By Saul Saidykhan
The unforgettable late Harry Belafonte, pioneering singer, actor, civil rights icon, and global social justice crusader was tagged as “controversial,” “radical”, “communist sympathizer,” “racist,” “Race Agitator,” “Hypocrite,” “Anti-American” and more.
Belafonte was a black American married to a white woman yet his haters wanted us to believe all of these about him. The one thing mendacious people have in common is their disrespect for others’ capacity to see through their manipulation!Belafonte’s crime was his tireless effort to expose and fight the REAL toxic white racist ideology forced on our world which continues to control (often through coercion,) exploit, hamper, and destroy the lives of non-white people and their environments around the globe.
A recurring theme in Belafonte’s tireless fight against white oppression of other races was his adoption of Rudyard Kipling’s incisive poem “White Man’s Burden” as a mantra. (He in fact made a movie with the same name. His take was: “The White Man’s Burden is the delusion that violence and control are gifts to the oppressed.” Real burden?
Dismantling those same oppressive power structures that disguise exploitation as “civilizing missions.”In other words, the White Man’s Burden has been to convince himself that he’s not racist while upholding the skin color-based oppressive systems that are.So, what has this got to do with poor little Gambia? Everything!
Like Caucasians, the non-Mandinka Gambian’s burden has been to convince himself/herself that he/she is not and CANNOT be tribalist while reinforcing, supporting, and upholding a biased system that has been set up in the 90s to malign, Otherize, fight, and suppress one ethnic group every way possible. It’s NOT an accident that this hated group does much better than most in the diaspora where the playing field is level for all Gambians be it in sports, industry, academia, or sundry professional fields. The richest Gambian alive is a dollar billionaire name Alieu Conteh from Kombo.
From reliable sources, he has tried severally to set up businesses in Gambia since the 90s, but each time his efforts were thwarted by the powers that be. A cursory look at the owners of Gambian Big Businesses in the past 30 years speaks volumes. But I’m sure tribalism has nothing to do with this.I was literally about a thousand miles away from home in middle America less than a week ago when I watched a video of a self-described Fafa-Fana “pirr” talking about the fallout of the Peter Gomez-Attack interview.
He sees nothing wrong with the illogical and incendiary things the young man said about Mandinkas. Or Peter’s failure to check him like he did when the same guest wanted to name media “tribalists” hampering his career. Claiming he has a 2 million plus following on social media, Mr. Fana-Fana has a lot to say about the Mandinka “Jankadings” who have bullied the young man to unnecessarily apologize for what is a non-offense in his view.
He confessed his support for Barrow in the last election was borne out of “pure tribalism” but called on “good Mandinkas” to speak out against the “Jankadings” that have made those like him fear a UDP/Mandinka government.
He said Mandinkas should ask themselves why everyone fears them taking over. I suppose this fellow never looked at Jawara’s record. The mendacity of some people is jarring!Here is a synopsis of what I know from watching some relevant portions of that infamous interview: a young Wolof artist goes on a popular radio show and said most of his supporters are his Wolof kinsmen; though he has Mandinka fans, the majority Mandinka owned media shun him out of tribalism which he believes is why the entertainment industry is stuck where it is.
Peter saw no reason to question the veracity or logic of any of these allegations. Yet there are so many obvious questions dying to be asked.Peter’s problem lies in plain sight. First, he allowed the young artist to peddle a familiar monolithic tribalist Mandinka narrative humming his agreement but immediately stopped his guest when it seemed he was about to call out the media tribalists frustrating his career. I first saw Omar Wally’s video critique and searched for the source. Having seen and listened to the video, I agreed with Wally entirely.
I don’t know the young brother, but no one can call Wally flaky, or an empty-headed loudmouth. Thankfully, my lingering doubts about Peter’s culpability cleared after I read Alagie Barrow’s piece on their direct exchange on this subject.So, Peter’s use of “maybe I don’t speak their language that’s why” was supposedly not literal, but figurative. Here is the problem with this excuse regardless of what one chooses to believe. If one believes the literal, Peter Gomez said that because he does not speak Mandinka that’s why “they” were critical of his interview style.
That would be high-schoolish. Even worse, if one chooses to believe the figurative as in “maybe I don’t speak their language” meaning they use low blows against me, and I refuse to sink to their level, that would hold water if Peter had kept quiet and refused to respond to his critics in kind. But instead, he not only spoke “their language” by going lower, he almost got on all fours. Besides cursing the parents of his critics, Peter saw the need to invoke a loaded Wolof monkey proverb while also throwing demeaning words like “uncultured, “uncivilized”, etc. at his critics.
I’ve read some rude comments from unfamiliar names, but none of the serious critics I recognize used Peter’s type of language. This is very wrong.See, like I told some friends, I do not blame the young artist or his generation. They grew up under a brutal tyrant who had normalized and legitimized anti-Mandinka bigotry as a political tool. Many under 40 Gambians believe there was a Mandinka mafia called Teri Kaffo that controlled everything in the Gambia under Jawara. In fact, Banjul Wolofs and Akus controlled most of the important jobs in the civil and security services. From sports to industry, scholarships, and executive public positions, the story was the same.
Most young people don’t know this, but Peter does. Also, since, he was interviewing an artist, I’m sure Peter is aware that neither the globally acclaimed Sona Jobarteh nor Jaliba Kuyateh are favorites of Gambian Wolofs. We have all seen them bring in Senegalese singers -at times at public expense, ignoring these two Gambian heavyweights.
The goose and gander cliche comes to mind.Anyhow, one ethnic group embracing their kind both in Gambia and Senegal is interpreted as organic love of music, but another ethnicity supporting their domestic kin is cast as tribalism? How can anyone spew such disrespectful nonsense to a whole country? The passive/micro aggression is simply getting out of hand.
Regardless, Peter saw no need to educate the young man, forcing others to step in.Herein lies the tribalism paradox in Gambia: anytime someone lobs tribalism charges- however false or ludicrous at the Usual Suspects, almost all non-Mandinka activists, commentators, or politicians go mute. But as soon as the targets of this senseless smear campaign react, their reaction is quickly and loudly portrayed as validation of the charges that triggered the furor in the first place! This is why from the Jawara era, most Mandinka elite are terrified of being labelled tribalist.
Unlike Belafonte, they tolerated and continue to tolerate things from others they would never do from their kin just to be seen as non-tribal. This is absolute nonsense. Me? I REFUSE to swallow nonsense or be cuckolded. PERIOD.Ironically, from Jawara to Darbo, and other high profile Manden, nothing they do to prove that they’re not tribalist has been good enough. Which is why I’m very glad that the younger generation are standing their ground and refusing to be falsely defined.
If “others” with integrity would muster the courage to teach their young easily verifiable truth about modern Gambian history, this silly ping-pong will cease. Unless that happens, this will keep repeating.I have said and written about this several times: the senseless and mostly false anti-Mandinka narrative in our polity is the most destructive weapon in Gambian national resource management and public discourse. It has allowed and continues to allow crooks to get away with the looting of our common weal because all they have to do is cry wolf about Mandinka persecution.
ALL Gambians are victims of our lack of progress due to the insane looting of our resources. Yet many still don’t get this.Contrary to what many younger Gambians believe, this toxic anti-Sosseh spiel is not a new thing created by the tinpot autocrat from Kansala. In fact, all he did was seize the narrative to consolidate power and enrich himself stupendously at our expense. And as long as non-Mandinka Gambians are dumb enough to believe this nonsense, crooked officials will continue to use this narrative as a trick to distract public attention from the sleaze they are engaged in.
Finally, the erudite Mr. Fafa-Fana pirr got it all wrong: the Burden of fixing these endless silly tribal squabbles does not fall on Mandinkas, but on non-Mandinka Gambians. First, they need to stop reinforcing the nonsense that Gambian tribalism is a uniquely Mandinka thing. Just because others have mastered the art of crying wolf does not make the undisputed victims of systemic tribalism culprits. More importantly, they need to stop lying to their children about the Jawara era which is the genesis of the widespread hatred we keep seeing manifest itself. When you falsely accuse someone of something and he/she responds, it’s deceitful to play victim.
If a 4ft tall, 100 lbs 10-year-old boy walks up to a 6ft, 240lbs, 40-year-old man and punches him in the face, and the man knocks the kid out, his reaction may be unreasonable, but that does not make the kid innocent! But one has to understand shame and integrity to get this. What a country
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