By Ousman Gorrmack
Recently, the president of Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (GSIC), Alhaji Momodou Lamin Touray said that no Muslim should dislike Yaya Jammeh because of what he’s done to spread Islam in the country. Now, one would think that the online community’s vitriolic reaction to this statement was to be expected given that it is quite illogical to make the claim that presidents should be judged solely on their religious record – and most importantly, because this pronouncement was just one of a series of shameful positions associated with the GSIC.
The GSIC is the same body that endorsed the sudden execution of the Mile 2 nine, the same body that kept mute when Imam Bah Kawsu Fofana and Imam Baba Leigh’s human rights were trampled upon by the regime’s agents. Both men were tortured and the latter detained for long periods without the right to a trial or representation. It is the same body that kept quiet when the Imam of State House mosque, Imam Abdoulie Fatty, endorsed female genital mutilation as a practice sanctioned by the Quran, the same group that time after time turned a blind eye to the many human rights abuses meted out to Gambian citizens. The unpleasant truth is the GSIC has shown an exhaustive record of simply being an instrument that only serves to endorse many of the president’s whims. Clearly one can understand why the latest statement from the president of the GSIC would invoke a lot of ire from Gambians who have followed that record. Right? No, think again.
Amran Gaye, one of many young Gambians with immense potential as writers and contemporary thinkers on Gambian affairs, took this opportunity to launch an attack on the online movements against the Yaya Jammeh regime or ‘the struggle’ as it has become known lately. In his article, he effectively uses a broad brush to paint these movements – mostly composed of highly principled and conscientious objectors to the excesses of the current regime – as a bunch of misguided and vitriolic rabble rousers. Supposedly, this latest volley of insults on the GSIC president had assaulted his senses to the point where he wrote the piece he titled: “The Gambian Dark Ages: How the “Struggle” Has Pulled Us Down and Further Entrenched the Current Government.”
The piece is undoubtedly a compelling story, characterized by the writing style and flowery language that can captivate and convince a reader. However, when one takes the time to carefully un-package this well-written story, one finds out the actual contents of the package don’t quite measure up to the wrapping paper it was delivered with. It is characterized by wild generalizations and a misunderstanding of the evolution of the online opposition in the diaspora and the significant achievements it has gained. Perhaps an understanding of the history of the online opposition would have avoided the wild and what same may even term as a mischievous mischaracterization of the online struggle that is endemic in his article. The rest of this piece will attempt to do what the article failed to do: Attempt to show the online-led movement’s significant contributions to Gambia and the movement against Yaya Jammeh.
There is little doubt that online listservs such as the Gambia-L and Gambia-Post contributed in no small measure to the growth and expansion of opposition efforts in the diaspora. Before Facebook brought Web 2.0 to the mainstream, allowing users to interact real-time via the previously static Web browser pages, the aforementioned listservs allowed Gambians to discuss all types of issues about the country. The near simultaneous emergence of the APRC regime and these listservs kindled the embers of the discussion about the regime into a burning flame that is yet to be extinguished or dampened.
The listservs were the outlet for these discussions which were sometimes vitriolic as much as they were brilliant and measured. Alas, reading him rail on the online Opposition members as a bunch of uncouth and foul mouthed individuals who cannot tolerate dissent, one would think all political discussions should be measured affairs full of decorum and logical thinking. But the reality is this is a utopian ideal that in fact does not exist when it comes to political discussions talk less of one that involves a country struggling to free itself from the chokehold of a dictator. For a quick reality check, he should spend some time following the current political discourse in the USA, a country which does not have to deal with the corruption and human rights abuses endemic in Gambia for the past two decades, to see how nasty these types of discussions can become.
The truth is these listservs were a reflection of the typical Gambian Bantaaba. It took all sorts of people to make a vigorous debate. They attracted Gambian students as well as professionals from all over the globe, such as the crème de la crème of Gambian academics who represented all sides of the political debate as well as others who simply wanted to learn and contribute to the conversation. As is to be expected of conscientious intellectuals, their general abhorrence of human rights abuses meant there were far more people who were against the APRC regime than for it. And as a result, the two listservs came to be seen as more sympathetic to the Opposition. Another point that must be made is because of the lack of Internet penetration in Gambia at the time, most of the contributors to this conversation were based in the diaspora. Only a few Gambians who accessed the Internet via governmental and non-governmental facilities were able to read and sometimes contribute to the discourse. Thus this online movement true pure dint of circumstance came to be seen as one fueled by the diaspora.
The beautiful consequence of the conversations that took place on these listservs was the quality of ideas and endeavors that they produced. They included countless fund raising drives for worthy causes, letter writing campaigns that addressed blatant injustices, political action committees, planning and laying the ground work for demonstrations and other worthy causes. Want specifics? The first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that committed political parties to form a united front against the APRC regime came about as a result of the work of the Save the Gambia Democracy Project (STGDP) – a group formed after much brainstorming on these listservs – with the political parties on the ground. Another example of effective action and collaboration from online movements was when one particular member of the online community who moved by what she read about the plight of the students who were severely injured during the April 14 student massacre, personally collaborated with the American embassy to help several of the injured school children relocate to the United States. In fact, most of the organizations opposed to the situation in The Gambia, from DUGA to CORDEG, came about directly or indirectly as a result of the marketplace of ideas the listservs provided.
The plight of Omar Barrow, a budding journalist who was killed on the fateful day, so moved many of the online community that funds were raised for his family. Other funding drives included raising one to help pay Fatou Jaw Manneh’s 12,000 dollar fine that was levied on her for criticizing the president, and one for Imam Baba Leigh’s family during his unjust abduction by agents of the state, and one for the missing Chief Ebrima Manneh’s family. Lately thanks to sites like GoFundMe.Com which allows contributors to give their contributions online, fundraising activities via the online movement have mushroomed. Drives have become more well-planned and sophisticated and can raise thousands of dollars very quickly. To commemorate the anniversary of the April student massacre, a successful drive was conducted using various online technologies to raise thousands of dollars for the families of some of the victims of the shootings who are in the worst condition.
Let’s be clear that the online movement was not only about politics. It was about obituaries, news, education, history and the whole gamut of other topics. One of the biggest gifts the online movement has given us is a treasure trove of information online on all manner of topics about The Gambia. For the first time in the history of the country, many of the opinions, research, revelations, and random thoughts and so on about the country are accessible online via simple Google searches. The thousands of brilliant write-ups by Gambians are available for anyone to peruse. It is true that the history of our country has been written in the past by heavyweights such as Florence Mahoney and Professor David Gamble but for the first time in our history, Gambians have collectively contributed to writing that history real-time and written it from so many different perspectives. Our colonial legacy has taught us that national pride and sense of worth is enhanced when nations write their own history. The online movements have helped us move towards this noble ideal, and this has been largely due to the online activists he derides as comprised of a majority of cursing rabble rousers.
The polemics and ideas started by the online community also gave rise to the powerhouse online newspapers today such as The Freedom Newspaper, Gainako, and Maafanta. These online newspapers must be given a lot of credit for the strides they’ve made towards educating Gambian people and getting the message out there. The Freedom Newspaper is so feared by the current regime they’ve fruitlessly tried to block the IP addresses it is accessible from. The individuals that run these newspapers are remarkable Gambians not only because of their talents but because of their determination to spread the news and get it from as many sources as possible. They all run these efforts using their own money and time.
The online movement has been so effective that Yaya Jammeh himself has launched a PR campaign to discredit it. He has appeared on national television to curse and threaten members of this movement. If, and as he alleges, the online movements were not effective, there would not have been a law – rubber stamped by parliament as usual – that made it a crime to criticize the president online. Nor would political parties from The Gambia fly out to attend meetings conceptualized online by the various online interest groups. And it certainly wouldn’t result in the European Union, as a result of pressure from the various online groups, delivering an ultimatum to the government to improve its human rights situation.
Today, the Gambian listservs’ strength has waned. Technologies such as Web 2.0 have meant other mediums have become more effective ways to communicate and get the message out. Online groups can fundraise in hours, or easily brainstorm over Facebook. You have groups like Gambia Youth and Women’s Forum which have a much wider reach than any medium used before. The political action groups such as CORDEG and others are far more effective and wiser than the likes of the STGDP of the past. Contrary to his broad mischaracterization of the struggle, it has become more diverse and far more resilient than ever before. His sneering at the many disparate groups is actually misplaced. The struggle has morphed into the equivalent of the Greek mythical hydra with multiple heads. All of this started off because of the efforts of a few dozen dedicated people online who knew that what was happening in Gambia was wrong.
As opposed to his conclusion, it is not all doom and gloom when it comes to the struggle. The positives the online movement can point to makes miniscule the bad language and lack of tolerance exhibited by some. His characterization of our country as a bus being driven to the edge of precipice by the ruling party and the online opposition is what logicians call a false equivalence. Given all the positive things that have emerged from the two decades of an active online movement, one has to wonder what prompted him to try to make the dishonest equivocation between a government that has mismanaged the country so badly; and the online movement.
But as the saying goes, never let a crisis – a mini one in this case – go to waste. The online movements have to ask themselves how it has come to this, where a young Gambian with so much potential has mischaracterized the online movement so badly. My view is that the various movements have not told their story properly. Young Gambians such as Mr Gaye were probably in their formative years during much of the evolution of the movement. But as was the case in the 1990s and the emergence of the Internet and the listservs, technology has given us another opportunity. Internet penetration and the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and others have given us access to thousands of young Gambians. It is my view that the next challenge for the online movements is to leverage this massive penetration to tell their wonderful story, understand what the youths want and collaborate with interested groups to implement endeavors target the Gambian youth positively. After all, the struggle does need youths like Amran Gaye.