The Child Protection Alliance (CPA), in conjunction with the Gambian Tourism Authority (GTA), recently held a one-day meeting at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Senegambia. The meeting is about the protection of children from all forms of sexual abuse.

Speaking at the meeting, the director of the CPA, Musukuta Badjie expressed her office’s readiness to act for the protection and development of children in The Gambia. She was optimistic that her organisation will continue to promote the welfare of Gambian children. “As the leaders of tomorrow, my organisation believes that we should make sure children’s rights are protected and that children are properly protected from sexual abuse”, Mrs. Badjie stated.

Amadou Ceesay, a representative of the GTA commended the CPA for their tremendous contribution to the improvement, development and protection of The Gambia’s children.

Salifu Jassey, from UNICEF The Gambia, thanked the CPA and the GTA for organising the meeting. He said he believed it would contribute to successfully protecting and developing the children of The Gambia.

Last weekend, theatre-goers converged at the Alliance Franco Gambienne amphitheatre to see the latest from the Ebunjan Theatre Troupe. The presentation was ‘The Dance of Katchikali’, a dance –drama focusing on the genesis and legend of Bakau’s sacred crocodile pool.

According to a griot narrator, the Divine power had created the sacred pool in the midst of a small forest and placed there different spirits. The spirits represent all aspects of human aspiration and endeavour: wealth, success, fertility, good health, peace. The spirits take the form of crocodiles during the day and spirits at night. Higher than all the spirits, however, and shielding superior control over them, is the Great Spirit of the pool, named Katchikali. Everything seemed satisfactory and harmonious until the Divine power created humans, man and woman.

At that point in creation, harmony became destroyed and with it the beautiful environment that flourished, as humans wreaked havoc on their surroundings, chopping trees wantonly and generally creating a negative impact on the ecosystem. The spirits revenged by evicting humans from the forest, and Katchikali subsequently installs the Bojang family as custodians of the pool following a satisfactory test of the family’s loyalty, kindness, selflessness, and caring nature. The Bojangs care for the pool to this very day and assist those who visit the spirits with their various wishes, prayers and supplications.

The story is narrated with the support of the medium of traditional music and dance, with accompaniment of kora and drums. The effect ranged from quite strong to absolutely stunning. Much of this had to do with the deft and sprightly performance of the dancers. Eddie Mends Cole was in top form again as choreographer and dancer both: his imagination, creativity and effervescence never seem to wane. His magic was first revealed in the Troupe’s production of ‘The Magic Necklace’, and re-affirmed in the Troupe’s recent showing of ‘Hand of Fate?’ Professional koraist, Alhagie Mbye, led, accompanied, interspersed sounds with his kora adroitly between and through narrations, dances, songs, episodes, and still stayed as cool as a cucumber. Well, that’s a professional for you.

Esther Emeh, the great spirit of Katchikali, was as good as any spirit: how lightly she treaded, looking immaculate, noble, exalted, and emitting all the mystique she could muster. Of course the drama would not have been the same without the impactful narrating of Felix Downes-Thomas who played the part of the griot. His stage abililities were shown in Gogol’s ‘The Government Inspector’ as the shrewd Village Postmaster who unravelled the trickster Khlestakof, and as the concerned father in ‘Hand of Fate’  by Janet Badjan-Young. Other experienced actors included Ibrahim Ceesay who also featured in the Troupe’s performance of ‘The Government Inspector’ as well as in the Classic, ‘Man for All Seasons’. Marcel Thomasi and Ousman Jarju delivered the Prologue with great artistic flourish.

Some of the audience afterwards commented about the length of the performance which was judged and pronounced ‘too short’, and ending where previous plays of the Troupe broke for intermission. Comparatively short though it was, the show was yet enjoyable. What helped it gain ground and enthusiastic reception must have been in the area of stage effects, in particular sound effects, lighting, physical effects of smoke, trees, flowing river, and certainly its colorful and well-designed costumes.

The play’s brilliant director, Janet Badjan- Young, received a most deserved ovation at the end.

An artistic masterpiece! Congratulations Ebunjan Troupe!

Mr. Halifa Sallah, spokesperson of the Opposition National Alliance for Democracy and Development, has emphasised that there is no government in the world that can go against the authority of the people, asserting that there cannot be a government based on democracy without access to information.

Delivering a lecture on “Freedom of Expression, Access and Empowerment”, the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day held at the Alliance Franco Gambienne last Saturday, Mr. Sallah said that if the giving and receiving of information is restricted, tyranny and impunity becomes the order of the day.

“If we are a sovereign people and we should determine our manner of government, we must be able to make informed choices. To make informed choices, you must be able to have freedom of expression and access to information,” he said.

According to the NADD bigwig, the people can only be weakened by two things. This, he went on, is lack of information and lack of organisation, saying: “and that is why we have freedom of expression to give awareness and freedom of association to give organisation.”

He went further to express the need to empower journalists so as to enable them to know how to execute their journalistic duties and professional rights and responsibilities in a manner that would enhance the integrity, dignity and support base of the profession.

Highlighting the perceived but natural struggle between tyranny and freedom of expression and information, Mr Sallah defiantly enthused that “The tyrants of yesterday have disappeared but the pen is still here. The tyrants of today will disappear but the pen will continue to defy them until there is no longer any tyrant and tyranny on the face of the earth.”

In Mr. Sallah’s view, the media as a whole is an institution that is indispensable to a democratic society. “There is no finger to point to any one but to look at the profession as a whole and the environment in which it is functioning,” he noted.

As explained by Mr. Sallah, the fear of intimidation, which he said is the order of the day, is a real threat and it should not therefore be swept under the carpet. “We must accept the reality. There is absolutely no doubt that there are various ways of intimidation. I was one of them without any real basis,” he averred.

Mr. Sallah went further to state that given such circumstances it is not only the duty of journalists to protect the media but that of society as a whole, warning that if the media does not exist, information and awareness would be curtailed, to the effect that informed choices cannot be made.

The new security agency bill, which among others aims to strengthen national security against military and other related threats, was passed by the National Assembly on Monday.

In his contribution to the motion for the amendment of the bill, Hon. Sidia Jatta conceded that The Gambia might be under threat of some kind, the real threat facing the country is poverty of the people.

In Hon. Jatta’s view, the money that should have gone into supplementing efforts into alleviating poverty in the country is going to be pumped into creating four new intelligence agencies in addition to the National Intelligence Agency.

“This is what I call bureacratisation coming down to totalitarisation of our country. A small country like The Gambia, little tiny Gambia, five intelligence agencies in addition to the CID. What is going to happen to the CID? Is the CID going to be integrated into what we called the Criminal Intelligence Agency or what?,” he enquired.

According to the Wuli West parliamentarian, the move is in fact going to increase the threat to the sovereignty of this country because, as he put it, money that should have been used to alleviate poverty, to help develop this country, is going to be invested into bureaucratising intelligence education in this country.

“Such a situation does not help the growth of democracy and freedom in this country. We have fought to become free from colonialism because we want to be ourselves, have a voice and be individuals with dignity to contribute meaningfully towards the development of our country but this cannot be done in fear,” Hon. Jatta noted.

For the Wuli West parliamentarian, The Gambia could become a model in spite of everything but only if such is done away with. “Where ever you turn your back in this country there is somebody watching at you, which is not helpful”.

He went further to express concern about the disappearance of individuals despite the numerous security agencies in the country. “Individuals disappear and nobody knows their whereabouts. People are killed, nobody knows who the killers are and yet we have intelligence agencies or whatever you call it in this country.”

Hon. Sidia Jatta went on to lament: “How many people were killed at gun point and up to date, we don’t know who the culprits are? We have the NIA, the police, paramilitary among others but some four to five years now, individuals have disappeared, others killed and nothing has been said about it”.

 The internationally well-known Malian artist  Habib Koïte and his group are opening “la semaine de la francophonie” (the francophone week) at the Alliance Franco Gambienne.

After Dakar, Ziguinchor and Kaolak he will be here for the first time in his carrer.

A concert not to be missed!

Date: Saturday, 15th March 2008
Time: 9:00 pm
Venue: Alliance Franco Gambienne, Kairaba Ave
Entrance free

The West Africa Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI), an initiative of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) training is currently underway in Accra, Ghana at Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).

This is an annual event that takes place every September at KAIPTC. This year’s WAPI training started on 2nd September and will end on 21st September 2007.

This training supported by Action Aid International The Gambia (AAITG), through the alliance for the youth in conflict and emergency, WANEP The Gambia has facilitated the participation of Mr Musa Sanneh of WANEP and Mr Buba Darboe of Red Cross to the WAPI 2007.  Since 2004, WANEP-The Gambia in collaboration with its strategic partners have been playing a key role in ensuring the participation of Gambian civil society organisations.

WAPI is the capacity building arm of WANEP with a sub-regional focus, that seeks to increase the number of competent and active peacebuilding practitioners in West Africa, with the aim of promoting  stable societies in the sub-region.

Introduction to peacebuilding paradigms that comprises youth and peace education and women in peacebuilding, preventive peacebuilding, early warning and early response among the courses also participants are provided with the opportunity to select a course each week.  In addition to the courses offer, participants would benefit from a wide range of expertise and experience of the fellow participants.

WAPI is open to practitioners, students and policy makers interested in peacebuilding, human rights awareness and advocacy development, arms control, humanitarian aid, social welfare and gender.

Due to the increasing number of Gambian practitioners to WAPI, plans are underway to undertake step-down training in various communities across the country.

Following reports of a proposed meeting by some Gambians in the United States of America to discuss possibilities of reviving the disintegrated opposition alliance, NADD, Lamin Waa Juwara, the leader of NDAM, has indicated that NDAM would never be part of what he termed as an “ill-fated alliance” any more.

In an exclusive interview with this paper, Mr. Juwara opined that the Gambian opposition is out of business, charging that some people went into the alliance with ulterior motives. “Because under normal circumstances the Memorandum of Understanding, if there was commitment, should have been agreed upon within 2 weeks but it took us 2 years,” he said. He further expressed the belief that “there is lack of commitment and valuable time cannot be wasted and at the end of the day it is going to fail…That is the reality on the ground”, he added.

Mr. Juwara maintained that the Gambian opposition has failed and that until now no single political party is prepared to accept having made errors or failures, noting that they instead decided to put up what he called frail excuses. “How can you go forward if you don’t want to accept the reality?” he queried.

Mr. Juwara concluded that the most vital thing for the opposition is to ask themselves about what they have to do.