Sunday, May 24, 2015

Gambia in 1988; and what obtains today



This is a documentary of a rural transformation that was beginning to take shape in the Gambia in 1988, six years before Yaya Jammeh seized power illegally in 1994.  

If you want a visual conformation of a society that was independent and free of political coercion and intimidation of rural (as well as urban) dwellers, just watch this video.

It was a Gambia that had a president who presided over public policy and the necessary moral leadership to see through policy implementation, and not someone who governs by diktats or what is euphemistically referred to as 'executive orders'. 

One thing that strikes you immediately from the video is the absence of a single menacing military personnel of any kind, no law enforcement or national security personnel or enforcers who call themselves Governors, to keep citizens in check. 

A look at the faces in the video, you see happier and determined faces, who were free to pursue their lives, as they see fit, independent of the government.  Gambians were freer and happier then than they are now under a very repressive dictator.  The NGO community then comprised of Freedom From Hunger Campaign and other NGOs worked with local communities with little or no government intervention or interference. 

Even though we understand not a single word of the narrator, the visuals alone carried a strong message of independence and hard work of our rural women who have now been turned into slaves toiling in Yaya Jammeh's private farms across Gambia.

We must drive Jammeh out of State House and return Gambia to Gambians.

Please help us with a translation and a voice over from an expert videographer.