Samora Moisés Machel (September 29, 1933 – October 19, 1986) was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique. Machel led the country to independence in 1975 until his death in 1986, when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain where the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa converge.

Samora Machel was born in the village of Madragoa (today's Chilembene), Gaza Province, Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), to a family of farmers. He was a member of the Shangana ethnic group and his grandfather had been an active collaborator of Gungunhana.

Under Portuguese rule, his father, an indigenous, was forced to accept lower prices for his crops than white farmers; compelled to grow labor-intensive cotton, which took time away from the food crops needed for his family; and forbidden to make an identifying brand on his cattle to prevent thievery. However, Machel's father was a successful farmer: he owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940. Machel grew up in this agricultural village and attended mission elementary school. In 1942, Machel was sent to school in the town of Souguene in Gaza Province.

The school, was run by Catholic missionaries who educated the children in Portuguese language and culture. Although having completed the fourth grade, Machel never completed his secondary education. However, he had the prerequisite certificate to train as a nurse anywhere in Portugal at the time since the nursing schools were not degree conferring institutions. Machel started to study nursing in the capital city of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo), beginning in 1954. Unable to secure the fees to complete formal training at the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Lourenço Marques, he got a job working as an aide in the hospital and earned enough to continue his education at night school.

He worked at the hospital until he left the country to join the nationalist struggle. In the 1950s, he saw some of the fertile lands around his farming community on the Limpopo river appropriated by the provincial government and worked by white settlers who developed a wide range of new infrastructures for the region. Like many other Mozambicans near the southern border of Mozambique, some of his relatives went to work in the South African mines where additional job opportunities were found. Shortly afterwards, one of his brothers was killed in a mining accident.

Liberation struggle

Machel was attracted to Marxist ideals and began his political activities in a hospital where he protested against the fact that black nurses were paid less than whites doing the same job. He later told a reporter how bad medical treatment was for Mozambique's poor:

 "The rich man's dog gets more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the workers upon whom the rich man's wealth is built." His grandparents and great grandparents had fought against Portuguese colonial rule in the 19th century so it was not surprising that in 1962 Machel joined the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) which was dedicated to creating an independent Mozambique. He received military training in 1963 elsewhere in Africa, and returned in 1964 to lead FRELIMO's first guerrilla attack against the Portuguese in northern Mozambique.

Machel married his first wife, Josina, in 1969, having his first child later that same year. By 1969, Machel had become commander-in-chief of the FRELIMO army which had already established itself among Mozambique's peasantry. His most important goal, he said, was to get the people "to understand how to turn the armed struggle into a revolution" and to realize how essential it was "to create a new mentality to build a new society." Two months after the assassination of FRELIMO's president, Eduardo Mondlane, in February 1969, a ruling triumvirate comprising Samora Machel, Marcelino dos Santos and Frelimo's vice-president Uria Simango assumed the leadership. Simango was expelled from the party in 1970, and Machel assumed the presidency of the movement Independence

That goal would soon be realized. The FRELIMO army had weakened the colonial power and, after Portugal's coup in 1974, the Portuguese left Mozambique. Machel's revolutionary government then took over and he became independent Mozambique's first president on June 25, 1975. Marcelino dos Santos became vice-president. Uria Simango,his wife Celina and other FRELIMO dissidents such as Adelino Gwambe and Paulo Gumane (former leaders of UDENAMO, one of the National liberation groups in Mozambique) were arrested and later extra-judicially executed.

At home, Machel quickly put his Marxist principles into practice by calling for the nationalization of Portuguese plantations and property, and to have the FRELIMO government establish schools and health clinics for the peasants. As an internationalist, Machel allowed revolutionaries fighting white minority regimes in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa to train and operate with Mozambique. The regimes retaliated by forming a rebel group called RENAMO to destroy the schools and hospitals built by FRELIMO, and to sabotage railway lines and hydroelectric facilities. The Mozambique economy suffered from these depredations, and began to depend on overseas aid - in particular from the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, Machel remained popular throughout his presidency.

Samora Machel was awarded Lenin Peace Prize (1975-76).

The fatal aircrash and investigations

On October 19, 1986 Samora Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in Lusaka, Zambia in the presidential Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft when the plane crashed in the Lebombo Mountains, near Mbuzini. There were ten survivors,[9] but President Machel and twenty-four others died, including ministers and officials of the Mozambique government.

The Margo Commission, which included high-level international representation, investigated the incident and concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error. Despite the acceptance of its findings by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the report was rejected by the Mozambiquean and Soviet governments.

The latter submitted a minority report putting forward a conspiracy theory that the aircraft was intentionally lured off course by a decoy radio navigation beacon set up specifically for this purpose by the South Africans. Speculation about the accident has therefore continued to the present day, particularly in Mozambique, however a number of follow-up reports and investigations have been unable to find any evidence to support the theory of foul play.

Graça Machel

Machel's widow, Graça, is convinced the aircrash was not an accident and has dedicated her life to tracking down her husband's alleged killers. In July 1998, Mrs Machel married the then South African President Nelson Mandela. She thus became unique in having been the first lady of two different nations (Mozambique and South Africa), although not simultaneously.

Memorial

A memorial at the Mbuzini crash site was inaugurated on January 19, 1999 by Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça, and by President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. Designed by Mozambican architect, Jose Forjaz, at a cost to the South African government of 1.5 million Rand (US$ 300,000), the monument comprises 35 steel tubes symbolising the number of lives lost in the aircrash. At least eight foreigners were killed there, including the four Soviet crew members, Machel's two Cuban doctors and the Zambian and Zairean ambassadors to Mozambique

Special Investigation into the death of President Samora Machel
 
Introduction

1 On 19 October 1986, the Mozambican presidential aircraft, a Tupolev TU 134A-3 was returning from Zambia after the Lusaka Summit to be in time for Ms Graça MachelÅfs birthday. President Samora Machel and twenty-four others died when the plane crashed in the mountainous terrain near Mbuzini near Komatipoort. The crash site is in the little triangle where the borders of Swaziland and Mozambique meet the South African border in the Lebombo Mountains.

2 The Margo Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the crash and concluded that it had been caused by pilot error. A Soviet team also conducted an investigation into the incident, and concluded that a decoy beacon had caused the plane to stray off-course before it crashed into the mountains at Mbuzini.

3 This CommissionÅfs investigation into the matter did not find conclusive evidence to support either of these conclusions. Circumstantial evidence collected did, however, question the conclusions reached by the Margo Commission.

Methodology

4 All available evidence was collected and analysed by the Commission, including documents and interviews. Finally, an in camera hearing, in terms of section 29 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (the Act), was held at the CommissionÅfs offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg to enable commissioners to test the veracity of evidence presented by witnesses.

5 Witnesses at the hearings included:
- Ms Graça Machel, the widow of President Samora Machel (and now the wife of President Mandela);
- Dr Abdul Minty, former honorary secretary of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and current deputy director general in the Department of Foreign Affairs;

- Mr JNJ van Rensburg, attorney for the Margo Commission;
- "Ben" (real name withheld to protect his identity), former Military Intelligence (MI) officer;
- Major Craig Williamson, former South African security force spy;
- Mr Anton Uys, former security police officer who headed the South African Police (SAP) investigation immediately after the crash;
- "James" (real name withheld to protect his identity), former Koevoet member and subsequent MI officer.
6 The CommissionÅfs Investigation Unit interviewed many others in an attempt to arrive at the truth.

Investigative findings
The context

7 A police video in the Commission’s possession shows South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha telling journalists at the crash site that President Samora Machel and others killed in the crash were his and President PW BothaÅfs very good friends, and that their deaths were therefore a tragedy for South Africa. However, cabinet minutes record that, for several months before the crash, tensions between South Africa and Mozambique were increasing.

8 Shortly before the crash, the Mozambican chief of staff accused the Malawi government of President Hastings Banda of assisting "South African surrogates" (RENAMO, the National Resistance Movement in Mozambique) to set up bases in Malawi, and of issuing travel documents to, amongst others, the RENAMO leader.

9 A month before the crash, President Machel confronted President Banda in the presence of his Zambian and Zimbabwean counterparts in an acrimonious exchange in Blantyre. President Banda was given an ultimatum to stop his activities or Mozambique would close its borders with Malawi. After the meeting, President Machel called a news conference at Maputo airport, saying that he would place missiles along the border with Malawi and would not hesitate to launch a pre-emptive strike if necessary.
10 Following this, thousands of RENAMO troops left Malawi and entered northern Mozambique. An escalation of hostilities ensued, threatening to divide Mozambique in two.

11 In addition, weeks before the crash, six South Africans died in a landmine explosion on the border with Mozambique. South African Defence Minister Magnus Malan threatened President Machel openly for the first time  "he will clash head-on with South Africa"  and alleged that Mozambique had renewed its support for the African National Congress (ANC). This was followed by the termination of 58 000 Mozambican jobs in South Africa, a devastating blow to the fragile economy. South African military activity in Mozambique increased rapidly.

12 It is clear from cabinet minutes at this time that the South African government believed Mozambique to be on the verge of collapse.

13 On the night of the crash, President Machel was returning from the Lusaka Summit, which had focused on the liberation of the region.

14 After the crash, Foreign Minister Pik Botha alleged that the Lusaka Summit had plotted the overthrow the government of Malawi. No proof of this exists.

15 Further, the State Security Council (SSC) minutes from January 1984 indicate that the Mozambican working group, including General Jac Buchner and Major Craig Williamson, discussed how to help RENAMO overthrow the FRELIMO government (of Mozambique). Later in the same month, the SSC secretariat discussed RENAMOÅfs chances of success.

16 Ms Graça Machel told the Commission that she believed that the Malawi government had held a crisis meeting in February 1984 - after President Machel had threatened to close off MalawiÅfs access to the sea if that country did not cease its aid to RENAMO.

The possibility of assassinating Machel was allegedly discussed. According to Ms Machel, who gave moving testimony, this proposal was later put to President Banda. The following week, Banda dispatched his senior officers to South Africa for a meeting with President PW Botha, who sent back a message of solidarity.

17 A South African delegation headed by Defence Minister Magnus Malan travelled to Malawi and met with President Banda.

18 Ms Machel believed that the meeting discussed the formation of a special team to monitor the Mozambican president and to recruit senior Mozambican officials to co-operate with them. They allegedly even discussed the recruitment of an official at the Mozambican control tower.

19 A Zambian pilot, Mr Frankeson Zgambo, was recruited and trained by Major Craig Williamson to gather information about President Machel. Major Williamson admitted to this, but insisted that he knew nothing of a plot to assassinate the President.

20 There is no doubt that President Machel was under enormous pressure at the time of his death, not least because of divisions in his own party. Ms Graça Machel confirmed previous attempts on his life, attacks on his residences and attempts by South Africa to attack the Mozambican capital. He was also engaged in a radical restructuring of both his cabinet and the military, which could have upset a number of high-ranking Mozambicans.

The crash
21 Of the thirty-four people on board the presidential aircraft at the time of the crash, only nine survived.

22 One of the survivors walked to a nearby house to ask for help. Arriving back at the scene, he found security force officers already there. Others who arrived to assist, including a nurse, told the Commission that they were chased from the site. They also reported that the security force officers were seen rummaging through the wreckage and confiscating documents. Foreign Minister Pik Botha and Mr Niel Barnard, head of the National Intelligence Service, admitted that documents had been removed from the scene for copying.

23 Mozambique was informed about the incident only a full nine hours after it happened, after a massive land and sea search. The Commission heard evidence that the Mozambican Minister of Security contacted the South African security forces as soon as the Mozambican authorities realised the plane was missing. They were not informed about the accident.

The Margo enquiry

24 The day after the crash, Mozambique and South Africa agreed that an international board of enquiry should be established with the participation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. According to the Chicago Convention, South Africa, as the state on whose territory the crash had occurred, would head up the investigation. South Africa was, however, obliged to work in partnership with the state of ownership (Mozambique) and the state of manufacture (the Soviet Union).

These countries were not, however, taken on as equal partners, and withdrew their participation after the initial stages.

25 The investigation was delayed for several weeks by General Lothar NeethlingÅfs refusal to hand over the cockpit voice recorder (the black box), which he had seized at the scene of the crash. Colonel Des Lynch, who headed the police investigation, told the Commission that it took a letter from a lawyer to persuade Neethling to release the box to the investigators.

26 The Margo Commission of Enquiry concluded that the aircraft had been airworthy and fully serviced and that there was no evidence of sabotage or outside interference. The board:

unanimously determined that the cause of the accident was that the flight crew failed to follow procedural requirements for an instrument let-down approach, but continued to descend under visual flight rules in darkness and some cloud without having contact with the minimum safe altitude and minimum assigned altitude, and in addition ignored the Ground Warning Proximity alarm.

27 The Soviet delegation issued a minority report, which stated that, their expertise and experience had been undermined. They advanced the theory of a false beacon, although Mr Justice Margo denied in his report that this charge was formally laid before the board.

28 The Soviet report focused on the 37 degrees right turn that led the plane into the hills of Mbuzini. It rejected the finding of the Margo Commission, saying that the crew had read the ground proximity warning as false since they believed themselves to be in flat terrain as they approached landing.

29 A former television journalist who was allowed to attend the on-site investigations by the joint Soviet, Mozambican and South African team told the Commission that the television crew was approached on the first afternoon by an investigator of the Directorate of Civil Aviation who was holding a device the size of a pound of butter. The investigator informed the television crew that this could have been a frequency scrambler.

30 During the Margo enquiry, members of the Margo enquiry team told a journalist that the device had been found to be harmless. However, an expert on mobile beacons told the Commission that the device could have decoded the aeroplaneÅfs signal, locked onto it and been used to interfere in the direction of the aircraft.

The VOR beacon

31 The report of the Margo enquiry includes a reference to the fatal turn made by the aircraft, stating that it was following the signals of a VOR (very high frequency omnidirectional radio) which was not that of Maputo. Mr Justice Margo argued that the beacon at Matsapa airport in Swaziland, which had a similar code, might have led the plane astray.

32 The Commission received information that the Matsapa airport company, SASEA, had been run by a well-known alleged member of the Italian Mafia with close links to the South African security establishment. Intelligence reports provided by the National Intelligence Agency show that airport control in Maputo had fallen into the same hands. Control over the Matsapa airport and the Maputo control tower would have been essential to the success of a decoy beacon.

33 A South African Airways (SAA) signal expert, Mr Paul Gelpin, was emphatic that "the only way that a rogue beacon could have worked was if there was an accomplice at the Maputo VOR who switched it off for the critical period of the plot". This possibility is strengthened by allegations that Mr Cornelio Vasco Cumbe (alias Roberto Santos Macuacua), who worked at the control tower at Maputo airport, had been recruited by the South African security forces. Moreover, Dr Abdul Minty revealed that the tapes at the Maputo airport had been lost.

34 Regarding the existence of a mobile decoy beacon, a South African Air Force flight sergeant, who was at 4AD Snake Valley near Pretoria during 1986 told the Commission that he had seen a friend building such a beacon in the month before the crash. He described the assembly and workings and provided technical sketches and background to illustrate the beaconÅfs appearance and operation. It had left the base with its builder during the weekend of the crash and was returned the following week.

35 The flight sergeant testified that such a beacon could have been used to divert and bring down a plane. The Commission was given the name of the person who built the beacon and the person who gave the orders for it to be built.

36 Two pilots flying in the area that night have said the Maputo signal came on unusually early.

37 In August 1998, the Commission was given the name of a person who is alleged to have erected a decoy beacon on the side of the mountain at Mbuzini. The end of the lifespan of the CommissionÅfs Human Rights Violations Committee at the end of August 1998 prevented the investigators from corroborating this information.

38 Investigations also revealed that, had there not been an intention to bring the aircraft down, the South African authorities could have prevented the incident, or at least ensured fewer casualties. There is no doubt that the South African authorities had the ability to monitor the aircraft. According to Dr Minty, the head of the South African Air Force responded to an article he wrote for Amnesty International Monitor shortly after the crash, acknowledging that the air force had in fact monitored the aircraft that night.

39 Although the plane entered a military and operational zone (a "special restricted airspace") which was under twenty-four hour radar surveillance by a highly sophisticated Plessey system, no warning was given that the plane was off-course and in South African airspace, nor was preventive action taken. A member of the Mozambican investigating team told the Commission:

I think it is reasonable to assume that they (the South Africans) saw the flight diverting from its normal path, going towards the crash site. And I also think that itÅfs reasonable to say that they failed all the basic norms and regulations of international aviation. Because they failed to warn the crew about the mistake which was being made.

The South African security forces

40 A large number of South African Special Forces troops converged in the area of Komatipoort/Mbuzini on the night of the crash.

41 "Ben" a former MI officer, testified at the section 29 enquiry in Cape Town that he had been based at Skwamans, a secret security police base shared with MI operatives halfway between Mbuzini and Komatipoort, at the time of the incident. He claims that a number of high-ranking security force officials converged on Skwamans for a meeting and a braai the day before the crash. They left late that night in a small plane and some returned after the crash had taken place. In a sworn statement, he provided the names of General Kat Liebenberg, Foreign Minister Pik Botha, General van der Westhuizen of Military Intelligence (MI) and about fifteen others, mostly from Eastern Transvaal Command and Group 33.

42 Also present was the Eastern Transvaal MI head, Captain Wayne Lelly, who headed up another secret base, Sub-station 4, which overlooked the mountain where the plane first hit. This base was opened a year before the crash and, according to "Ben", was used by MI to interrogate cadres. "Ben" alleges that some of the operatives went to Sub-station 4 "at the crack of dawn" on the day of the crash. He also forwarded the names of some askaris and five reconnaissance force members.

43 Captain Lelly now lives in Mozambique and has confirmed his presence on the scene, but claims it was for another operation.
44 An independent source confirmed to a Gauteng investigator that Skwamans was closed shortly after the crash. Several other sources confirmed the presence and involvement of Captain Lelly and an MI planning commander.

45 Many other security force members confirmed to the Commission that there had been a strong presence of police and military personnel in the area at the time of the incident.

The wreckage

46 The Commission attempted to track down the scattered pieces of wreckage of the plane. It was decided that the Commission would assist the Department of Arts and Culture, Science and Technology in its effort to collect the pieces as part of their planned memorial for Mbuzini.

47 The main pieces of wreckage are still at Tonga police station, where they were taken after the investigation. Some pieces found their way to a game farm. The rest of the wreckage is at a scrap yard in Witrivier.
 
Conclusion

48 The investigations conducted by the Commission raised a number of questions, including the possibility of a false beacon and the absence of a warning from the South African authorities. The matter requires further investigation by an appropriate structure.

Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a psychologist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. He was influential in the field of post-colonial studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades.

Frantz Fanon was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique, which was then a French colony and is now a French departement. He was born into a mixed family background: his father was the descendent of African slaves, and his mother was said to be an illegitimate child of mixed race, whose white ancestors came from Strasbourg in Alsace. Fanon's family was socioeconomically middle-class, and they could afford the fees for the Lycée Schoelcher, then the most prestigious high school in Martinique, where famed poet Aimé Césaire was one of Frantz Fanon's teachers.[3]

After France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Vichy French naval troops were blockaded on Martinique. Forced to remain on the island, French soldiers became "authentic racists." Many accusations of harassment and sexual misconduct arose.

The abuse of the Martiniquan people by the French Army was a major influence on Fanon, as it reinforced his feelings of alienation and his disgust at the realities of colonial racism. At the age of eighteen, Fanon fled the island as a "dissident" (the coined word for French West Indians joining the gaullist forces) and traveled to then-British Dominica to join the Free French Forces. He later enlisted in the French army and joined an Allied convoy that arrived in Casablanca.

He was later transferred to an army base at Bejaia on the Kabyle coast of Algeria. Fanon left Algeria from Oran and saw service in France, notably in the battles of Alsace. In 1944 he was wounded at Colmar and received the Croix de Guerre medal. When the Nazis were defeated and Allied forces crossed the Rhine into Germany, along with photo journalists, Fanon's regiment was "bleached" of all non-white soldiers and Fanon and his fellow Caribbean soldiers were sent to Toulon instead. Later, they were transferred to Normandy to await repatriation home.

In 1945 Fanon returned to Martinique. His return lasted only a short time. While there, he worked for the parliamentary campaign of his friend and mentor Aimé Césaire, who would be the greatest influence in his life.

Although Fanon never professed to be a communist, Césaire ran on the communist ticket as a parliamentary delegate from Martinique to the first National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. Fanon stayed long enough to complete his Baccalaureate and then went to France where he studied medicine and psychiatry.

He was educated in Lyon where he also studied literature, drama and philosophy, sometimes attending Merleau-Ponty's lectures. During this period he wrote three plays, whose manuscripts are now lost.

After qualifying as a psychiatrist in 1951, Fanon did a residency in psychiatry,at Saint-Alban, under the radical Catalan psychiatrist Francois Tosquelles, who invigorated Fanon's thinking by emphasizing the important yet often overlooked role of culture in psychopathology. After his residency, Fanon practiced psychiatry at Pontorson, near Mont St Michel, for another year and then (from 1953) in Algeria. He was chef de service at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in Algeria, where he stayed until his deportation in January 1957.

His service in France's army (and his experiences in Martinique) fueled Black Skin, White Masks. For Fanon, being colonized by a language had larger implications for one's political consciousness: "To speak . . . means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization" (BSWM 17-18). Speaking French (or other colonial languages) means that one accepts, or is coerced into accepting, the collective consciousness of the French.

France

While in France, Fanon wrote his first book, Black Skin, White Masks, an analysis of the effect of colonial subjugation on humanity. This book was originally his doctoral thesis submitted at Lyon and entitled, "The Disalienation of the Black Man". The rejection of the thesis led to Fanon seeking to have the book published. It was Francis Jeanson who insisted on the new title.

Algeria

Fanon left France for Algeria, where he had been stationed for some time during the war. He secured an appointment as a psychiatrist at Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital. It was there that he radicalized methods of treatment. In particular, he began socio-therapy which connected with his patients' cultural backgrounds. He also trained nurses and interns. Following the outbreak of the Algerian revolution in November 1954 he joined the FLN liberation front (Front de Libération Nationale) as a result of contacts with Dr. Pierre Chaulet at Blida in 1955.

In The Wretched of the Earth (Les damnés de la terre), Fanon later discussed in depth the effects on Algerians of torture by the French forces. His book was then censored by France.

Fanon made extensive trips across Algeria, mainly in the Kabyle region, to study the cultural/psychological life of Algerians. His lost study of "The marabout of Si Slimane" is an example. These trips were also a means for clandestine activities, notably in his visits to the ski resort of Chrea which hid an FLN base.

By summer 1956 he wrote his famous "Letter of resignation to the Resident Minister" and made a clean break with his French assimilationist upbringing and education. He was expelled from Algeria in January 1957 and the "nest of fellaghas [rebels]" at Blida hospital was dismantled. Fanon left for France and subsequently traveled secretly to Tunis. He was part of the editorial collective of El Moudjahid for which he wrote to the end of his life. He also served as Ambassador to Ghana for the Provisional Algerian Government (GPRA) and attended conferences in Accra, Conakry, Addis Ababa, Leopoldville, Cairo and Tripoli.
 
Many of his shorter writings from this period were collected posthumously in the book Toward the African Revolution. In this book Fanon reveals himself as a war strategist; in one chapter he discusses how to open a southern front to the war and how to run the supply lines.

Death

On his return to Tunis, after his exhausting trip across the Sahara to open a Third Front, Fanon was diagnosed with leukemia. He went to the Soviet Union for treatment and experienced some remission of his illness. On his return to Tunis he dictated his testament The Wretched of the Earth. When he was not confined to his bed, he delivered lectures to ALN (Armée de Libération Nationale) officers at Ghardimao on the Algero-Tunisian border.

He made a final visit to Sartre in Rome and went for further leukemia treatment in the USA. He died in Bethesda, Maryland on December 6, 1961 under the name of Ibrahim Fanon. He was buried in Algeria, after lying in state in Tunisia. Later his body was moved to a martyrs (chouhada) graveyard at Ain Kerma in eastern Algeria. Fanon was survived by his wife, Josie (maiden name: Dublé, who committed suicide in Algiers in 1989), their son, Olivier and his daughter (from a previous relationship) Mireille. Mireille married Bernard Mendès-France, son of the French politician Pierre Mendès-France.

Work

Although Fanon wrote Black Skin, White Masks while still in France, most of his work was written while in North Africa. It was during this time that he produced his greatest works, L'An Cinq, de la Révolution Algérienne, or Year Five of the Algerian Revolution, later republished as 'Sociology of a Revolution" and later still as 'A Dying Colonialism'. The irony of this was that Fanon's original title was "Reality of a Nation", however the publisher, Francois Maspero, refused to accept this title. He also wrote the most important work on decolonization yet written, The Wretched of the Earth[4].

The Wretched of the Earth was first published in 1961 by François Maspero and has a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. In it Fanon analyzes the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle for national liberation. Both books established Fanon in the eyes of much of the Third World as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century.

Fanon's three books were supplemented by numerous psychiatry articles as well as radical critiques of French colonialism in journals such as Esprit and El Moudjahid.

The reception of his work has been affected by English translations which are recognized to contain numerous omissions and errors, while his unpublished work, including his doctoral thesis, has received little attention. As a result, Fanon has often been portrayed as an advocate of violence. This reductionist vision of Fanon's work ignores the subtlety of his understanding of the colonial system. For Fanon in "The Wretched of the Earth", the colonizer's presence in Algeria is based sheerly on military strength. Any resistance to this strength must also be of a violent nature because it is the only 'language' the colonizer speaks.

The relevance of language and the reformation of discourse pervades much of his work, which is why it is so interdisciplinary, spanning psychiatric concerns to encompass politics, sociology, anthropology, linguistics and literature.

His participation in the Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) from 1955 determined his audience as the Algerian colonized. It was to them that his final work, Les damnés de la terre (translated into English by Constance Farrington as The Wretched of the Earth) was directed. It constitutes a warning to the oppressed of the dangers they face in the whirlwind of decolonization and the transition to a neo-colonialist/globalized world.

Influences

Much of Fanon's writings is traced to the influence of Aimé Césaire. But, while it could be said that Fanon's works are directly influenced by the Négritude movement, Fanon reformulated the theory of Césaire and Léopold Senghor by positing a new theory of consciousness. Négritude implicitly based consciousness in racial difference and tension. Fanon's psychological training and experience influenced him to base much of the problems he saw as psychological and as the product of the domination which arises in oppressive colonial situations.

That is, consciousness was not of "racial essence" but a fact arising from political and social situations. Fanon's consciousness was not purely black, but extended to colonized peoples of any racial category. Fanon's own explanation of the difference between his theory and that of Blaise Diagne, Senghor and Césaire was based in an evolutionary model where the colonized ideologies transition from assimiliationist, négritude, and finally Fanon's own theory.

Fanon has had an inspiring impact on anti-colonial and liberation movements. In particular, Les damnés de la terre was a major influence on the work of revolutionary leaders such as Ali Shariati in Iran, Steve Biko in South Africa, Malcolm X in the United States and Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba. Of these only Guevara was primarily concerned with Fanon's theories on violence; for Shariati and Biko the main interest in Fanon was "the new man" and "black consciousness" respectively. Fanon's influence extended to the liberation movements of the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others. More recently, radical South African people's movements have been influenced by Fanon's work.

References in the arts and music

Fanon has become a hero to many people, both as a theorist influenced by négritude and as an advocate of resistance and revolution, especially with relation to violence in revolution. Often, his mention is more as a symbol that the artist is familiar with the works of classic writers in the struggle against colonialism.

Rage Against the Machine references Fanon, "grip tha cannon like Fanon and pass tha shell to my classmate" in a track entitled "Year of tha Boomerang" on their 1996 release Evil Empire. The Wretched of the Earth appears on the inside of the album cover. This use of Fanon in the context of an advocate of violent insurrection can be compared to the use by Rage Against the Machine lead singer, Zack de la Rocha, a track recorded with artists Last Emperor and KRS-One called "C.I.A. (Criminals In Action)." The lyric is: "I bring the sun at red dawn upon the thoughts of Frantz Fanon, So stand at attention devil dirge, You'll never survive choosing sides against the Wretched of the Earth."

Another lyrical reference to Fanon was made by Digable Planets. Digable Planets refer to Fanon in their rap-jazz cut "Little Renee" from the Coneheads motion picture soundtrack.

Michael Franti wrote in the song, "Keep Me Lifted" (from album Chocolate Supa Highway), the lyrics: "Franz Fanon, the Wretched of the Earth, home, phenomenon be going on and on."

Yet Fanon could well have been describing the catharsis that occurs at rock concerts with the following passage from The Wretched of the Earth:

"On another level we see the native's emotional sensibility exhausting itself in dances which are more or less ecstatic. This is why any study of the colonial world should take into consideration the phenomena of dance and of possession. The native's relaxation takes precisely the form of a muscular orgy in which the most acute aggressivity and the most impelling violence are canalized, transformed and conjured away.

The circle of the dance is a permissive circle: it protects and permits. At certain times on certain days, men and women come together at a given place, and there, under the solemn eye of the tribe, fling themselves into a seemingly unorganized pantomime, which is in reality extremely systematic, in which by various means-shakes of the head, bending of the spinal column, throwing of the whole body backward-may be deciphered as in an open book the huge effort of a community to exorcise itself, to liberate itself, to explain itself. There are no limits-inside the circle...There are no limits-for in reality your purpose in coming together is to allow the accumulated libido, the hampered aggressivity, to dissolve in a volcanic eruption. Symbolic killings, fantastic rides, imaginary mass murders-all must be brought out. The evil humors are undammed, and flow away with a din as of molten lava.

Contemporary Art

Jimmie Durham, an American Indian conceptual artist, references Fanon's postcolonial thought in a piece entitled "Often Durham Employs..." (1998), with this quote from Fanon- "The zone where the natives live is not complementary to the zone inhabited by the settlers."

British film maker Isaac Julien made a 1995 film mixing interviews of Fanon's relatives and friends with fictionalized incidents of his life.

In Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions, the main character Remy, who suffers from a terminal cancer, reunites with his old friends in a cottage where they all remember their intellectual and sexual exploits in life. At one point Remy's friend Claude says "we read Fanon and became anti-colonialists."

Ahmed Sékou Touré (var. Ahmen Seku Ture) (1922-1984) was an African political leader and president of the Republic of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984. Touré was one of the primary Guinean nationalists involved in the liberation of the country from France.

Origins

Sékou Touré was born on January 9, 1922 into a poor family in the west African country of Guinea, while a colonial possession of France. His date of birth has never been formally established; there remains a contention that he was born in 1918 at Faranah. He was a member of the Mandinka ethnic group[1] and was the great-grandson of the famous Samory Touré[2], who had resisted French rule until his capture.

Early life

Sékou's early life was characterized by challenges of authority, including during his education. Sékou was obliged to work to take care of himself. He began working for the Postal Services (PTT), and quickly became involved in Labor Union activity. During his youth and after becoming president, Sékou Touré studied the works of communist philosophers, especially those of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.

Politics

Sékou's first work in a political group was in the Postal Workers Union (PTT). In 1945, he was one of the founders of their labour Union, becoming the general secretary of the postal workers' union in 1945. In 1952, he became the leader of the Guinean Democratic Party which was local section of the RDA (African Democratic Rally, French:

Rassemblement Démocratique Africain) , a party agitating for the decolonization of Africa. In 1956 he organized the Union Générale des Travailleurs d'Afrique Noir, French West Africa's first general trade union, and was involved in element of the French Communist Party and the French CGT union. He was a leader of the RDA, working closely with a future rival, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who later became the president of the Côte d'Ivoire. In 1956 he was elected Guinea's deputy to the French national assembly and mayor of Conakry, positions he used to launch pointed criticisms of the colonial regime

Touré is remembered as a charismatic figure and while his legacy as president is often distained in his home country, he remains an icon of liberation in the wider African community. Touré served for some time as a representative of African groups in France, where he worked to negotiate for the independence of France's African colonies.

In 1958 Touré's RDA section in Guinea pushed for a "No" in the French Union referendum sponsored by the French government, and was the only one of France's African colonies to vote for immediate independence rather than continued association with France. Guinea became the only French colony to leave the French Community. In the event the rest of Francophone Africa gained its independence only two years later in 1960, but the French were extremely vindictive against Guinea: withdrawing abruptly, taking files, destroying infrastructure, and breaking political and economic ties.

As President of Guinea

In his home country, Sékou Touré was a strong president. Opposition to single party rule grew slowly, and by the late 1960s those who opposed his government faced fear of detention camps and secret police. His detractors often had two choices--say nothing or go abroad. From 1965 to 1975 he ended all his relations with France, the former colonial power. Sékou Touré argued that Africa had lost much during colonization, and that Africa ought to retaliate by cutting off ties to former colonial nations. Only in 1978, as Guinea's ties with the Soviet Union soured, president of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing first visited Guinea as a sign of reconciliation.

Throughout his dispute with France, Guinea maintained good relations with several socialist countries. However, Sékou's attitude toward France was not generally well received, and some African countries ended diplomatic relations with Guinea over the incident. Despite this, Sékou's move won the support of many anti-colonialist and Pan-African groups and leaders.

Touré's primary ally in the region was President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. After Nkrumah was overthrown in a 1966 coup, Touré offered him a refuge in Guinea and made him co-president. [4] As a leader of the Pan-Africanist movement, he consistently spoke out against colonial powers, and befriended leaders from the African diaspora such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, to whom he offered asylum (and who took the two leaders names, as Kwame Ture).[5] He, with Nkrumah, helped in the formation of the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, and aided forces fighting Portuguese colonialism in neighboring Guinea-Bissau (for which the Portuguese launched an attack upon Conakry).

Relations with the United States fluctuated during the course of Touré's reign. While Touré was unimpressed with Eisenhower administration's approach to Africa, he came to consider President John F. Kennedy a friend and an ally. He even came to state that Kennedy was his "only true friend in the outside world". He was impressed by Kennedy's interest in African development and commitment to civil rights in the United States. Touré blamed Guinean labor unrest in 1962 on Soviet interference and turned to the United States.

Relations with Washington soured, however, after Kennedy's death. When a Guinean delegation was imprisoned in Ghana, after the overthrow of Nkrumah, Touré blamed Washington. He feared that the Central Intelligence Agency was plotting against his own regime. Over time, Touré's increasing paranoia led him to arrest large numbers of suspected political opponents and imprison them in camps, such as the notorious Camp Boiro National Guard Barracks.

Tens of thousands of Guinean dissidents sought refuge in exile. Once Guinea's reprochment with France began in the late 1970s, another section of his support, Marxists, began to oppose his government's increasing move to capitalist liberalisation. In 1978 he formally renounced Marxism and reestablished trade with the West. Running again for president unopposed, Touré was reelected in 1982.

Touré died in the city of Cleveland in the United States while undergoing heart surgery on March 26, 1984.

Hero or tyrant?

Ahmed Sékou Touré remains a polarising figure even today. During his presidency Touré was seen from abroad as a charismatic leader who was respected among Guineans, and loved by many. This remains a point of debate among Guineans, as in elections he did not have meaningful opposition, and a number of opposition politicians were jailed. His early actions to reject the French and then to appropriate wealth and farmland from traditional landlords angered many powerful forces, but the increasing failure of his government to provide either economic opportunities of democratic rights angered more. While still revered in much of Africa and in the Pan-African movement, many Guineans, and activists of the Left and Right in Europe, have become critical of Touré's failure to institute meaningful democracy or free media.

Editor,

Please allow me a space in your widely read news paper to express my sincere appreciation for the efforts of the Gambia Police Force in the community.

Firstly i would like to thank, Benedict Jammeh the Inspector General of Police. Since he took over the affairs of GPF, there has been a numerous transformation ranging from the various unit under his office.

The crime rate has dropped tremendously, compare to those days.

Under his leadership Sir, the deployment and operations of these young gallant men of the police Intervention Unit in all the administrative regions across the country has decrease the complains and theft report cases to the charge units of the Gambia Police Force.

Sir, the simultaneous complains which used to be in the Police stations has also become the thing of the past.

However, i would not do justice, if i did not pay tribute to the Gambian leader President Dr Alhagie Yahya Jammeh who is the brain behind all the development. Whose revolutionary leadership style in just thirteen years of ruling transformed the Gambia in to a city state, i think he worth more than emulation.

Editor, as am writing to you right now from Basse one of the Gambia’s busies entry point for the Casamance, Bissau and Conakry travellers, the theft and other criminal report cases has dropped immensely.

By Haruna Jallow

Basse Mansajang

This year’s US presidential nomination process has so far accentuated a great lot about "The Promised Land" than the world had expected long before Senator Barak Obama announced his revolutionary intention of running for the highest office in the land.

We said revolutionary because of the inevitable potential mÍlÈe that is now apparent - racist persecution of all sorts. In fact it was never a surprise when pictures and comments of Obama were consistently put under tight scrutiny. His dressing mode, his passport details, his name, his religious inclination and all sorts of irrelevant issues about his persona have been given to questioning.

As the primaries took on an even more prolonged shape, thanks to the show of persistence of former first lady, Hilary Clinton (who refuses to concede defeat and back out to give way to her more compelling rival, as many of her democratic party colleagues have advised), the racist undertone of the ‘promised land’ also took on an ugly shape.

Of late, however, influential racist institutions in the US itself seem to have been overpowered by the flare of a political idol. So much so that they seem to have turn down the tone of their conspiracy ploy against his candidature.

The recently concluded bout for the state of Mississippi finished with, according to the US owned Washington Post: "a decisive victory for Obama". And the resolutely racist establishment, the British Broadcasting Cooperation, commonly called the BBC, preferred to see it as "a tightly contested vote", even though the margin was a convincing 60% to 37% in favor of Obama.

In a stunning demonstration of their fastidiousness, the BBC went on to give the Obama’s victory a racist connotation by implying that it was Blacks that voted him, just as the Whites voted Hilary.

Perhaps the BBC needs to be told that the White House is different from Buckingham Palace; as far as American electorates are now concerned, the color of the occupant of the White House is of no importance to the people of the United States of America. What they need is a leader that represents a unified nation. If that happens to be the Woman, fine. And if it is the Black man, so be it. They are both as American as George Washington was.

It is high time that the world media graduated from this attitude of promoting division, racism, xenophobia and all sorts of scheme that leads to extreme dislike.

As we promise young people out there, we will be swinging the pendulum to different sides to feature role young models in society.

In today’s edition of Youth Matters, we caught up with Fatim Badjie who has carved a niche for herself in life. Ms Badjie talks about a wide range of issues that have in one way or the other affected her life. Read on.

Who are you?

My name is Fatim Badjie. I am the daughter of Dembo Badjie and Haddy Badjie. I am a Banjulian by birth and Jola by tribe. My dad is from Bansang and Bwiam and my mum from Banjul. What can I say? That’s me.

Your education back ground?

This question is interesting, because I’ve been to many schools. During my childhood years I was in Belgium and later went to the US. When I came down here I attended schools like Mrs Ndows, Marina International and Gambia Senior Secondary School, where I obtained a very good result (WASSCE). Upon my high school graduation, I proceeded to Tennessee State University, where I obtained B.A Communication.

You are remembered at Gambia Senior Secondary School for have been vocal and steadfast. What was the force behind that?

I think for the most part I’ve been a revolutionary for most of my life. When I believe in something I stand for it all the way. That passion is in me has made me involve myself in many issues that can bring positive change.

What is the difference between education in Gambia and the USA?

Education in The Gambia is somehow limited because of the diversity someone will be exposed to. It is more convenient going to the university in The Gambia but as foreigner in any other country you have to work harder than the average Westerner just to get the opportunity. So that makes a big difference. There is nothing to prove out in the West. It’s just about collecting as much as you can out there; that is education and bring it back home and utilize it for your country. If you are going to university here, everything is more in perspective because you are home based. I would say your aggressiveness to want to gain that education would be very mild here because there are greater risk of being influence out there than here.

Why did you decide to return home after completing your studies unlike what some people do?

I am very happy that you raised this question. I left The Gambia when I was 17 years, just two weeks after my graduation. I was lucky to have this opportunity. However, when I went to US, I had a purpose. I knew that I was not there to enjoy myself and my parents saw to it. I was there to get an education and come back to make a difference here. Coming back home is one of the best decisions I have made and I want it to influence my peers abroad to come home. I came home in order to contribute to the national development of this country. There is nothing we can gain out there unless we go back were we started from.

Were you offered a job after your graduation?

I was working before I came down here. Basically, it is so logical. Life is a cycle out there. You are like a rat going around in a circle over and over. You cannot get out it is like a trap. My parents were very influential trying to make sure that I come back home. Being out in America is very hard. As much as you can get paid, you can never compare to what you get here in The Gambia, because here you get peace of mind and you can be more human. You will have chance to give, take care of lots of things and also look into your interest and passion. In America you really cannot get through all of that

Do you see yourself as role model?

I have always wanted to see myself as that. It’s humbles me when people say that but I always try to improve myself everyday.

Are you single?

Laughs! Yes I am single but not available.

Any plans to get married?

Absolutely I’m a Muslim and a Gambian lady.

What do you think the government should do to enhance the productivity of youth in society?

I think the government is doing very well in trying to help young people. The establishment of the National Youth Council and the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS) is a clear manifestation of the government’s stance towards youth development. I think the government should tap into the creativity of the mindset of youth. New ideas have to come in, and this passion that lies in youth everyday needs to be boosted out of their system and should be utilized in a positive manner. Definitely, they should start tapping on talents and creativity.

How do you assess young people in this country?

In average, young people do not have the zeal or passion or aggressiveness to succeed. But they want to achieve something. It is not good to remain in the same state. It is okay to always want to achieve and do more. It doesn’t start from just the mind but also the hear t and in action. So I think that youth in The Gambia should be ready to go all out to get what they want. If you want education and you cannot go to Europe or America, look around Africa apply yourself and get ready to learn. There is nothing in your will power that you cannot do if you believe in it. So if you believe that change can happen, it will come. God is watching and I’m a witness to that. So I think we have to be more aggressive, innovative and ready for a change.

You sound like the US presidential hopeful, Barack Obama?

Absolutely! He is God’s send and it a time for change all over the world especially for black people.

What do you do during your leisure time?

I like to take a walk at the beach, writing, just relaxing and chilling with my mum.

It’s rare to see a young lady like you holding such position as a senior communication officer at Comium?

I actually don’t look into position. I look into the work and what it entails. Title is not really a big thing for me at this point. It’s about gaining that experience. One of my motivations at work is result.

Not many young people study communication. Why for you?

I think for the most part it was my energy and innovation since I was in primary school. I always like acting, writing and asking people questions and when I was young I remembered them calling me ‘WHY’ because I ask so many questions. My interest in communication came up because I knew I was not very shy as far as expressing myself concern and I had an ambition at that time to actually have the first private TV station in The Gambia. I really got into public relations, radio and TV studies

Do you say private TV station?

Yes, that was my intention when I picked out communication as my field. But looking at the broader aspect at this point, it’s still possible, doable. I still believe in anything that will bring about change for the benefit of Gambians.

How would young people benefit from this private TV station?

I think young people will benefit greatly from it because there would be interesting and educative programmes. It’s important when television reaches the lives of young people and they can actually see themselves in it. At this point, it’s all about gathering wisdom and experience and utilising all this energy into it.

But funding a TV station requires a lot of resources?

Like I said it; only for the future. I don’t know but I believe in God. Every mountain is made by rocks. So I am willing to climb the little rock before I get there.

What will be the relationship of Comium and this TV station?

Neutral. I believe the media should be very neutral.

Apart from your job what else do you do?

Well, I’m a poet. I like writing stories. I’m also an actress and I am into theatre. I have a few friends. I’m not afraid to be myself. Family means the world to me so I like being around my family.

At your age, how do you manage such position? How do you command authority?

Hmmm…, I don’t command. I would honestly say there is difference between age and experience. At work, it should be free from all of that. It should be all about the work. You work for the work and not the person per se.

Are you respected at work?

Absolutely, even if someone does not want to be respected, I will give you respect until you give it back. But this is not a case in Comium because everyone is respectful.

What’s your advice for young people?

My advice to my fellow youth is to search within to see where you can utilise yourself. There are three main areas in which you can find that easily. That is what I believe, by looking into your passion, interest and talents. There is something when you talk about it or by doing it or you do it you feel so into it. These are your passions. At times a minute you hear about something you stop everything you are doing to concentrate on it. These are your interest in it. And your talent are things you are naturally good at. If you really looking into one of these areas, you would find a place to succeed by empowering yourself for the development of our beloved Gambia.

Your dad is The Gambia’s ambassador to Sierra Leone. How influential has he been in your life?

I’m a daddy’s girl. Actually, my dad was working in the government when I was born. I can say that my dad’s work in the government has exposed me to lots of positive things. He was so involved in youth development especially in setting up the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS). Watching him being active in all of that has actually created such zeal to want to be involved in society.

Do you see yourself following your dad’s footsteps and work for the government?

Only God Knows.

Various versions have been given by historians about the origins of the Fula. One version is that they were originally a Berber speaking people who crossed the Senegal to pasture their cattle on the Ferlo Plateau Finding themselves cut off from their kinsmen by the Negroid communities occupying the fertile Senegal valley they gradually adopted the language of their new neighbours. As their herds increased, small groups found themselves forced to move eastward and so initiated a series of migrations throughout West Africa.

Another main version given about the origins of the Fula is that they originated in the lower basins of the Senegal and The Gambia as a result of a mixture between Berbers from the Sahara and the Wollof and Serer peoples. This view is held because, among other things, the Fulani language is akin to the languages of these peoples. The union between Berber, Wollof and Serer was said to produce two distinct groups of Fulani with differences in racial and occupational characteristics.

One of the groups, the predominantly Berber portion, marked by their olive skin and strait hair, stuck to the nomadic mode of life and became known as the Bororoje or Cattle Fulani. The other group of Fulani, known as the Fulani Gidda, was the Negroid portion who were agriculturalist and town dwellers for the most part.

Whatever explanation is accepted about the origins of the Fula, it is known that by at least the seventh century, the Fula were a distinct people in the Western Sudan and among the first West Africans to embrace Islam.

Fula society was also a stratified society of three main social groups. All the tope of the social ladder where the Rimbe who were free men and included farmers and traders.

Next to the Rimbe came the Nyenyube who formed the artisan class and finally the Machudo who were the servant class.

The Nyenyube class included the Gaulo or praise signers, the Bailo who were the smith, the Garanke or leather workers and the laube who were weavers. The Gaulo were oral historians who played the important role of preserving fula traditions and culture.

The Fulas who first migrated into The Gambia area were non-Muslim pastoralists who came to ask for protection from the Mandinka Mansas into whose states they brought their cattle. They lived in small communities in the chief Mandinka towns and cared for the herds and flocks of the Mansas in return for projection against attacks from hostile groups. Nine dialects have been identified, reflecting different areas of origin, period of arrival and considerable cultural diversity. This diversity seems to have dissipated the political impact of their numbers.

In the nineteenth century, the main Fula settlements were in the kingdoms of the upper river. Wuli, Niani, Kantora , Tomana and Jimara. Generally, the Fula migrants acknowledged the authority of the Mandinka Mansas and village chiefs over the use of land. A mutually beneficial relationship existed between them and the Mandinka leaders. In return for the protection afforded the Fulas by the Mandinka Mansas, the Fula brought wealth and prestige to those communities they settled.

In their spread throughout West Africa, the Fula founded states called "Imamates". The Imamate was a new kind of state in West Africa where the head of state was also Imam and leader of the mosque. Futa Jallow was the first of these Imamates. The "Al-mamy", who ruled the state, was very powerful and claimed to rule in the name of Allah, but had to listen to the advice of his counsellors.

The Al-mamy was the military commander of his state heading an army that was based on a strict system of compulsory service. One of the most remarkable examples of the dispersal of peoples in West Africa is afforded by the Fulani.

Today some of the best cattle attendants in West Africa are the Fulani and are to be found in almost every part of the Savannah-Sahel region from The Gambia to Sudan. The Fulani began their migrations into the regions of Ghana, Manding and Songhai between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, entering Hausaland in the fifteenth century. In all these areas they maintained their traditional way of life, the Bororoje sticking to the rural areas and the Fulani Gidda to the towns.

Because of their literacy in Arabic, the Fulani Gidda were employed in Hausaland as civil servants, diplomats, and tutors at the courts of the Hausa Kings, while some of them established schools of their own and taught Islamic Theology, law and Arabic grammar.

One of these Fulani Gidda was Ousman Dan Fodio who was born in 1754 in Hausaland but whose ancestral family had migrated from Futa Toro some fourteen generations before area.

Places like Bauchi and Adamawa became converted to Islam for the first time. If today Islam is a force to reckon with in Nigeria, and in deed in the modern states of The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Niger, it was because of the Fula led revolutionary Islamic Movements of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in general, and that of Ousman Dan Fodio in particular.

Timbooktoo: 4494345

If name is anything to go by, then elections in the world’s only superpower will not be anything small. Always trying to live up to its name as the most democratic nation in the world, the United States of America has always stood to its name as the champion of democracy – of course with exceptions, like the 2000 elections in which there were some alleged election malpractices.

Throughout the world, elections in the United States are always watched with excitement and sordid interest. Americans will not go to the polls until in few months time, but it seems the fascination surrounding the election is already trickling and permeating many countries. In the Gambia interest in the highs and lows of high level politics in America has already propped up.

While both the Republican and Democratic candidates were involved in whirlwind campaigns to win their parties nominations in the cut and thrust of politics in the United States, a debate on who would become the country’s next president was already taking place somewhere in this Smiling Coast of Africa.

Held at the Senate room of the University of the Gambia on Tuesday January 8 2007, this symposium was organized by the University of The Gambia’s Students’ Union in collaboration with a visiting entourage of American students, being headed by professor of Political Science and Juniata College’s director of International Affairs, Dr Jennifer Cushman.

The symposium also created the conduit for a general discussion on the American political system, and foreign policy with the latter almost overriding the whole programme.

Introducing the topic, Dr. Nanengast gave an over-view of the whole American political system. According to the American professor, the United States operates a two party system - the two operating parties being the Republicans and Democrats.

He gave the leading contenders for each of the two parties. He also elaborated on the issues that resonate to voters in this years election; the economy, immigration, environment and  healthcare.

The American scholar also dilated on the differences in policy between the two parties in this years election. According to him Republicans favor a stay of American troops in Iraq whilst, Democrats sordidly back a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

He added that opinion polls have indicated that the War on Terror which was one of the most contentious issues in the last elections held in 2004 does not resonate with most of the votes. The Professor disclosed that only 30% of Republicans think that it is important, compared to a 3% Democrats who think on the same line.

He however established that the majority of Americans now feel that the war in Iraq was a mistake. Under pressure from a rather judgmental student gathering, the professor reluctantly alluded to the fact that the current President, George W Bush, stands as the most unpopular US president both within and outside America.

However, it was not long before the debate swayed to the democratic end of the political spectrum. This was not surprising given the fact that one of the Democratic challengers Barack Obama is of African origin.

Introducing both Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama to the audience, Dr Jennifer Cushman  director of International Affairs and lecturer of German literature in Juniata college gave the audience a grasp of the policies of the two democratic contenders.. According to her Obama is more direct about issues. He is a strong opponent of the war in Iraq. He, consequently, favors a removal of troops from the Gulf country. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama supports the existence of two states living side by side in peace.

On the other hand, Clinton who hails from a middle class background has taken a different perspective in some of the most outstanding issues. She has adopted an ambivalent stance on many of the foreign policy issues. She has promised to restore America’s stance in the world, but did not state how. Dr Cushman however, believed that her ambivalent or middle of the road approach has reduced her revolutionary impact on the election.

The symposium later followed by questions and answers on some of the most contentious issues in the elections and also on America’s foreign policy, including Africom, the Palestinian conflict, American-British alliance and Africa’s negative image in the Western media.

The programme was attended by a cross-section of university students, lecturers at the UTG and the co-coordinators of the Juniata College and UTG exchange programme in the Gambia.

Many revolutionary leaders talk the talk, but don’t always walk the walk. But with Sankara, his revolutionary principles guided his own life. At the time of his death he had a salary of $450 a month; and his most valuable possessions were a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.  He was the world’s poorest president, but indeed its richest revolutionary.

It is now 20 years since the assassination of Sankara and 12 of his aides in October 1987. While many know about the violent and inhumane way in which his life was ended, we still do not know the full truth about the circumstances that led to his assassination, nor do we know enough about those who were involved in planning and executing the murders.

Born Thomas Isidore NoÎl Sankara, into a Silmi-Mossi family in the northern Burkina Faso town of Yako on 21 December 1949, his Roman Catholic parents wanted him to become a priest, but he opted instead for a military career – a path that many Africans of his generation pursued as a route to a better life.  In 1970, at the age of 20, Sankara was sent for officer training in Madagascar where he witnessed a popular uprising of students and workers that succeeded in toppling Madagascar’s government.

Before returning to Burkina Faso in 1972, Sankara attended a parachute academy in France where he was exposed to left-wing political ideologies – particularly as they related to France’s neo-colonial relations with her former colonies.

In 1974 he earned much public notoriety for his heroic performance in the border war with Mali, but years later would renounce the war as "useless and unjust", a reflection of his growing political consciousness.  By 1976 his ascending military career brought him to the town of Po where he took command of the new National Training Centre for Commandos.

By the early 1980s the country was being rocked by a series of labour union strikes and military coups.  Sankara’s military achievements and charismatic leadership style made him a popular choice for political appointments, but his personal and political integrity put him at odds with the leadership of the successive military governments that came to power.

In 1980 he was singled out for a government appointment by army chief of staff Col. Saye Zerbo who seized control of the country in a military coup in November of that year and formed a new government, the Military Committee for the Enhancement of National Progress (CMRPN).  Sankara refused to join the CMRPN, but was nonetheless given a post in Zerbo’s government.  Sankara temporarily accepted the position, but later resigned which led to his arrest in April 1982, along with Blaise CompaorÈ and their fellow comrade Henri Zongo.

The increasingly repressive CMRPN was shortly thereafter removed from power by another coup which led to the formation of the Council for the Salvation of the People (CSP) headed by Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo.

In early 1983 Sankara was selected as the prime minister by the CSP, which provided him with an entryway into international politics and a chance to meet with leaders of the Nonaligned Movement, including Fidel Castro (Cuba), Samora Machel (Mozambique) and Maurice Bishop (Grenada).

This same year Sankara’s anti-imperialist stance and grassroots popularity once again put him at odds with the more conservative elements within the CSP, including President Ouedraogo.  In an internal coup, Sankara was removed as prime minister and jailed once again.

In response to mass demonstrations demanding Sankara’s release the CSP compromised by putting him under house arrest in the capital Ouagadougou.

On 4 August, 1983 CompaorÈ along with some 250 other soldiers freed Sankara, overthrew the CSP and formed the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) with Sankara as its president.

In Sankara’s words the August revolution was best understood as having "a dual character: It is a democratic and popular revolution.  Its primary tasks are to liquidate imperialist domination and exploitation and cleanse the countryside of all social, economic, and cultural obstacles that keep it in a backward state.

From this flows its democratic character." Sankara initially focused on applying the philosophy of the revolution to transforming the national army, improving policies concerning women, and economic development.

Why was Burkina Faso in need of such a revolution and what did it accomplish? Sankara once described his country as an embodiment of "the microcosm of the entire natural evils from which mankind still suffers at the end of the twentieth century". Upper Volta, which Sankara renamed Burkina Faso (land of upright men), was (and still is) amongst the world’s poorest countries.

It had an illiteracy rate of over 90%, the world’s highest infant mortality rate (280 deaths for every 1,000 births), inadequate infrastructure to provide basic social services, one doctor per 50,000 people, and an average yearly income of $150 per person.

A year after Sankara took office Burkina Faso became the first country in Africa to run mass measles vaccination campaigns. That year, with the aid of Cuban volunteers, 2.5 million children were immunised for several infectious diseases and even children from neighbouring countries were vaccinated.

The alarming infant mortality rates dropped to 145 deaths per 1,000 in less than two years.  In an effort to slow the advance of the Sahara Desert, Sankara launched a reforestation programme that planted 10 million trees in its first year. Even today, trees are planted to celebrate birthdays, weddings and graduations.  School attendance rose from 12% to 22% in just two years and was complemented by policies to encourage attendance and eventual graduation.

A campaign for the restoration of women’s dignity and recognition of their role in society was launched in order to free women from the yoke of patriarchal domination. During Sankara’s presidency Burkina Faso was a leader in employing women in government posts. In a symbolic attempt to demonstrate to men what the daily realities of women’s lives were like, he declared a day of solidarity with housewives and forced men to go to market and take responsibility for household duties.

Sankara refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxuries were only available to a few BurkinabÈs.

He refused to allow his portrait to be displayed all over the country in order to prevent a cult of personality developing around him.

Shortly after coming to power he sold the government’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz and purchased the far more affordable and easy to maintain Renault 5. Sankara’s pragmatism and commitment to fiscal responsibility is still remembered:  in 2003 critics of the Kenyan government’s purchase of 12 million dollars in luxury cars advised the government to follow the example set by Sankara.

The most appropriate way we can honour the lives and struggles of our slain heroes is to pick up where they left off.

As for Sankara’s widow, Mariam and their sons, Philippe and Auguste,  they have, along with the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), the International Campaign for Justice for Sankara (ICJS), and an international team of 22 lawyers organised by the ICJS coordinator, Aziz Fall, mounted a successful legal case which resulted in a March 2006 ruling by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) that Sankara’s family has "the right to know the circumstances of his death."

The government of Burkina Faso, under President Blaise CompaorÈ, has done little to address the UNHRC’s findings.

The government’s action has been limited to reissuing Sankara’s death certificate to show that he did not die of "natural causes", and attempting to pacify Mariam and her sons by offering them thousands of dollars in compensation.

The Sankara family has staunchly refused to accept any kind of monetary compensation in lieu of the truth.

On another darker side,  across the Atlantic in Canada, Aziz Fall and BurkinabÈ journalist, Sam Kah, have both received anonymous death threats in the wake of their activism.  All of this points to the far-reaching and geographically expansive network of interests that are invested in keeping the truth about Sankara’s assassination from coming to light.

Indeed, Africa and the world are yet to recover from Sankara’s assassination. Just as we have yet to recover from the loss of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Eduardo Mondlane, Amilcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, and most recently John Garang, to name only a few. While malevolent forces have not used the same methods to eliminate each of these great pan-Africanists, they have been guided by the same motive: to keep Africa in chains.