It was yet another episode for Seattle Gambians who are emerging to make Seattle Washington “A No Go Zone” for Gambian dictator and his enablers. This time was a confrontation with African American comedian, dancer and actor Ben Vereen during his preview launching of the “the Kunta Kinteh Island movie at the Seattle Arts Museum Saturday night february 28th. The Seattle Gambian activists on a short notice prepared some literature and flyers to attend the event in down town Seattle. They came in, paid $45 tickets at the door, joined the crowd to listen to all the speeches by some famous African Americans like Alex Harley’s grand son Charles Harley, Chaz Guest a renowned artist and one Lamin Jatta who presented himself as a descendant of Kunta Kinteh.
The activists watched the hour long movie to ensure that the story that was being told is in fact consistent with the true story of Kunta Kinteh. For the most part the story was narrated accurately as written by the late Alex Harley. But there were some gross inconsistencies that are serious enough to agitate some attendees. The movie has some political inclination crediting Chaz Guest and the Gambian President for changing the James Island name to Kunta Kinteh Island. Actor Ben Vereen and Chaz traveled to Gambia last week and sat with the Gambian dictator who apparently entertained them and made them feel like it was heaven in Gambia without any signs of oppression.
After watching the movie with some serious inaccuracies enough to kill the historical relevance of this great African story, Ben Veeren went on stage to address the half full hall. To his credit Ben called for African Americans and black people to support their own. He questioned why nothing was done on the Kunta Kinteh Island since independence. He said it was embarrassing to stand there and watch such a history deteriorate so badly to the level that only White people wants to go there. He challenged our people to be proud of where they came from and contribute to uplift the family of Kunta Kinteh and the communities.
In the midst of his speech, one activist Ousman Ceesay rose up in the middle of the hall to interrupt the famous actor. “Gambians are being oppressed and you guys are standing here and talking about something else” Yield Ousman. He immediately drew attention of the crowd towards him and Ben was shocked to hear the protest. Ousman raised his voice louder and Ben visibly agitated stop to listen and said “that is not the agenda here”. Other Gambians in the hall joined the protest and this author walked to the front of the stage and handed Ben a publication with story about murdered Gambian Journalists Deyda Hydara and Chief Ebrima Manneh. He was asked to read it aloud to the crowd but he refused. Literature was at this time distributed to the Guests and it was chaos all over the hall. Other Gambians joined and engaged the crowd individually and spoke aloud about the human rights situation in Gambia. People were visibly angry and the activists were asked to channel their protest in a different platform. The shouting persisted and everyone was asked to leave the hall.
Insisting on being heard, this reporter walked to Ben Vereen who had angrily sat down. Ben was handed over a print out from his face book page about fighting for Journalists saying “Free the pen” in Egypt and France in the wake of Cartoon publishers’ massacre. He also got a copy of list of Human rights violations with a picture of the two journalists killed in Gambia. “You are an activist for Journalists right Ben? Do you know that over 100 Gambian journalists have been driven away from Gambia since Yahya Jammeh came to power” He responded in the Negative. “Well since this was your first trip to Gambia we wanted to educate you on what is going on there”. Ben again said this is not the right venue. “Well, Dr, King and the Civil rights protesters never waited for the right venue” said this reporter to Chaz Guest Link to Video . Mr. Guest had interrupted the interview with Ben and diverted the conversation to him. Other activists in the room were also talking to anybody who would listen and that became the highlight of the event.
On balance the Seattle activists partly achieved their goals of first disrupting the event and second getting offers from Chaz Guest and other prominent African American attendees who promise to reach out and have a better understanding of what is going on in Gambia. Charles Harley Alex’s grandson and many others told this reporter that they can relate to our passion and will try to reach out. In the meantime the pioneer of the event Lamin Jatta who acted as he didn’t even want Gambians present at the event was confused and was trying to get everybody out of the room. He asked the activists to take their politics else where even as he and his family politicized the event by given every false credit to the Gambian dictator and his Vice President.
Although the story of Kunta Kinteh is worth narrating and promoting, the way his so called ninth generation descendant Lamin Jatta appears to be out to exploit the story. He was more than embarrassing at the podium when he refused to hand over the mike to Charles Hailey even as his time expired. His terrible memory about the story of Kunta Kinteh and to be honest one of the worst spoken English I have ever heard if not addressed, will destroy the very purpose of this incredible story. Lamin appears to have found a new fame and you could hear the people roaring in disbelieve for meeting ‘Kunta Kinteh’s descendant. Lamin may be young and inexperience, craving for attention with his attitude towards his fellow Gambians and how he handles this whole process could spell disaster for him. He needs some serious water restoration company in California with trusted restoration specialists. For now Seattle Activists once again succeeded in bringing the plight of our people to the attention of many people. We are certain Ben Vereen and Chaz Guest will remember about these protests should they return to Gambia or organize another event.