The debate around polygamy is interesting and what makes it more interesting is that of the brothers giving us their opinion on the issue. I am so happy that we are going through this exercise, I call it an exercise because to me is it very important in the struggle for a better Gambia or shall I say a better Africa to go through this process.

 I just want to make a clarification and I hope this will help to clarify certain issues to both our brothers and sisters.  I am getting the feeling that the issue of western values are coming into play in this very important debate. As I said before and I will repeat it again it is an insult for people to assume that African women or Gambia women fro that matter cannot conceptualise things for themselves, cannot theories and specifically when it comes to our histories and our identities that we cannot come up with an appropriate theory of our own oppression or locate ourselves appropriately.  If a sister said that polygamy is synonymous with sexual infidelity that is her theory of the whole process and practised. That may be her experienced but it’s not western or a westerner assessing a non-western society.

  Are we saying here that we should not talk about Democracy because the conservative Africans are saying that is western and we should go back to our roots. Are we saying that if we condemn the bad practised in our societies, name them and form our own theories we are polluted by the Western society. Is everything good is westernised and everything bad is African?

 Well, Alieu Cham you made a good point but I disagree with you when you Westernised the Sister statement. I must tell you that I am living in Oslo but working in Africa in a country call Ghana in West Africa. You can disagree but I think to Westernised it is an insult to our intelligence and ability to think for ourselves. We take your point very well and we are happy that you people are engaged in this discussion because this discussion is important to us as we are building a better Gambia in this forum as I said before.

  For many years now African women have been a part of building state on this continent through liberation  and active participation in liberation movement in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and so on, many countries around the African continent; and after these liberation struggles what happened to the women?  We don’t want history to repeat itself in the case of Gambia.  We don’t want a situation where by if our women stood up and say we object to this African practise or  that our brothers in struggle stood up and say “This is Western “ Or no we are not going for that. We agree and disagree and this is what we expect from our brothers. 

 

The Struggle Continues!!

Ndey Jobarteh