Ebrima What a great development after your long silence. I will try to have me copy. By the way I have move house but will try to bell you so that you can access my new home number when ever you are in the midland. keep it up! Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear readers, With only a few days to go before the next Presidential Election in The Gambia, I am very pleased to announce that I have written a book on Gambian Politics under Yahya Jammeh and it can now be purchased online. Published in Canada by Trafford Publishing, the book is titled: The Military and 'Democratisation' in The Gambia: 1994-2003. It has ten fascinating chapters and 345 pages. The size of the book is 6 inches x 9 inches and it is available in both trade paperback (softcover) and hardcover. Take note of the fact that the hardcover is more expensive than the paperback (softcover). The book’s ISBN number is: 1-4251-0103-8. The book is available for sale online and it can be ordered online at www.trafford.com/06-1860 Excerpts from the book can be seen/read on my webpage. Alternatively, you can ring Trafford UK or Trafford Canada and order the book over the phone. These are the contact addresses of Trafford UK and Trafford Canada: Trafford Publishing 2333 Government Street Suite 6E Victoria, British Columbia Canada, V8T 4P4 Tel: 250 383 6864 Toll Free: 1-888-232-4444 (from Canada and USA) Fax: 250 383 6814 Or Trafford Publishing (UK) Ltd. 9 Park End Street, 2nd Floor Oxford, OX1 1HH United Kingdom Tel: 01865 722 113 or 0845 230 9601 Fax: 01865 722 868 This is a very thought provoking book on a very important subject/topic. In fact, it is the most comprehensive book ever written on the military and the democratisation process in The Gambia. It’s very well-written and there is, of course, a clear link between the theory and the very solid empirical evidence. Needless to mention, the theoretical framework is very clearly presented. This timely and incisive book provides an original and detailed analysis of the root causes of the 1994 coup d’etat in The Gambia, the motivations behind the juniors officers who seized power, as well as critically examines post-coup politics in The Gambia from 1996 to 2003. In other words, the book offers lucid, original, important and critical insights into our understanding of contemporary Gambian politics. Anyone who wishes to understand Gambian Politics under Yahya Jammeh is advised to buy this book. The study is also a valuable addition to the literature on the military and the democratisation process in Africa. My book will be a vital text for any student of African Politics who wishes to study Gambian Politics. It will be an essential guide for academic researchers, students, politicians, journalists and policy makers who wish to understand the nature and scope of the most recent political changes that occurred in The Gambia, in the wake of the 1994 coup d’etat. In a similar development, be informed that another important book on Gambian Politics/History will be released on 27th October 2006. The book is titled "A Political History of The Gambia, 1816-1994"and is written by Professor Arnold Hughes and Dr David Perfect, both Gambianists or experts/specialists in Gambian Affairs. Professor Arnold Hughes is former Director and Emeritus Professor of African Politics, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, UK. This 560-page book can also be ordered online at www.boydell.co.uk/80462308.HTM Anyone interested in the political history of The Gambia will find this book an important source of insight. The book should be core reading for anyone with an interest in Gambian Politics/History. It contains insightful and well-articulated analyses of pre- and post independence politics in The Gambia. Meanwhile, for more about my book, you can read the write-up below, culled from the webpage created by Trafford Publishing for my book. Regards, Ebrima Ceesay ABOUT THE BOOK: The Military and ‘Democratisation’ in The Gambia: 1994-2003 This book - The Military and ‘Democratisation’ in The Gambia: 1994-2003 (By Ebrima Ceesay) - provides an account of significant political developments in a small West African country, The Gambia, about which such information is not readily available. It is a robustly written account of the very fluid politics of The Gambia over the last ten years since the coup that ousted President Dawda Jawara. The author is able to bring an enviable amount of first-hand understanding to the case at hand. He was a newspaper editor in The Gambia and also a correspondent there for the BBC. The book addresses a subject of much current interest in the wider development and policy-related literatures and much of the information makes an original contribution to knowledge in the area of democracy and military rule in The Gambia. The study thus constitutes an original contribution to the growing scholarship on The Gambia. It also makes a contribution to the existing literature on democratisation and the military in West Africa. The book undertakes the much needed research into recent political developments in The Gambia, and sets this in the wider context of West African politics. It provides an in-depth study of events in The Gambia prior to and post 1994 and examines The Gambian case in a theoretical context pertaining to Africa in general, and the West African sub-region in particular. The fundamental concern of this book is to determine whether it is possible for a nation to democratise under 'military' rule. Following the 1994 coup d’etat, The Gambia had military rule until 1997. After two Presidential elections, it remained under 'quasi-military' rule, the military having merely been thinly disguised in civilian clothes. The central argument of this book is that in the case of The Gambia, it has not been possible to democratise under either ‘military’ or ‘quasi-military’ rule. The country is far from being democratic and the democratisation process has barely begun. The Gambia operates under an authoritarian regime with strong military overtones. The 1994 coup d’etat in The Gambia took place at a time when most of Africa was moving towards democratisation. At the same time, The Gambia moved away from democratisation and into military dictatorship. This Gambian 'exceptionalism' in recent regional, continental and global political development is explained and analysed in the book. The study presents a conceptual and empirical analysis of the recent 'democratisation' processes under the military and military-turned civilian regimes in The Gambia. It uses conceptual or analytical insights, drawn from the general literature on military regimes in Africa, to inform understanding of the case study. The book raises a number of very pertinent questions concerning the place of the military in a modern African polity, and the varied contexts and contested nature of this role. The book sets out to assess the military regime that seized power in The Gambia in July 1994, and which remains in power to the present day - having formally converted itself into an "elected" civilian regime through managed elections from which the military leader emerged victorious. It is broadly concerned with four themes: a) pre-independence politics in The Gambia, the Jawara years and the causes of his overthrow; b) the coup d’etat that brought the military regime to power on 22 July 1994; c) the subsequent conduct of the military regime, with particular concern for its attempt to legitimise itself through elections; and d) the question of whether The Gambia can be regarded as a democracy, to which the author has returned a decided negative. Four main questions are posed. What were the causes of the military coup in The Gambia? What were the various phases of military rule? How has the military performed in office? Has The Gambia returned to a functioning democratic state following the 1996 and 2001 elections? The findings indicate that the military intervention was prompted by a combination of political, economic and social problems in the country. The 1994 coup d’etat in The Gambia is best seen as the outcome of two main variables: the societal/economic/political factors which made military intervention a possibility, set against the motivations of junior officers of the Gambia National Army to intervene in the government of The Gambia because of their own dissatisfactions and possible personal aspirations. Direct military rule was in two phases and the military’s leadership performance was poor in respect of human and civil rights in both phases, although there were some modest gains in socio-economic terms. Despite the holding of elections, The Gambia remains undemocratic. The study is based on newspaper reports, interviews and the author’s own experiences as a journalist in The Gambia until his departure from the country in 1996, together with published sources. The empirical element in the book is accompanied by a survey of literature in the field, notably relating to military regimes in general, and especially in Africa. The treatment of empirical developments and academic sources in the book is both descriptive and conceptual. The ten chapters (including a general conclusion) which make up the book are logically structured; general aims and objectives, which are clearly identified in the introductory chapter, are pursued in a sustained way in the subsequent discussion. Early presentations of approach, objectives and strategy combine with overviews of pre-1994 politics and economics in the opening two chapters. Along with the summary of the circumstances surrounding the military’s intervention in politics in 1994 (Chapter 3), these serve as a prelude to the detailed evaluation of the military’s performance in government; and the circumstances, processes and consequences of the army’s transformation into a "democratic" civilian (in reality a "quasi-military") regime, which constitutes the middle third, and core, of the book. The final third of the book focuses on the fortunes of both democracy and politics under a quasi-military regime, and tries to draw lessons from this experience for a serious consideration of the role of the military in democratic politics. The penultimate chapter offers recommendations for deterring future coups in The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa, while a general conclusion presents a cogent summary of the principal findings and conclusions. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤