Gambians greetings, I have been following the debate between Hallifa Sallah and the rest, but I must confess that I am disappoited by Hallifa's adversary. The debate which started with that unenlightened article by "Dr" Ayitteh and Shirima now is getting all jumbled up and diverting to hit Hallifa's person and his activities in the Gambia, while on the other hand he is accused of being a fanatic or obssesed with Nyerere and Nkrumah. I think people should be mature enough as Hallifa has demonstrated and that is to hit the point which should be hit and when that is complete a new point could be created. The issue is the article by those writers about Nyerere, and Hallifa gave a very coherent and analytical response, and if anyone disagrees I think that person should attack Hallifa's analysis and interpretation rather than to claim that he is a fanatic. That is not the issue. I am a Pan-Afrikan fanatic, and I am not bogged down in anyway or disturbed if today western media wants to tell us that the Hamas or the GIA is a fanatic group, or that Osama Ben Laden is a fanatic. That is their own tactic to destroy their enemies and I have no problem with that. In fact it is not my business. Similarly if Osama Ben Laden says that the USA is the enemy or the devil, that is Osama's business, but I do not take that the devil is synonymous with AmeriKKKa or that fanaticism is synonymous with Osama Ben Laden. When I say am a PAn-Afrikan fanatic or obsessed with Nkrumah and his likes does not mean I worship them, or put them on the same pedestal as the Angel Gabriel or Muhammad (SAW). And the only reason I am obssessed with him is that he fought for my freedom and advancement when I was not even aware of my own degradation.And by reading his books I came to fully understand myself as an Afrikan and the condition in which I am. He showed me this more than any other teacher from primary to university. However when I analyse his life and work obviously reason and intellect would have to be my guiding tool. I cannot say how Hallifa's feeling stand with regards to Pan-Afrikanism, but to make fanaticism the issue is misleading. If he is fanatic that is his problem, but what we should be looking for is the content and quality of his arguments. English football supporters are said to be the rudest hooligans, which in this context simply means football fanatics. But the English press likes to say hooligans, and that is purely strategic. The IRA and and its allies in Ireland are not dubbed fanatic and seldom are they refered to as terrorists. So these jargons are just used by other people for their own purpose, but when we come down here to talk about serious matters let us not get confused by these terms and misapply them. Let us tackle the issue. I think what we can conclude is that finally Hallifa has won, because instead of his critics tackle the issue concerning Nyerere and the facts, they attacked his person and called him names, and get his activities in the Gambia a top point. Let us exhaust the Nyerere issue, and if you think we need to examine our politicians we can open another debate but then all outstanding debates have been thoro'ly taken of. The amount of words, and sometimes quite interesting words which I have never thought are in the Queen's English, that have been used so far are all useless and for that matter painful, when they could have been better saved for other relevant issues. No amount of words and colourfulness can distort the truth. Let us not behave like people with white masks in black skins. madi ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------