The Gambian leader, Alhajie Dr Yahya Jammeh, has received a congratulatory letter from a renowned Senegalese musical super star, Ousman Jallow, commonly called Ouza.

In his congratulatory message, Ouza expressed appreciation with the president for delegating Hon. Momodou Kotu Cham, SoS for Forestry and the Environment, and the Gambian high commissioner to Senegal, to attend the gala he organised on 11th July 2008.

Ouza wrote that he was honoured and pleased by the gesture and that His Excellency’s gesture was a honour for the whole of Senegambia.

He described President Jammeh as a visionary “who always takes inspiration from African values and traditions, and he assured him of his strong support and commitment to Africa”.

The Alliance Franco-Gambienne (AFG) in Serrekunda was last Saturday turned into a music groove as Dembadu, a band which is based in Sukuta, churned out four hours of continuous music. With a wide repertoire of songs melodiously derived from the Afro-Mandingo sound, Dembadu has plunged the plubic into the glorious of Guelewar Jazz Band and Ifamondy Jazz Band.

Dembadu Band’s musicians powerfully expressed their creative potential with a tremendous musical power that swayed and moved the capacity audience till the early hours of Sunday morning.

Toul Berro and his friends treated the audience with a combination of diverse styles and traditions that appeared to have a soul. Despite the fact that Gambia’s musical identity has been diluted with Mbalax, Dembadu Band certaintly constitutes the last citadel of hope.

As this year tourist season is wind-up, more tourists to the Gambia still want to stay for more night to increase their knowledge and enjoy to their fullest  due to the friendly, peaceful and hospitable environment of the country.

The Gambia is one of the very small countries in West Africa with an area of 11,295 sq. km, speaking about eight national languages with English as the official language. The Gambia is a secular state but Muslim still have the highest per cent of the population.  This small country of ours is situated at the two banks of the river Gambia and enclosed by Senegal at three sides.

The Gambia is an easy doorway into Africa; the people are so welcoming that it will make your stay and passage easy. One thing to remember is that you can leave as deep an impression on the Gambians as they will do on you.

Coming to the Gambia when you have facilitated and ready for your journey, first of all check if you have in your luggage your light sandal/slippers-to walk around freely because of the sand, light wears because of the beautiful sunshine weather, your camera to snap some photographs as many as you can and few items like writing materials for the kids who will always admire you on the street or at sight by shouting ‘toubab, toubab, toubab!’ Whether you are a boy or girl, young man or woman, old or not, mature or whatever, the populace must admire you, this is one of the friendly manner they will first accord you.

Tourists traveling to some other country always go out and buy travel books to guide and familiarize themselves with the country of their choice- to visit, but tourists to The Gambia do not need to shoulder much burden of searching for travel book on the Gambia hence there are a lot of  tourist guides to take you around and explain ever than such book will do.

Therefore, if you are a surfer, you don't want to find out about the perfect point-break B&B at the end of your trip. If you're a birder, you'd like to know where to find the elusive blue swallow long before you hit these shores. And if you like to drink a lager and enjoy yourself at sunset with the best bathing in the Smiling Coast of Africa at your feet, it's nice to have a tourist guide who will take you round everywhere on your first visit to the shore of the Gambia.

Anyway your travel guide or book is still very useful because your admiring the Smiling Coast of Africa start with immediate you start hearing the name. So once you're in The Gambia, all the major tourism practitioners have well-run tourist offices. Nose around in there, and you'll find the particular set of pamphlets you need to tailor-make your trip.

You will not experience boring throughout your stay like wise will you face any stress in moving around the cities like Banjul, Greater Banjul among, even at the provinces always use the public transport system, get a cab or hire a car.  In The Gambia, there are lots of standard hotels accommodations with good and moderate rates that are astoundingly cheap in this country.

Your choice of where to stay depends on what you want out of the trip, to pound a cliché, a great smorgasbord of tourism opportunities for you to feast on.  Gambians are very kind people, within hours of your arrival; you're going to discover that the Gambia is a small but a grate nation, having melting pot of cultures, languages and traditions. Oh, here in the Smiling Coast of Africa, we're very proud of our diversity.

Prepare yourself for African grub; you will enjoy different dishes. Everyone is a family to each other, eating together is parts of us because in togetherness we are one.  Eating is made easy either at your hotel or outside. So the service industry is on a fast track, and you'll have no problems eating out or self-catering. All the cities have their different club houses catering to various youth with irrespective of their background, tribes, visitors and tourists.

It depends on where you like to be and who you like to watch during live performances from the entertainers and musicians. Access to adequate information is easier; there are lots of media in the cities that are informative and educative either printing or electronic so if you want to catch up on national news from home, stay glue with your television set and most supermarkets also carry offshore publications.

Internet cafes have blossomed all over the Gambia, and you'll find them not only in the cities but also in many of the small rural towns you'll be passing through. Take time off to keep in touch with the family. Encourage them to come over and join you because the Smiling Coast of Africa is sweet.

The Gambia is full of history which is the only legacy colonial masters cannot take away from us. Among the historical places that can complete your visit to the Gambia are the Wasu Stone Circles located on the north bank of the river, Janjangbureh, James Island, Sanneh Samatering, numerous festivals both national and international, among other things that will make you to spend one more and more night in the Gambia. You must visit and spend more night in the Gambia, the Smiling Coast of Africa.

The town of Janjanbureh in the central river region (CRR) will be the host to a four day national workshop on Kankurang traditions, from the 8th to 11the May, 2008.

The aims and objectives of this four day national workshop on Kankurang traditions are to document the significance of Kankurang to the communities to continue maintaining the tradition, to find ways and means of preserving and ensuring the transmission of this tradition to future generations, to lay foundations for the establishment of Kankurang centres which will serve as focal points for research, information dissemination, preservation, promotion and development.

According to the information relayed to arts and culture, from the national centre for arts and culture (NCAC), signed by Mr Momodou Joof, executive director and  custodian of the country’s tradition and cultural heritage in Banjul, stated that the workshop is a follow up to the proclamation of the Kankurang tradition as a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of humanity under the UNESCO convention for the safe quarding of the intangible cultural heritage.

According to the NCAC boss, the Gambia and Senegal have developed a project and action plan which involves the organisation of a series of workshops with stakeholders in the respective countries with the ultimate aims of safequarding the tradition for posterity.

The dispatched information further stated that participants to the workshop are expected to be custodians of the Kankurang tradition in their communities and individuals with special knowledge on local cultural manifestations in general.

As the National Council of Seyfolu is inaugurated

A joyous carnival atmosphere enveloped Brikama Town on Friday, as President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh and virtually all his senior government officials descended on the Western Region’s capital to enthrone the Paramount Chief of The Gambia.

More than 40 chiefs from all over the country were present, as was the vice-President, the speaker of the National Assembly, the chief justice, secretaries of state, the chief of Defenece Staff, regional governors and members of the National Assembly.

This was a programme in the 43rd Independence Anniversary Celebrations, and it turned into an ocassion of rejoicing as numerous cultural groups performed for the gathered dignitaries and citizenry.

Jaliba Kuyateh got the ladies on their feet and gyrating their stuff as he played some of his most popular and rhythmic songs. To the pleasure of the various groups who were not on the day’s programme but had come prepared to perform, all were allowed to perform, to the obvious pleasure of the president who was enjoying it all enormously.

The secretary of state for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, Hon Ismaila K Sambou, gave the first address, describing the occasion as a momentous one since the government was taking steps to re-establish the power of The Gambia’s chieftaincy system which had been weakened by a colonial Act in 1942.
The newly enthroned paramount chief, Alhaji Demba Sanyang

On his part, the president emphasised that the colonial system of divide and rule had as its first act tried to weaken and destroy the old traditional systems that had held our society together. "Those whom they had given short trousers and a tie to wear they considered civilised and loyal, while they tried to do away with those who followed our traditional culture and dress code", said the president.

"A tree without strong roots is easily uprooted by wind", said the president. "Our traditions are our roots and the colonialists found it easier to control us if they did away with our roots". The Alkalo is the head of the village and his authority should be respected, there said the president, adding "I may be the president but when I go to Kanilai, the Alkalo of Kanilai is the boss".

Deliniating on the importance of the separation of powers, the president described the district chiefs as the executive authority in their districts, saying "National Assembly members must recognise and respect the authority of chiefs within the district".

Then the president added, to much laughter and appreciation from the crowd, "It would be a foolish NAM who made an enemy of a chief because I can assure you that such a NAM would not be elected by a chief’s people".

The president emphasised that the important thing was for all authorities to work together in harmony to benefit the people and develop the nation. Finally the president underlined the importance of the rule of law.

"I am the president but I am under the law", said the president, emphasising that the Alkalou, the chiefs and all others in authority are to act according to law. He then advised the chiefs to admininster justice in their districts fairly, saying "apply the law without fear or favour".

President’s human touch

Jaliba Kuyateh’s performance was a memorable part of the occasion, but so was the gesture of the president. Two disabled young men in the crowd wanted to meet the president, but the security was holding them back.

The president saw them and beckoned for them to be allowed through, to the utter joy of the two disable young men who performed joyous and amusing theatrics as they went to shake hands with the president. It was a moment of spontaneous pure theatre which brought much joy and laughter to the crowd. It was also an example of the president’s much famed human touch that continues to endear him so much to his people.

"If a man is known by his acts, then we will say that the most urgent thing today for the intellectual is to build up his nation",
 
Frantz Fanon, Speech to African Writers, 1959.

This weekend’s inauguration of the Paramount Chief is very much in the tradition of building up the nation.

Many African Presidents did, on coming to power, totally sideline centres of traditional power such as the village heads and district chiefs in order to consolidate their one-man rule. Even the much admired and rightly greatly respected Kwame Nkrumah attempted to weaken the Chiefs of Ghana, including the Asantehene of the Ashanti. In Uganda, Obote’s downfall followed his usurpation of the powers of the Kabaka, and the sending of the Kabaka to die in exile.

President Jammeh, an African patriot and great respecter of African tradition at heart, has always gone the other way and worked hard to build-up traditional and respected authority structures from the grass-roots up. Every country has its traditions, languages and cultures and this is what holds the society together.

Look for example at President Jammeh’s own personal respect for Sir Dauda Jawara. It may seem a mute point, but do we really think that Odinga and Kibaki would be so hostile to each other if they were both dressed in Kaftans instead of suits and ties, talked Swahili to each other instead of English, and respected our calm African ways of talking to each other respectfully instead of taking hostile positions and shouting at each other as the English do in their Parliament? (By the way, Odinga’s father, the late pan-Africanist Oginga Odinga, would not be allowed into Kenya’s Parliament by the colonialists because he insisted on wearing traditional dress and sandals).

Much of the nonsense on the internet, and the abuse and misunderstandings they subject each other to, is simply due to the fact that they are trying to deal with contentious matters in English - and in the manner of the Anglo-Saxons.

Let them have that debate, that argument, that discourse in Wollof or Swahili first and see if they will quarrel. Even President Jammeh, when making the excellent speech at the Paramount Chief’s inauguration, got most joyous responses from the crowd when he occasionally broke into the local languages. And President Jammeh and Lawyer Darboe made their post-2001 election encounter so memorable because they spoke to each other from a unifying cultural and traditional perspective.

Our languages, traditions and cultures are what hold us together – they are the nuts and bolts of our oneness with our African selves. We lose that and we disintegrate because as the President said we become "trees without roots" blown here and there by any winds.

I see the greatest harmony in African societies when we hold onto our cultures, traditions and languages. Greeting someone in Swahili, we always say "Hujambo ndugu?" or "Hujambo dada?" (how is it brother/sister). In English it is a thoroughly impersonal "Good morning?", or simply a barked-out "Morning!", whether it is a good or a bad morning.

In The Gambia we say "Asalam Malaikum" (peace be on you) – but in England and USA we may be arrested on suspicion terrorism if we greeted each other with "Asalam malaikum"! I say a big ASALAM MALAIKUM to you all, my Gambian ndugus and dadas.

Though we have described Sine and Saloum as part of the Wollof Empire at its height, the leading people of these states were the Serer. These people also have traditions of migration into the Senegambia area, and are also believed to be the product of racial fusion between non-Negro immigrant groups and indigenous Negroes.

Their customs and language bear considerable similarity to those of the Wollof.

They appear to have settled originally to the north of the Senegal but under pressure from more powerful peoples they moved into

Futa Toro and became subjects of the Tukulor. Other invaders including Wollof, forced the Serer to migrate south westwards until they finally established themselves in small states in the Sine-Saloum area probably in the twelfth century.

The Serer States of Since and Saloum came under the Wollof domination but remained Serer in character. Both Tukulor and Mandinka invaders that finally won control of Sine and Saloum and a series of smaller states along The Gambia including Niani and Wuli. The Mandinka migrants took over much of the Serer culture including their language.

They took the wollof “Bur” in preference to “Mad” which was the Serer title of king.

The Serer had roughly parallel social structures as the wollof domination but remained Serer in character. Both Tukulor and Mandinka groups rivalled the Wollof aristocracy for power in the Serer states but it was a group of Mandinka invaders that finally won control of Sine and Saloum and a series of smaller states along The Gambia including Niani and Wuli. The Mandinka migrants took over much of the Serer culture including their language. They took the Wollof “Bur” in preference to “Mad” which was the Serer title of king.

The Serer had roughly parallel social structure as the Wollof, marked by the existence of distinct status grouping of nobles, free peasants and slave warriors, as well as castes of artisans. The Serer can be divided into five major status groups and ‘a number of sub-groupings.’

First, there was the nobility who, as in the case of the Wollof, consisted of holders of royal power and their relatives. Second, there were the “Tyeddo”, the warriors who largely made up the entourage of the Burs and their major chiefs. In the third and largest status group were the “Jambur”, the Commoners or free peasants. They participated in the political system, and their consent was necessary for its operation. A number of major chiefs were chosen from their ranks.

Fourth, came a series of castes of which the most important was the griot. Caste status were inherited and attached to an economic activity. Griots were well rewarded for their work and often became rather wealthy. However, the most rigid of marital taboos was against marriage with griots. They could not be buried in soil, and their corpses were generally placed in the arms of giant baobab trees.

Fifth and last on the social ladder were the slaves. Here again there were the trade slaves and domestic slaves.

The Serer did not develop any complex political institutions until they came into contact wit the Guelewarr. The Burs of both Sine and Saloum were chosen from among the Guelewarr. In both Sine and Saloum, the Bur was the highest political and religious personality. He was charged with operating the state and with taming those forces beyond the control of Man. The most important factor dividing the peoples of the Senegambia was the differential impact of Islam.

In this the Serer stood out as one of the groups that had undergone no conversion. A Bur, who reached old age, was subject to ritual murder because it was believe he could no longer guarantee that cattle and women would remain fertile. In theory, he oldest male Guelewarr became Bur. In practice, the Guelewarr, who could amass the most power, ascended the throne. Constitutional processes merely confirmed and gave legitimacy to the most power Guelewarr.