Marc 8 is been observed through out the world as an International solidarity day with women. The long battle for equality by Gambian women still remains a history in the making. Since Independent their contribution to the political life of the country have been cornered to that of "Fan Clubs" and YAYI KOMPINS and the semi feudal nature of the Gambian society continue to strangle them in the corner of motherhood, bearing children, finding food and house wives. The majority of Gambian women live in acute poverty whiles they remain the touch bearers of hope in the society. But this has never led to any surrendering of their wish and desire of a better society. Their love songs are full of protest and the stories they tell their children in the night portray the inhuman conditions they are subjected to live .I grew up with one of these stories; A woman who when to pay her tax to the king never returned back home, she was murdered for reasons beyond reason. There are plenty of such stories, perhaps one day we will come to recognise that these are also forms of struggle. After Independence, it took us even long to arrive at Louis Njie and it took time to go beyond that level. The women's Bureau emerged as the talking drum of the establishment and today we have plenty of women gender activist who dear to go further than the limits set by men domination. One would recall the great efforts of sisters like Satang Jobarteh during the last elections; they struggled to put on the political agenda very important issues that have for years not been recognised in the political life of our country. These are sisters who have and are sacrificing a lot to make women struggle for equality in our society to become an uncompromising political issue in the country. They are running institutions, programmes etc all in the efforts of empowering women. Perhaps it is time for some of us to start thinking of ways of contributing to theses struggles too, perhaps the next donation contribution collections should go to them. Happy March 8 sisters. For Freedom Saiks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~