Mr. Basamba Drammeh
Atlanta, Ga. USA
September 23, 2018
To his Excellency Mr. Adama Barrow
President of the Republic of The Gambia
Mr. President,
As you might have known already, our country The Gambia is at the brink of a turbulence around the Soninke villages on the upper River Gambia over the ancestral, barbaric, shameful practice of slavery.
I am myself said to have descended from the old Soninke / Sarahule nobility that was the high social class of the ancient Ghana kingdom and empire. The time of social classes intrinsically and exclusively inherited by birth is long outdated and discredited and abandoned by all civilized nations.
The Constitution of The Gambia prohibits all sorts of social, economic, political, civil discrimination against any individual or group of people of its citizenry, on any ground, in conformity to the United Nations’ 1948 proclamation of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights whose first four articles stipulate as follows:
“Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal.
Article 2. Everyone is entitled to the same human rights without discrimination of any kind.
Article 3. Everyone has the human right to life, liberty, and security.
Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.”
Unfortunately, Mister President, there are citizens of our beloved Gambia, a nation of enduring peace and religious devotion, who are still called “slaves”, who are not enjoying these basic human liberties, are not aware, not made aware of them, even wantonly kept away from them.
The Gambia is not the only country in West Africa where velleities flared then soon turned into blazing desires for dignity. The so called “slaves” have been belittled and disenfranchised socially for the ages. Enough abuse is enough. Slavery had been with all human societies dating far back to antiquity and beyond. Four hundred years of the ignoble transatlantic slave trade gave a more atrocious meaning to slavery in Africa among Africans and blemished our image around the world.
Mister President, a lot could be said on the topic of human bondage. I urge you, my beloved President, along with your government and the people of The Gambia to proactively stand upright unfledged, by the Constitution of our country in defense of the rights of the downtrodden. Reports of violence and police involvements in Gambia, linked to the Gambana movement of liberation, have circulated in social media.
There appear to be a concerted effort to unite all Soninke movements of liberation of Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and our Gambia, aimed at the systematic end of slavery. As a result of the Soninke “slave “ revolt in Mali some insurgents have been reportedly deprived of the farm lands passed down to all by their forebearers.
Now is the time for the Gambian government to get involved and put an end to this shameful practice before the country gets marred in violence and becomes the laughingstock of the international community.
Gambana and other Soninke groups of liberation are ready to fight by all means necessary, not excluding armed strife, against anyone offender, according to those who monitor them closely, in order to de factor recover their God-given liberties, the inalienable rights endowed anyone at birth.
Thank you for your precious time, Mr. President. It is out of concern for my own, the Gambian people, that I decided to write you this letter.
Sincerely yours, Basamba Drammeh, a proud citizen of the Republic of The Gambia.
Basamba Drammeh
P.S.
A copy of this letter will be Given to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of The Gambia.