A Gift to the Nation
By Da One
The question is not whether you and me as private citizens have any regard for the constitution of the Republic of The Gambia. The question is how the government of the day adheres to the document that with all its flaws and limitations brought it to power. That document is the supreme law of the country. Yayha have tampered with it through amendments by the National Assembly, still that could not save all of them from the might of the people. You see the logic. There is an ongoing process to make major amendments to the constitution, but until then, it is superior to our whims and caprices in running the affairs of the nation.
I have no qualms with people becoming presidents at hundred so long they can deliver the goods. However, if the constitution rightly or wrongly sets an age limit for a particular political office, we have only two choices. We can either undertake an amendment or leave it at that. What is immoral and unethical is to have provisions in the constitution that will not be enforced or respected. That’s a travesty to the ideals of a democratic society.
Now we come to the most vexing issue about your response that properly will generate some further discussions on and offline.
You see brother Tumbul, I never said no one should learn or speak French, Chinese, Japanese, Aztec or all what have you. I simply stated, it will be a disaster to have French as a second official language in The Gambia. The reasons are very simple and comprehensible to any mind that is not bound in the chains of lactification:
First, English as the official language of The Gambia has failed to bring us the desired results in terms of relevant education and the broadening of the scope of participatory democracy. French as an official language will add to that disconnect and the divide that already exist.
Second, less than 50 percent of the Gambian population have any agency in the English language because of various reasons that are topics of their own. French as an official language will only add to that disconnect and the divide that already exist.
Third, French is the official language in many ECOWAS countries, yet, it is not the most spoken language in the majority of those countries. So, it’s curious why you mentioned French and not Bambara or Fulani, for example. French is, of course, a language of power on the world stage. But that’s just because Afrikkan countries have allowed it to be so at their own peril and at huge economic lost every single day of the year.
Fourth, instead of creating a space of power for French in the Gambian administrative systems, it is more prudent and advisable to create the same space of power for our own beautiful languages like Sarahulleh, Wollof, Manjago, Fula, Mandinka, Jola, Serer and so on and so forth. The addition of any imperial language to our language ecology is a dangerous and direct threat to our cultural identity as a people, which is already perishing daily.
Fifth, the notion of learning our own languages in school seems to be contagion to many like you Tumbul, especially those who are already literate in the language of their slave masters. No doubt you view that possibility as if it will be like a newly introduced pathogen. That’s because the European education has taught us all to internalize self-hate. Some will escape this, some will die with it. I have taken the vow to educate my people to learn to love themselves, their cultures and our myriad identities.
Sixth, it’s proven in the field of psychology and neuroscience that obtaining knowledge in one’s mother tongue is 75 percent much more efficient in nurturing intelligence and other cognitive abilities. This means Afrikka is losing 75 percent of its potential to various languages of oppression and subjugation.
Moreover, according to some expert figures, we (Afrikka, Gambia) will be able to double our GDP just by producing all genres of Literature that we need in our own languages. By extension, that will strengthen our beautiful and diverse cultures that we have to protect and nurture.
As to your advice to be open minded, I have this to say: To be open minded begins with knowing and understanding oneself, one’s country and then the world. That’s the lesson many people could not fully follow and put to practice. That’s the reason we are saddled with half-baked leaders who will unknowingly sell us straight back into chattel slavery and go to bed smiling.
My original article titled “The Burnt Bridge, Fatoumatta Tambajang the Self-serving Egomaniac” has also generated some criticism that it was a personal vendetta coming from an anonymous author. I never meet Fatoumatta Tambajang in person and I have no reason to. But I also never begged her to be where she, out of her own free-will, chose to occupy—the open public political space that I, as a citizen, have a vested interest to keep on a vigilant eye. If I choose not to reveal my identity online, that’s just a choice available to and exercised by me. Anyone, if so desired, can use that option. Fatoumatta is a public figure, in her personal capacity, she has the right to respond to any statement she believes is unfair to her. I don’t apologize to anyone for addressing her in light of the aforementioned vis-a-vis how she conducted herself in the running of our affairs.
Gone are those days when we should treat people who enjoy their privileges paid from our taxes like untouchable and divine lord. Solo Sandeng and all other martyrs have not sacrificed their lives for us to live in fear of our own shadows. That was their ultimate gift to us as a nation and a people.
Now it’s more than ever, our duty to safeguard those gains for the coming generation. I am doing my part and that’s unstoppable.