Gainako Newspaper

Mr. Alieu Badara Khan, former student Gamsu executive member
and long time Daily Observer staff writer has offered to form an
organization in the Gambia as an extension of campaign for the US
democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama. Below we bring to
you the full interview:

GON: Hello there! For the sake of this interview, do we get
formal or just keep it informal as in the years gone?

Alieu: The choice is yours.

GON: Briefly then introduce yourself to the many readers
who for the longest followed your work on the Daily Observer
and now at Gainako.

Alieu: What do I say Gainako? Okay, I was born and brought up in Brikama. I attended
Brikama Secondary School, Nusrat High School, Gambia College, GTTI and now I am studying
Peace and Conflict Transformation, but just decided to take a break to sort out few things. I was a
teacher in The Gambia and taught at different Schools like St. Therese Junior Secondary, SEP Senior
Secondary and Charles Jow Memorial Academy.

Like you mentioned I was with the Daily Observer and also the Independent Newspaper. What
more can I say?

GON: You are famous for your name; a former GAMSU executive, an educator who organized a
lot of gatherings both at your house and the surroundings, and an eloquent speaker both at Nusrat
High and at the Gambia College. Tell us a little about the inspiration you gave to tens of hundreds of
Gambians, including an editorial team member of Gainako.

Alieu: ( laughs!) inspiration? I like being part of organizations and getting involved in activities.
When I was in The Gambia, my room was always full with young people and my family used to
wonder how I can easily flow with them without difficulties. I am happy that most of them are
successful now.

GON: If you wouldn't mind, share a little bit your siblings, notably Sister Mariama Khan and
Bamba Khan who both authored books.

Alieu: Mariama was a postgraduate student in the USA. She is now in The Gambia. For Bamba, he
has just arrived in the UK for his postgraduate degree. Our family is not a small one. My father was
very strict and for him education should always be our first priority. I am happy that most of my
siblings went through university.

GON: So many myths you have broken, so many tough rules you've softened, so many complex
beliefs you've simplified. Any comment on the above?

Alieu: (Laughs!) People can always change in their beliefs and ways of doing things. Attending the
European University Center for Peace Studies has offered me the opportunity to strengthen my ability
to remain human and develop the ability to identify and empathize with people's needs and frustrations.
I now prefer making observations, rather than judgment. I am happy now that I am trying to develop
the ability to think about other people with compassion, even when you don't like what they are doing
or saying.

We should be able to see situations as they are, without making judgment or throwing the blame on
others. I hope you understand what I am trying to say? Gainako, I am now a student and believer of
Marshall Rosenberg. He is the founder of Non Violent Communication and was one of my lecturers.

GON: Giving a straight shot at things, it was with great pleasure that Gainako gathered you are
working on an 'Obama organization.' If this is to go by, please walk us through the door of how such
an organization will look like.

Alieu: At the beginning of the primaries, I didn't know much about Obama and was not that much
interested in his campaign for the US presidency. An American (white) classmate of mine encouraged
me to google and read more about him and also he was constantly telling me about Obama and his
achievements as a senator.

All of a sudden I became a strong fan and started encouraging others to join the wagon. I started a
face book group called Gambians for Obama and guess what? The response is just overwhelming.

After consulting few friends, I felt it would be a good idea to register �Gambians for Obama� as an
organization in The Gambia. There are many people back home, who are keenly interested and have
already pledge their support. Hopefully the organization will start operation before the General
Elections. My plan is to get it lunched on the very day Barack Obama is declared the Commander
�in-Chief of the USA.

GON: I am sure it is an indisputable fact that Obama inspired people of all nations and races. What
is particularly inspiring you about Obama?

Alieu: Just like what an Obama fan wrote on the campaign website-�Hearing Obama speak has
made me happy to know that a true orator could rise again. Watching Bush and McCain make
me want to wretch; seeing their beady eyes running over a teleprompter.�

To be honest no politician has ever inspired me like Obama. I can spend a whole night watching his
videos on you tube. I think Americans are lucky to have a man who could be that president they have
been longing for many years.

I was never interested in US politics, but with Obama it's like I am an American tax payer now.
Obama is a source of hope for the black people and he has started a struggle that we can't betray. He
is so proud of his African roots and I think that's enough inspiration for me.

Obama has brought a huge change in American politics. His ideas are great and his call for unity is
another great solution to all the crises brought on this earth by George Bushy Bush.

GON: You live in Sweden and dreaming to form an Obama organization in the Gambia. If I may
ask, what will be the setup like? Do you have people there to help propagate such a movement and
what will be its principle focus?

Alieu: I am no longer in Sweden. I have moved to Finland, to join my wife. I have lot of young
people back home who can efficiently run the organization. I have started talking with them about it
and they will set up the executive and I will be actively involved in coordinating the activities of the
organization. We will obviously create some awareness about it and try to attract lot of members. We
want every Gambian Obama supporter to be involved, especially does at the University of The
Gambia, Gambia College and other tertiary institutes.

The organization will be involved in activities like debates (to create Gambian orators like Obama),
quiz, fund raising programs and many other things that will surely come up when we start. I am also
thinking of trying to introduce non-violent communication in schools, through the organization.

GON: How about the finances too?

Alieu: It's not very difficult to run organizations in The Gambia. The most important thing is to get
committed members and be able to create activities that are of interest to the people. I was having a
charitable organization and we achieved most of our objectives, despite the limited resources at our
disposal.

GON: Aren't you foreseeing that some heavyweight Gambian politicians will come down hard
on you, for a fact, instead of promoting a Gambian political reform; you are working on a global
Obama campaign?

Alieu: (Laughs!) No I don't think so. They have better issues to tackle than Alieu Khan mobilizing
Gambians to show solidarity to Obama.

GON: Having followed the primaries and caucuses? In the US, what predictions would you make?

Alieu: Barack Obama will unquestionably win the General Elections. I would like all the readers to
try to read the poem written by Momodou Sabally.

GON: Feedback from our readers indicated that your pieces are well written and placed within
acceptable standards; any comments?

Alieu: I am not a good writer and so I try to write something simple that every one will understand. I
am just trying to offer some attention to Gambian music. Your readers will continue to see more from
me, because I don't want to extinct like the old elephants called mastodons (to quote Sheriff Bojang,
the man who transformed into an entertainment writer)

GON: Thank you for talking to Gainako and keep your pen sharpened all the time. Good luck
in the project of democracy in the pipeline.

Alieu:You welcome and please get ready for Obama's acceptance speech in Denver. Please try
to part of the 75,000 people expected to attend.

Michelle Obama said �Ten supporters who make a donation in any amount by midnight this
Thursday, July 31st, will be selected to fly to Denver, spend a couple of nights in a hotel,
participate in the convention, and go Backstage with Barack. Each supporter who is
selected will also get to bring a guest along to share the experience.�

Gainako don't miss that offer please!

..........................................NEWS
ABOUT 50 GAMBIAN YOUTHS RETURN
FROM SPAIN; GAMBIA IMMIGRATION
BLAMED By Solo, Banjul correspondent............August 4th, 2008
About 50 Gambians are recently repatriated from the
kingdom of Spain on Monday 28th July 2008. Escorted
by the Spanish police.

This reporter caught up with one of the returnees and
asked him what had happened. This returnee went into
detail of how he and his friends had managed to reach
Spain. He said they were camped together at one place
but some of the people were brought singly to the camp
by the Spanish police.

When asked further how many of them were encamped together, he said he could not state how many
because as he said they were in hundreds. He divulged that the Spanish police alone could not identify
them as Gambians. He said that is why there are a lot of cases pending. He said they were being
fooled by the authorities that they would be transferred to Barcelona. He said they are very surprised
when they landed at the airport. He said it was a big shock to have found themselves at the Banjul
International airport.

This reporter was told by the young returnee that it is the Gambia Immigration Department that sent
officials to Spain who are helping them to identify Gambians at the Camp and others. He said they
realized that lately.

When asked whether he is expecting anymore returnees, he said he is expecting a lot more because as
he said there are many people there still and as he said the Gambia immigration officers are still helping
to identify more Gambians.

This reporter is reliably informed that officials of the Gambia immigration department have been sent to
Spain about a month ago to help the Spanish Government to identify their nationals with a view to
repatriate them back to the Gambia.

Information reaching this paper confirms that the immigration officers are still in Spain continuing their
efforts to identify Gambians who are without the proper documents.This returnee said they find it very
hard to accept that their own government can help the Spanish government to identify them for
repatriation knowing full well the economic difficulties haunting people here. He however expressed
regret and disappointment over the government's attitude.

It could be recalled that the Gambia and the Spanish Governments had agreed to a memorandum of
understanding whereby the Gambia Government would prevent their nationals from illegally migrating
to Spain or Europe and the Spanish Government to provide funding for youths to be trained in skills
which can help them to stay at home and work to uplift themselves. The youth however said he knows
nothing about that program.

...REJOINDER TO LAMIN SABALLY'S DISCOURSE
............................By Yero Jallow...............................August 4th, 2008
I commend you greatly for bringing up another of the many untouchable topics. Partly because many
people take these discussions too personal without having to reflect deeply on the moral discussions
by the author. Engaging you from my side is not to justify the problem here but an angle of a parent
who is trapped in similar situations. No doubt, you scored some solid points that cannot be disputed
anywhere. However, as a parent, I want to rejoin to the topic to buttress on some of the factors
creating the situation where our children speak English Instead of the Local languages.

Most parents gets really busy with school and work and the kids are normally taken to the daycares
where they interact with their care-givers and other Children. Of course the spoken language is English
and therefore that is a number one contributor to the Kids speaking more English than the local
languages. The kids' home works are all in English and that virtually creates the environment where
you have to talk to them in English when helping them do their assignments.

With your experience in your travels from Minnesota to New York, a conclusion like yours is of
course dependable, but further to put it, there are many other families whose children speak the local
languages very fluent. In as much as we agree that our children must be taught the local languages, it is
a must that they have a mastery of the English language which is the environment they happens to find
themselves in. It is part of their daily routine.

I look forward to seeing your Madam soon with kids when you will resonate more with this situation.
Once you left your home country the Gambia for another destination, you no longer control some of
these circumstances, unfortunately.

Once again, thanks for the enlightenment. Very soon, we will work on organizing a symposium and
you have already signaled us on the topic you will be assigned to deliver on.

Best of regards,
YJ
.............................................`OPINION
ARE DIASPORA GAMBIANS ABONDONING OUR LOCAL
LANGUAGES FOR ENGLISH? By Lamin Sabally............August 3rd, 2008
To confess by all stretch of honesty, I was engulfed by
bewilderment and also catapulted to a state of perplexity
when I was lectured on the fast-track extinction of many
minority languages in the world.

Retrogressively, this was during the formative years of my
college education here in the US. It was a sociology class
that centered on the call for a rescue effort in all front by
the UNESO- United Nations Educational and Scientific
Organization to preserve the world's dwindling minor
languages.

Still afresh in mind, I decided to engage myself in a long
protracted mental kids born to Gambian- born parents
cannot speak their parents' mother tongue but English.
The finding is also true of a visit I made to New York
City in 2004 where I attended my cousin sister's baby naming ceremony. During that four-day visit, I
took the opportunity to visit some homes and gymnastics with the aim of finding out the state of
Gambia's major languages amongst diaspora Gambians here in the US.

At the end of a long investigative research using methodologies like telephone interviews with family
members of selected states with high concentration of Gambians, I was able to find out a significant
number of Gambian families have preference for English for their kids than Mandinka, Wollof and
pular being the undisputed major languages spoken in the Gambia.

On the other hand, my investigation also found that there are also a fairly good number of families
whose children are taught these languages and they speak them as fluently as English.

During my numerous visits to many homes and family functions here in my resident in the State of
Minnesota, I positively found that most parents also did engage many young kids in some friendly
conversations. Readers need not o be told that New York has a huge concentration of Gambians and
most of them have established big families there. My biggest surprise was that some of those Gambian
parents who speak English to their kids are themselves never been formally educated and are
functional illiterates struggling to speak good English. Excuse my unreserved apology for being brutally
blunt.

Similarly, I would like to carve a bulwark for myself against being viewed as subjective and bias by
hastening to acknowledge that I have also encountered parents whose kids are as fluent in our
Gambian languages as they are in English because their parents speak to them only in those languages
at their homes.

The point to buttress here is that my inquisitive and subtle investigation with some degree of error in
the methodology and sampling techniques deployed has shown that majority American- born Gambian
children cannot speak their native languages because their parents don't teach or speak those
languages to them.

The multimillion-dollar question that continues to engage my mind is that how those kids born to
Gambian parents can be connected with their native culture and heritage? A language as argued by
sociologists is the building bridge between a person and his or her culture. This argument is a clear
illustration of a cultural clash audiences were told about at the book launching ceremony by a
renowned Gambian educationist Mr. Hassan I Jagne. By contrast though, Latino; Asian and Arab
Americans are on record for being recognized for their unflinching attachment to their culture and
language.

On a similar pleasant positive note, survey findings conducted by reputable research groups also found
that other African immigrant populations in the US such as Nigerians; Ethiopians, Somalis, Guineans,
Senegalese, Ghanaians and the list goes on have a healthy attachment to their culture and languages.
Children born to these immigrant families are also found to be fluent in their parents' native languages
and are as well enlightened on their native cultures.

It is hard to fathom why most Gambian parents prefer their children to speak only English thereby
denying them the opportunity to speak otherwise Mandinka; Wolof, Pular, Jola, Sarahule, Manjako,
and Binunka. Interestingly, Peace corp Americans who I have personally met in the Gambia from
Koina to Kartong will traverse every nook and cranny of the country with an insatiable desire for
learning our culture and speaking our languages. They become almost completely acculturated by the
time their tour of civil duty come to an end. Some will even go for temporal name changes as an easy
way of being gambianised.

In my humble conclusion punctuated by an apologetic fashion, I would like to state very categorically
that this article is not a target of criticism directed at any single Gambian family. It is simply a genuine
concern I intend to raise about a severe threat of extinction of our ethnic languages and cultural
evaporation in the Diaspora. At the same times, I cannot agree more with the need for the
Americanization of Gambians in the US, but we must not be derailed from our own cultural heritage or
identity on this terrain.

As immigrants and naturalized Americans, "we must adopt every bit of the good part of the American
culture, while maintain our own" if I may paraphrase Mr. Jagne during his book launching speech. This
assertion is a tacit clincher to my argument and point of view sarcastically. I hereby rest by case while
not oblivious to the fact that this article may elicit some outbursts from some quarters as my mind
dictates to me.

........................................POEM
........The Biological Clock
..............................By Aisha Saidy Boston, MA.............................August 3rd, 2008
Invincible like a mirage
Yet apparent
Its seconds ticking
Oblivious to our knowledge

In teens we celebrate
The hours in our favor
In full bloom we strut
The glow encapsulated
With full energy
We ride on the twenties

The realities began
We pay less heed
Like the sea wave
The patterns change
Unpredictable as the weather
It strike deadly

Mid thirties surface alopecia
Diabetes and hypertension
Cancers and infertilities
Emotional stress and depression
The many phase of its true colors

Come forty
Surgeons sharpen their knives
Hormones and steroid replacement
Like the colors of rainbow
Symptoms of Menopause and �Andropause�
Becomes radiant

Aaah! The biological clock
The faceless clock
Its battery irreplaceable
Its hours unregulated
The velocity undetermined
A woman�s nightmare
An unsolved myth for the scientists

Aisha Saidy Boston, MA

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