ELITES,MASSES AND WITCHCRAFT-YAHYA USES OUT DATED METHODS What caused the end of witchcraft hysteria in the west by the late 17th century? Did wise rulers or over zealous dictators either calm or force a frenzied populace or did ordinary people tmeselves change their minds? One explanation focuses on new efforts by elites,such as local magistrates to discipline mass impulses(this happened centuries ago),instead of using a para military that feeds of cocaine(this happened in April 2000)! Authorities stopped believng in demonic disruptions of natural processes (which Idi Amin thought was right and our own mad man thinks is right) right in 2004! Those authorities who were here centuries ago forced an end to persecution.From 1994 to date we have been seeing and hearing about Gambian asylum seekers.Has persecution stopped within our unfortunate Republic? Many ordinary people during that time! started thinking in new ways.Without converting fully to scientifice out look,they became open to new ideas about how to handle health problems reducing their belief in magical remedies,they needed witches less and witchcraft became a taboo.In Kanilai we have a witch doctor being called The Gambia's president and witches organisin festivals and inviting entertainers from Mali.This was pure witchcraft because tongues were being cut,eyes pulled out and a lot of other mad things took place.Our national revenue was being slayed.No wonder one of the so-called strong witches died and the burden was laid on the poor Malian visitors.Many whispered that it was the Malians who cast an evil spell on the Kanilai dancer who died because his gun fired responded and blew his head off(laugh). Potential witches who were living in the society that was mentioned here above became more cautious.This decline reflected a new way of thinking about strangeness and disruption.It involved complex interactions between various segments of that society.It was a mixture of magistrates and villagers,scientist and priests,husbands and widows,children with parents and orphans,the poor and the rich. This theme could attract our diverse perceptions to study this line of thought and then compare these things that were taking place centuries ago to what we have near the quadrangle in Banjul! The transformation of certain societies in 1450! and not 2004!!!!!!!!! raises fascinating questions about the role of elites particularly the powerful groups creative individuals-versus the odinary people in causing change.How about the internet fora we are using versus public opinion back home and our folks in the diaspora? The time factor maybe different but one things stays the same! that is the importance of humanbeings.They are the most important catalyst in all these processes. If man falied to be the maverick he has always been,we would still have been traversing thick bushes,virgin and wild forests etc etc... Dynousaurs disappeared but that because of the rude shock that earth received from evolution.Those are the major aspects that are beyong man's capacity.That apart man has always been the one responsible of shaking and moving.Then the result is our asphalt roads,sky scrapers,trains and so on. Fear not change my people! Fear not! The growing importance of to social history has called attention of ordinary people,as we have seen but it has not yet answered all the questions about their actual role.This role varies by place and time,ofcourse! Some social historians tend to see ordinary people as victims of change,pushed around by power groups,others tend to stress the positive important role of ordinary people in partly shaping the context of their own lives and affecting the course of history. Is this not the historical springboard of democracy? The result of rising dependent wage labor,tore growing minority of those communities that were under kings etc in the past away from porverty.Science rose within the ordinary people and ultimately influenced the then upper class to honour the freedom of one's mind! So power belongs to the people because the voice of the people is the voice of God. Our minds as people makes us different from other animals.All animals have brains but do they all have minds? Set the minds free! and challenge myth.There is a big difference between a free mind and a freed mind.Freedom is not to be bargained because we are born with it. If Romania can chase their dictator and then his guard forced the presidential helicopter to land and hand Chausescou to the Romanians,why not we drag the mad man out of a squirrel hole in Kanilai and hand him over to those judges in the Hague? He has erected a mass grave and that is similar to what the Rwandan ethnocentric generals and colonels were doing before the genocide started.Today the UN is blaming itself and the rest of the world for having failed to intervene on time.The same will happen in Gambia if we fail to stop the madness! Binneh S.Minteh NEW YORK UNIVERSITY EMAIL:[log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~