of Kunta Kinteh rather than being subjected to the display of mumbo jumbo rituals that have no intrinsic significance to them, thus making the festival to lose its original flavour. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------