Following a string of poor performances in the GFA first division league this season, the 2007/8 Gambia Football Association Super Cup Champions, GPA, will be playing its football in the GFA second division domestic league next season.The results came as a result of bad performances in the first division league this season.

The Gambia Ports Authority was established in 1973 and the core of their players were snatched from Real De Banjul. It became one of the best clubs in the country with players like Goalkeeper Saho, Alhaji Sarr, Head Coach of Seaview, Kabba Ceesay, FIFA Player Agent to name a few. In around 1988/9, the club ceased to exist and in its place came Waterside FC which was the club feeder team.

In 1996, Falcons FC, which won the Banjul Nawetaan, was transformed to GPA FC. The team gained promotion from the 3rd division while coached by Ebou Faye, who also doubled up as player. He scored a brace of goals that secure the clubs promotion to the 2nd division. He coached the team until it was on the threshold of gaining promotion but then left for further studies and Kabba Ceesay took over as the coach. After two seasons, Modou Lamin Fofana (Faraba), the current Caretaker Coach, took over as the coach.  He won the championship in 1998/9 season and FTI trophy.

In 2001, Demba Ramata took over for a season before Ebou Faye took over again for three seasons. Alhaji Sarr, took over in the 2005/6 season and this period could be described as the golden period of the club as they won the league in his first year. They followed this with the Super Cup and FA Cup in his second season. His abrupt departure to Seaview created a vacuum that was difficult to fill.

Analysis of the season:

GPA F C

This is the saddest chapter for someone who has the team in his heart. The club had everything but did nothing. two wins, 14 draws and six losses tell the story of a team too inconsistent to be in the premier league. Ultimately, GPA were not good enough. The players did not have the heart for the fight. They looked like the 11th best team in the league. Hardworking, but without the quality needed to survive. The league table doesn’t lie. The points total shows that they were not good enough. Over 22 matches they didn’t do enough to stay in the 1st division. End of story.

It feels like the end of the world but it isn’t. They have to regroup and get on with life and they should. Football is about character and resilience. It’s how you bounce back. In all honesty, GPA FC cannot have too many complaints. Any team with a record of just 2 wins in 22 games and more defeats cannot hope for too much in a league where competition is now honed to cut-throat proportions.

It’s just difficult to identify a single major reason for the team’s poor performance as I believe there were a comedy of errors and misjudgment analyzing it from the outside. The club Management’s failure to monitor and intervene at the right time was a factor. Sacking the Head Coach, Ebou Joof was a big mistake as the intended objective was not achieved. The club management should always analyze when to sack a coach as it is bound to have a ripple effect on the players. Another problem, I think, is management paying higher allowance to squad players than the so-called ordinary players. This was a destabilizing factor. As squad players normally play less matches than the ordinary players who are always much more committed to the team. This affected the team spirit and created the lack of courage, motivation and character to grind out results when it mattered.

The GPA board must look into this question and find a solution to make sure that the team is back into first division football next season. Some pertinent questions are:

The GPA board must look into this question and find a solution to make sure that the team is back into first division football next season. Some pertinent questions are:

The GPA board must look into this question and find a solution to make sure that the team is back into first division football next season. Some pertinent questions are:

1 Why is the team not winning games?

2. Has the departure of Coach Alhagie Sarr adversely affected the team in its performance and morale?

3.         Are the players totally committed?

4.         Is the sacking of Coach Lukeh the solution?

5.         Is there any difference in the dressing room?

These are all questions that the board of the team need to ask themselves to make sure that the team can make it back to first division football.

Analysis made by Ebou Faye

Analysis made by Ebou Faye

Tonight and tomorrow, the Arch will be pulsating with traditional musical activities as it hosts entertaining cultural performances. The cultural performances, which give flavour of the diverse but homogenous cultures that make up The Gambia, are the new exciting events that complement the food and drinks activities taking place at the Arch. The concerts are free to the public.

If darkness falls on the landscape of Lamin tomorrow, Willy’s Nightclub will play host to a bevy of prospective queens in what is dubbed Miss Willy’s.

A huge number of beauty queens are expected to shine in a night of thrills and cat-walking.

Organized by Champion Sounds, the night of the most beautiful, is expected bring under one roof party people from Lamin and well beyond it.

DJ Lamin Cham told Entertainment that the evening will not be all about cat-walking but there will be musical interludes to add pep to the show. Live performances will be staged by such musicians as Chama Jeng and Sambou Suso.

"I don't know why you had to go to the hospital," the woman's husband yells furiously. His pregnant wife defends her decision to go to the hospital instead of just trusting the traditional healer. "But I had to know about my health and the health of my baby," she argues. At the hospital, the wife discovers she is HIV positive.

Her husband screams, "So now you know - that's your health, but I'm healthy. Now get out of my house ... "It's over. It's all over between you and me." She tries to argue but its no use. And the scene is over.

The play, "My Husband is in Denial", is based on real events, like all those staged by the Grupo de Teatro do Oprimidos (GTO), "Theatre of the Oppressed Group" in English).

When the wife's HIV test is positive, her husband refuses to be tested and the actor then turns to the audience and asks, "How do I resolve this situation?"

Audience participation

Teatro dos Oprimidos has an interactive style that originated in Brazil and has been exported to more than 70 countries on all continents. Its creator, Augusto Boal, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his success in using theatre as a tool for social activism.

Using workshops and verbal exchanges with the audience, this style of theatre has not only spread but has proven to be an excellent method for revealing cultural obstacles in HIV treatment and prevention. In Mozambique, where there is a long-standing tradition of socially aware community theatre, it has found fertile ground.

After the 1992 peace accord brought an end to 16 years of war, the National Song and Dance Company crisscrossed the country, announcing that the conflict had ended and asking for reconciliation. Later, numerous local theatre groups explained how to avoid land mines and how to vote in the country's first democratic elections. In 1997, actors explained to farmers their rights according to the new land law.

Today, Mozambique has a total of 120 theatre groups in 83 districts performing plays mostly about malaria, cholera, tuberculosis and HIV prevention. GTO has partnerships with the youth activism network, Geração Biz, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Pathfinder International, a non-profit family planning and reproductive health organization.

In 2001, after spending six months studying theatre methodology in Rio de Janeiro on a scholarship from the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), Alvim Cossa founded GTO in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

"The main difference is that there are no spectators - people participate. The play is presented, based on a question, and the audience provides the answer," said Cossa, an actor who has lost four members of his family to HIV/AIDS, and is now dedicated to preventing the disease and eliminating the stigma attached to it.

"Normally, the plays are created by the oppressed themselves - associations of people with HIV/AIDS tell their own stories of how they became infected, or how they have survived in life in a positive way."

Their own solutions

The plays are presented in public places - markets, schools or commercial centres. In one of the performances of "My Husband is in Denial", in a busy Maputo market, the audience was asked to put itself in the shoes of the pregnant wife - the oppressed character - and to suggest solutions to her dilemma.

Putting on the character's skirt and headscarf, men and women in the audience took the place of the wife to try to encourage the husband to take the test, or to explain that traditional medicine can be used but that for HIV you must go to the hospital.

Cossa said the results of these efforts to educate the audience were better than if someone had given a seminar in Portuguese or distributed printed materials to a mostly illiterate population.

Cuanja Zawares Muanza, an activist with the youth HIV educational group, Geração Biz, who gives HIV information talks in Maputo hospitals, said her young age often made older listeners ignore her advice on prevention and she found theatre more effective for teaching people about HIV/AIDS.

She remembered a play in which a father finds a condom in his teenage daughter's purse and confiscates it in the presence of the girl and her mother. "They were embarrassed because we were young people talking about condom use, but when the mothers in the audience saw what was happening they took on the role of the mother in the play to defend its use."

Sassy Capetine, another participant in GTO, said the plays often presented scenes with which the audience were familiar. "We take everyday problems experienced in the city. The idea is to fight to convince the father to let her use the condom," she said.

Muanza said the group researched themes for its plays by visiting the places where they would be staged, usually to give talks on HIV prevention.
During debates and question-and-answer sessions, participants identified themes or issues that were seldom discussed and generally considered problematic or taboo, and would be illustrated more efficiently through theatre.

The group is currently working on a play about the dangers of illegal abortion, to be staged in secondary schools. Muanza said the plays made the audience more willing to pass on information about subjects that were generally not discussed in public.

Maslaa –bi a four mbalax  group currently living in Europe are now back into the music scene after five years of silence. Currently they are busy working on their third CD album which is   expected to be  soon. However the group have  released one of the tracks to be part of their much awaited album entiled “Alel” meaning “Wealth’ is already out and can be found at www.myspace.com/maslaabigambia.

The young Gambian mbalax  singers who hailed from the city of Banjul left home soil some years ago and are working tirelessly to reach international stardom.

Maslaa bi was one time a household name in The Gambia with the released of a popular   album called “Bu Nui Merro” which stormed the music market.

Maslaa bi strong   captivating stage performances and common uniform oufits appearance admired  music lovers that earned them to gain more music fans among the youth folks.They comprises stars like Nas, Tonton Bala El Pacco, among others.

Basically, this new  album will be their first  art work while in Europe.

“We know it has took a bit longer than the fans expected but the we are working to be more professionals in the music scene .This tie round we are coming in a more maturer way,” Said Touray one of the newest member of the group.

Nevertheless, this upcoming album is going to be a mixed flavour as it was superbly crafted and tailored by renowned professionals in the music industry namely Mustapha Faye, a member of the Super Etoile .Mr Faye has been contributing to our works technically during our first two albums and also this coming  third album .However, in these newly recorded album  arrangement was done  few other individuals like  like ,EL Pacco and DJ Gunman , Korist Jali-Kebba Suso and percussionist Karim Mbaye (Cho Mbaye's brother). As of now, the group is still with same members that shows that the members  are highly committed to their music owed to their  fans .

“The final message we got for our fans and the entire music industry is great.We assured them that we are out here for them ,trying to give them the very best of  our musici.Let them et ready for this upcoming album..We hope our stuffs will be better this time as usual ,” said Gadaffi Touray.

Watch out for Maslaa Bi newest album soon.