Badou,
 
I just wanted to report back to the Gambia-L that you are well informed on Matters about James Island and Alex harley's alleged fraud. Dr. Donald Wright (2010) in his book, "The World and a Very Small Place in Africa" argues that Alex visited the Gambia in 1976 where he met one guy called Fofana who falsely claimed was a griot, and volunteered to Harley what he wanted to hear.  
 
Roots succeeded in making Juffure a "tourist Mecca" for Americans (Wright 2010, P. 203). 
 
Regards to James Island, its naming has to do with the competition of europeans for slaves. The Europeans negotiated with the mansas, thus "On March 19, 1661,employees of the Royal Adventurers occupied the Island, names it James Island, the Duke of York..."(Wright 2010, P.89). 
 
Again, Wright's (2010) book is a master piece on Niumi. I certainly recommend it for research and leisure reading. 
 
Thanks & best,
Yero. 
 
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:38:59 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [G_L] [OKO DRAMMEH] Renaming James Island to Kunta Kinteh Island - whats your take?/ Wassa
To: [log in to unmask]


    
        
                            
    
    
        Oko's Kunta Kinteh Agenda 

        We, Ifang Bondi, never had anything to do with Alex Haley.

        Haley never worked with Ifang Bondi into(?) his Roots project and he never invited us to make some of the music. 

        We were never asked by the American Embassy to promote Kunta Kinteh in the USA. 

        We never had any ambition to be part of Alex Haley's or Oko's dreams of transforming all of gambia into Kunta Kinteh-USA- Africa meeting point for history culture & education.

        We never had any intention to express our artistic vision on Roots, The Gambia & Kunta Kinteh. 

          In short, we were never part of Oko's Kunta Kinteh agenda.  

        We belonged to those Gambians who didn't remember Kunta Kinteh, simply because Kunta Kinteh never existed. 

        Everyone knew that the Kunta Kinteh story was fiction, even worse, that Haley stole the Kunta Kinteh story from another novel "African" by Courlander, who promptly took him to court. In the end Haley had to pay him $ 650,000 in damages. Other scholars proved that more of Haley's claims were fake. Check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley  / "Plagiarism dispute and other criticism"  

        The Gambia owes Haley for the creation of a major tourist attraction, but Kunta Kinteh has no more links with the reality as Walt Disney's Snow White has. 

          James Island was renamed after a fake character fabricated by an American writer who ripped it off from yet another American writer.

        "What use to be a source of Shame in is now acceptable norm in the gambia." Indeed.

        Badou Jobe

        

        

        

         

        KUNTA KINTEH

        Alex Haley worked with Ifangbondi into his ROOTS PROJECT and invited the band to make some of the music. Senemie was contacted and Samson Gassama, Badou andyself with the American Embassy planned on promoting Kunta Kinteh in The USA. The Jealous reign of that time buried the dreams of Alex Haley because we wre going to be in the mix. All of gambia was going to transformed into a Kunta Kinteh- USA-Africa meeting point for history culture & education together with Goree & Elmina in Ghana. Our artists are not given chance to express thier artistic vision on Roots, the Gambia & Kunta Kinteh and much more. [----- ]  You know  more to do with James Island & Kunta Kinteh than a by-passer. We have a Kunta Kinteh agenda.BUT Who remembers Kunta Kinbteh, only Gambians. this isld news, we have to reinvent it and repackage it.

    

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