Folks: I just returned to the office from a lecture presented by Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity / Professor of History at Yale University (former Professor at Harvard University for eight years). It was quite an informative and exciting lecture on the adequacies and inadequacies of the separation of church and state from both islamic and western perpectives, islamic fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism and bridging the divide thro' sustained critical dialogue about faith, history, values and public policy. lamin really made me proud as a Gambian, as a Georgetownian in particular (on my mom's side), where he hails. I was honored to have a brief chat with him during the discussion/reception session after the talk. He is (should be) an inspiration to some of us that are just starting our careers in academia. By the way, whatever happended to the database of Gambian intellectuals in the diaspora? I believe it was Ebrima Ceesay that was thinking of compilation. I think that should be a good resource for the up and comers and the younger generation to look up to and not the kleptocracy and mediocrity that prevails back home! Cheers! Madiba K. Saidy, Vancouver, Canada. <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> 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] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>