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The Gambia: Balangbaa, March 26th; Days of Rage, April 11th. 2011
Friday, 04 March 2011 09:40
By Mathew K JallowThese dates and the causes they represent are a perfect timing for the punctuation of a disheartening story of terror that has consumed our country for sixteen long years. They also represent a departure form a culture of fear that has effectively demoralized our people both physically and mentally from doing what is right and just for our country. In terms of the political awareness of the horrors and atrocities that have been perpetrated against our country by the Yyahya Jammeh’s regime, The Gambia today is far different from The Gambia of ten years ago. In 2000, before the advent of Gambia’s on-line radio and newspapers, Yahya Jammeh’s regime got away with a lot of incredibly atrocious behaviors that dumb-founded Gambians and left
us paralyzed with terror and fear. It took a while before the dissident movement both at home and abroad caught up with Yahya Jammeh’s murderous behavior and incompetence. Today we have arrived at this critical point on this long journey of self re-evaluation and redemption; to re-examine with a new lens how we got to this despair and desperation, and to re-focus and chart a new course for our younger generations and generations still unborn. As our farmers from across our wonderful country feel the despondence over their inability to find markets for their hard-earned produce, and our women-folk lament the insanely high and unaffordable cost of putting food on the table for their children, we know the time to act is now. We know the time is now when Yahya Jammeh, in total disregard of the priority needs of our people, continues to give out millions of dalasis of our national treasure to individuals who are not entitled to our collective wealth. We know the time is now when we hear the faint cries of solidarity from the good peoples of Tunisia and Egypt and Yemen and Bahrain and Algeria and not the least; Libya. For we have shared a common history of brutal dictatorships, and now a new destiny shaped by the courage of our peoples yearning to be free, will unite our wills to write the next chapter of our histories. When Martin Luther King sat in a Birmingham jail, a group of pastors wrote to convince him that the time was not ripe for the peaceful freedom marches he was organizing in the city. But Dr. King, ever the man of much wisdom, insisted time was never ripe for anything, and that people who crave freedom have moral obligations to make time ripe in order to free themselves from the vicissitude of mental bondage. Dr. King was not advocating a new concept that put his people in harms way. In a thousand ways, he was merely echoing the timeless adage that “freedom is never given, it is taken.” We have no Martin Luther King to lead us, but we can emulate the wisdom and the courage he bequeathed to every oppressed people. Above-all, we can follow his footsteps which continue to reverberate through the streets of Cairo, of Tunis, of Saana, of Tripoli and Benghazi; footsteps that are peaceful and defiant even in the face of tyranny; footsteps that are embodiments of the ultimate form of patriotism. In valuing and revering our lost freedoms, let the spirit of Dr. King guide us into the delightful realms of liberty and freedom that he fought and died for. These trying times; these times that tempt us to stand up and show our better angels, are the moments we can choose to make the history that will remain indelible in the minds of those who will come long after we are gone. Those younger generations who will inherit the earth and the gifts of liberty we are obliged to leave behind so their lives will never be burdened by the same terror and murders we have lived through. We owe the future generations the freedom and liberty, which Yahya Jammeh has stolen and cannibalized in our generation; freedom and liberty that will never again be stolen from the sons and daughters left behind to inherit our past. We have watched with envy what our northern neighbors in the Arab world have accomplished for themselves, and we know we can choose to be the footnotes in our own history, or we can choose to the preface that set the stage of a story that will define our unwritten history. Balangbaa Day March 26th. 2011 IS the day chosen by Gambians acting in the best interest of their beloved motherland, for the creation of a Gambia we can proudly call our homeland. But more than that, it represents the blossoming of a new political dispensation that signifies a turning point, which will challenge us to do not just what is easy, but to do what is hard as well. For we can never forget April 11 2000, a day which, beginning this year, will be memorialized by Gambians everywhere as the most tragic day of our history. Even now, eleven long years after those innocent children were brutally moved down by the crackle of machine-gun fire, they, their families and our country have seen no justice metered on their behalf. But their story will never go away, as long as their murderers are not brought to face justice; their sad, untimely demise will never be forgotten as long as there are people left to honor their ultimate sacrifice. As we soberly contemplate our options for a new Gambia, we remain unfazed by detractors who lack the passion of citizenship and the commitment of ownership in the future of our country. It is time Gambians listen to their consciences; to the pain in their hearts when they learnt one more fellow citizen has been murdered, that one more has gone missing, and one more is nursing wounds of torture, still one more is going to bed hungry and yet again, one more has just crossed the border into Senegal, and to far distant lands, to flee the country they so love. We Gambians cannot remain in a state of suspended animation till eternity; for not even the demons of Yahya Jammeh have the power to stop us hoping for a new tomorrow; a tomorrow that resonates with the will of our people, and a tomorrow that our children and grand-children will scrutinize with admiration for the remarkable perseverance we have endured in the face of cruelty and overwhelming brutality. Only then will the younger generation and generations still unborn, look back at what we have accomplished generations from now, and say with admiration and pride; “they did their best for us.”
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Comments
What revolution?
Well they ran shallalang, just as fast as they can, shallalang bangalang shallalang.
Yes they ran and they ran just fast as they can, from the bang shalla lang balalang.
Courtesy of the Bay "twitter" Rollers
Comment
Samba jallow are you HALLUCINATING of attacking peaceful demonstrators over an EVIL-INSANE-MURDERER? Why do you believe they will coil & do a runner?? You are in for a shock of your life if you are at all on the ground, & attack others in case of any demonstrations, for majority of equivocal threatening-traitors like you are mostly selfish cowards for real; why are you so scared to shedding your pants if you are in majority, over a mere call for show of opinion??? The day of reckoning shall dawn; sooner than you think.
If this is true, i find this very outrageous that up to this date our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not even made a statement about how they plan to help these poor migrants.
I know Jammeh is always suspicious of Gambians abroad, but for God's sake! people's lives are at risk in this case!
IF WE CANNOT LIVE FREE IN OUR OWN HOMELAND BECAUSE OF ONE ILLITERATE FUCKER, WE MIGHT AS WELL PUT OUR LIVES ON THE LINE. THIS IS THE LAND OF KUNTA KINTEH WHO RESISTED SLAVERY BY ALL MEANS AND WE ARE THE INHERITORS OF THAT LEGACY OF DEFIANCE!!!!
That the legality of any demonstration without a permit is set in legal precedant { Re;Femi Peters }
That said there are counter arguments re; the Constitution, Re; Freedom of assembly.
Brown Stone makes the case that a 12 month prison sentence..is the tarrif.
I would have some concern regarding any person or newspaper giving any support without either a disclaimer or a counter balancing article against.
" Fair and balanced "
Opinion.
Dear Mathew,
I understand your frustrations. You long to return to your country because you have nothing going for you in europe and you don't see any greener pastures up ahead for you there.
However you have made your bed and now you must lie in it. I know you regret putting yourself in your present predicament and wish that President Jammeh offered you a job or atleast assured you of your safety if you were to return, but your actions have surpassed that and now you fear that the only chance of return to your homeland is if the president was out of office.
As the fear in you manifests, it turns to a strong hatred for the man, who seems to have caused you all this pain (or atleast thats what you are telling yourself and others) and as your selfish need to gain accolade continues to drive you, you resort to more desperate measures, as trying to persuade our youths to march in the name of what exactly? i'll tell you what: Your Selfish Interest.
This Mathew Fellow will not give up on this idea now will he? And unfortunately there are always fools that get carried away by such ideas, but let me tell you this, while you are in gambia planning a protest, Mathew is in Europe under his air conditioned room drinking tea with biscuits.
And when you find that there are only 10 of you at this BalangBaa thing, then you realise how foolish you have actually been.
While Mathew is hoping that you all get arrested, so that he can try to make his void case of human rights abuses, the reality is that you will be breaking the law, and will probably serve a year's sentence for it, just because some fellow sitting in his air conditioned computer room asked you to protest against the most significant self-help idea from the present adiminstration.
I really hope that no security is present and you all are just watched like a show. That would really be a slap on yours and Mathew's face.
But you are smart Matthew: "I leave it to the younger generation to burn down Gambia" you say. Well, well, well. I tell you what Matthew, I'll take pity on your old self and use my connections to Jammeh and ask him to please prepare a good PRIVATE room with a nice nurse
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