U r very right Saiks, I think it is high time to protest or do something agains this problem our fellow black bro. and sis. are going through. >From: Saikou Samateh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Between Tripoli and Banjul >Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 20:14:15 +0100 > >Bro, >Just look at Sudan and Mauritania,the way black people are treated in these >countries,in our own age ,is among the most depressing events taking place >daily in our continent.Remember ethnic cleansing in Mauritania,with more >than 50 % of its population been Black African,have been going on for a >long time now.And as you rightly pointed out,not a single African leader is >marking it a political issue.Here too we have African leaders,like our own >government,who do not even want to know of the suffering of our black >brothers and sisters in these countries,instead they are more concern with >the "check "diplomacy.Mauritanian diplomacy in the Gambia can easily lead >one to believed that they are concern with the educational development in >our country,whiles denying black people in their own country everything >that can make life easy for them and even to the extend of deporting them >to Senegal claiming that they are migrants,many of these people could be >found in refuge camps in Senegal and remember in this very >country,Mauritania,lies the ruins of the Capital of one of the great >African empires,the Ghana Empire.Sudanese have even been running an aid >agency in the Gambia,whiles depriving millions of black people living in >that country their basic human rights,they are been starved,they are been >murdered etc.Arab racism is an issue,that our black brothers and sisters in >these countries(Arab dominated African Countries)have been struggling for >decades to put on the political agenda of our Continent.There are few of >us out side these countries who are aware of the suffering of our poeple >living in these Racist countries and our leaders will not even want to >know.How many Gambians are aware of the fact that more than 50% of the >population in Mauritania are Black Africans.My first encounter with racism >was in a so-called Arab country and in Africa. >Yes you are very right,there are People who claimed to be Pan >Africanist,and have done everything to deny Arab genocide and racism in the >continent,their understanding of the African past is either corrupted or >not deepen.Arab racism should be equally our concern as white racism,that >is why it is the duty of all of us to make the voices of our struggling >brothers and sisters in these countries be heard. > >For Freedom >Saiks > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Hamjatta Kanteh > To: [log in to unmask] > Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 5:29 AM > Subject: Between Tripoli and Banjul > > > Here is a very depressing report from the Economist on the Libyan >massacre of Black African immigrants in the recent spate of ethnic >cleansing that Libyan RACISTS perpetrated on BLACK folks whilst sparing >their ARAB cousins. It is interesting, that whilst we are busy condemning >Jews for killing Palestinians [Arabs or Muslims] the same ethnic cleansing >goes un-condemned in our own backyard. Interesting because the contempt >that most Jews, at any rate in Israel, hold Palestinians is the same >contempt that Black immigrants in Arab lands face each day. Ask anyone who >has had the misfortune of going to Arab lands as an immigrant. Stories of >human rights abuses, racism, slavery and the rest of the norms we thought >the we had left with the 20th. century, abound in plenitude. Interesting >again because when it comes to Arab racism and the history of how black >people suffered from the hands of Arabs, we seem afflicted with historical >amnesia; witness Pan Africanists discoursing slavery: Slavery for them is >European marauders forcibly snatching off Africans to work in far-distant >lands not equatable or even juxtaposable to the equally and morally >disgusting Arab perpetration of slavery in the past and even to a lesser >degree slavery in this supposedly modern age. If the stories we keep >hearing from people who have been unfortunate enough to land themselves in >Arab lands and from media outlets are true - as i have no doubt they are - >then i will be very bold in contending that Black folks, at any rate in the >modern age have had better treatment from White folks than from Arabs. It >is a matter of every reality that the decency and respect that Blacks have >earned in the West can never be equated with the pernicious and terminally >incorrigible racial discriminiation Arabs feed our Black brothers on a >daily basis. Read the attached report from the Economist and find out for >yourself. > Less visibly, and indeed, ironically, Black African leaders were not >seen doing Jammeh-style rabid condemnation and indeed, largely mute on this >massacre of their brothers and sisters in the hands of Arab racists in >Libya. As the Economist reported, "Some African governments - the >benefactors of the colonel's pan-African policy - have kept their critisism >mute, amid allegations that ministers have pocketed Libya's offer of >compensation." In effect they had already been bought by the cheque book >diplomacy of the evil and tyrannous Gaddafi masquerading as a Pan >Africanist. Where is our own Jammeh [another benefactor of Libyan cheque >book diplomacy and the guy who went after the British for the murder of >Biram Sey]? Busy reading trying to read his monthly Swiss Bank accounts >statements of which no doubt Libyan bribery abounds? So, literally he had >sold the life of any Gambian that has either died or sustained injuries in >the hands of Libyan racists. Where is that indefatigible Jammeh mental >wet-nurse and legendary pen pusher, Sidat "if the price is right" Jobe? >Still drunk and snoring from the effects of his ill-gotten and corruptible >influence in this morally degrading gov't? One thing we can be rest >assured, is that Jammeh and his intellectual bandits wouldn't raise a voice >in disgust at the callous murder of Black African immigrants in Libya >recently. The devil in Tripoli has paid for the silence of the devil in >Banjul. > I, must pause however, to refute the Economists labelling of Gaddafi's >policy towards Africa as Pan Africanist. Whatever else we choose to call >Gaddafi's policy towards Black African countries, only a political naivete >would call it Pan Africanist. As the Economist, in that very report subtly >hinted at, Gadaffi policy towards Black Africans has been that of using >them to further his own selfish ends. All Africans have to show for >Gadaffi's morally and politically corrupt policy towards Black Africans is >Liberia, Sierra Leone, Casamance, Gambia and Bissau. In virtually all the >countries he had acted or intervened as a benefactor, it had either ended >in a vicious cycle of civil wars or never-ending brutalisation and >repression as the Sierra Leone and the Gambia evince as case studies in the >latter and former attributes respectively. > I can only hope sincerely that we will take heed and never flinch from >condemning Arab racism as we are prone to when we hear reports of White >racist acts of repression. And that, that most politically correct African, >SA's president, Thabo Mbeki, would in the coming year call another tedious >racist conference, this time focussing attention on the equally morally >repugnant and stultifying Arab racism. > Hamjatta Kanteh > > ***************************************** > > LIBYA and AFRICA > > FROM THE ECONOMIST October 14th. - 20th. 2000 > > > > > > > Planeloads of bodies, dead and alive, flew back to West Africa from >Tripoli this week, after Libya's worst outbreak of anti-foreigner violence >since the expulsion of Italians and Jews in Muammar Qaddafi's coup in 1969. > Survivors told of pogroms. > > > > Emeka Nwanko, a 26-year-old Nigerian welder, was one of hundreds of >thousands of black victims of the Libyan mob. He fled as gangs trashed his >workshop. His friend was blinded, as Libya gangs wielding machetes roamed >the African townships. Bodies were hacked and dumped on motorways. A >Chadian diplomat was lynched and Niger's embassy put to the torch. Some >Nigerians attacked their own embassy after it refused refuge to nationals >without proper papers - the vast majority. > > > > Libyans sheltering Africans were warned that their homes would be next. >Some of Libya's indigenous 1m black citizens were mistaken for migrants, >and dragged from taxis. In parts of Benghazi, blacks were barred from >public transport and hospitals. Pitched battles erupted in Zawiya, a town >near Tripoli that is ringed with migrant shantytowns. Diplomats said that >at least 150 people were killed, 16 of them Libyans. The all-powerful >security forces intervened by shooting in the air. > > > > African migrants, unfairly blamed for the disaster, were detained en >masse. They once numbered over 1m but diplomats say that they have mostly >disappeared from the streets, and are in hiding or in camps pending >expulsion. Over the past forthnight, hundreds of thousands of black >migrants have been herded into trucks and buses, driven in convoy towards >the border with Niger and Chad, 1600km (1000 miles) south of Tripoli, and >dumped in the desert. > > > > Migrants from countries without land likes to Libya, including 5,000 >Nigerians and nearly the same number of Ghanaians, are being airlifted out. > Hundreds more are languishing in three scrubland camps ringing Tripoli >airport waiting for flights. There is no medical care for the black >Africans, many of whom have broken limbs or stab wounds. > > > > Anti-black violence had been simmering for months, fired by an economic >crisis. Colonel Qaddafi heads Africa's richest state in terms in income >per person. This year oil will earn him $11 billion. But Libyans, feeding >their families monthly salaries of $170, see the money squandered on >foreign adventures, the latest of which is the colonel's pan-African >policy. As billions flowed out in aid, and visa-less migrants flowed in, >Libyans feared they were being turned into a minority in their own land. >Church attendance soared in this Muslim state. So did crime and AIDS. > > > > A history of racism fanned the flames. Libyans were slave-trading until >the 1930s and, under Italian rule, they saw themselves as Mediterranean, >calling Africans "chocalatinos". Black-bashing has become a popular >afternoon sport for Libya's unemployed youths. The rumour that a Nigerian >had raped a Libyan girl in Zawiya was enough to spark a spree of ethnic >cleansing. > > > > Some African governments - the benefactors of the colonel's pan-African >policy - have kept their critisism mute, amid allegations that ministers >have pocketed Libya's offer of compensation. Nigeria's minister for >co-operation, Dapo Sarumi, has described the deportees as "an >embarrassment". Chad and Sudan have made robust protests. But President >Jerry Rawlings of Ghana was alone in taking action. He flew to Tripoli on >October 7th and brought 250 Ghanaian workers home the next day. > > > > Libyans will be hoping that they have just ousted the migrants, but have >also ousted Qaddafi's hated pan-African policy. Only last month, in front >of 11 African leaders, he was preaching open borders and single currency. >The United States of Africa was due to be declared in his home-town of >Sirte next March. It is now hard to see African heads of state rushing >back to Libya. > > > > Observers detect yet another U-turn in the offing. As his Africa policy >unravels, Colonel Qaddafi is back befriending the Arabs, with visits this >week to Jordan, Syria and even his old foe, Saudi Arabia. In their rampage >on migrant workers, the Libyan mob spared Arabs, including the 750,000 >Egyptians. Now that the UN's sanctions have gone, the African states who >dared break the air boycott have served their purpose. The more >lily-livered Arab states, who shunned Libya, can now perhaps be forgiven, >under the latest banner, Arab-African unity. > > > > > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at >http://www.hotmail.com. > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at >http://profiles.msn.com . > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You >may also send subscription requests to >[log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the >web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html >You may also send subscription requests to >[log in to unmask] >if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your >full name and e-mail address. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------