Standing Up Against Injustice: A Memoir. By AMADOU SCATTRED JANNEH. Xlibris: USA, 2013. Pp.132, $19.99, ISBN: 978-4836-2844-8.
By Abdoulaye Saine*
In 2003, dissident-turned collaborator, Dr. Amadou S. Janneh, announced his decision on Gambia-L, to join the Jammeh-led, APRC-Government, which he had sarcastically called (Aimless People Running our Country-APRC). The announcement sent shock-waves and disappointment in dissident political circles in both the diaspora and in The Gambia. Dr. Janneh, who had aptly described Jammeh’s capricious “hire and fire policy,” to highlight the short-term tenure of ministers, decided to return home primarily because of the infrastructure developments Jammeh had initiated in his home-region since coming to power in 1994. That Dr. Janneh would consciously join the Jammeh government, in spite of his poor human rights record, was in the view of many, foolhardy and opportunistic. Janneh would also justify his decision to join Jammeh on the basis of initiating “change from within-” a well-trodden-path taken by many collaborators, that include, current SoS for Communications, Nana Grey-Johnson, and before him, his brother Crispin, to name a few. Like Janneh, most of them were unceremoniously sacked, forcing many to flee the country with only the clothes on their back.
Standing Up Against Injustice is about Amadou’s early life and education in Gunjur, and in Banjul; his days as a young journalist in The Gambia; years in the US, as a student and later, as a college professor. Janneh would return home to work first, at the US Embassy in Banjul, before his appointment in April 2004, as Secretary of State (SoS) for Information, Communications, and Information Technology, in the government of his one-time nemesis, Yahya Jammeh.
Following what appeared to be a strained relationship between him and Jammeh, Janneh was dismissed in 2005, and together with comrades, Mathew Jallow, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, and others, formed the Coalition for Change-Gambia (CCG). Now in private business, Janneh would be subsequently arrested on June 7, 2011, along with three others: Michael C. Ucheh Thomas, Modou Keita and Ebrima Jallow and charged with sedition for attempting to overthrow Jammeh’s Government. A kangaroo trial ensued, thereafter, resulting in a life sentence for Janneh. Thomas, Keita and Ebrima Jallow each received three year prison terms with hard labor Thomas subsequently died in prison. What “crimes” did they “commit”? Distributing T-shirts that called for an end to Jammeh’s despotic rule. CCG’s executive upped the ante when they simultaneously sought to establish a radio station in neighboring Senegal to air anti-Jammeh messages with the expectation that use of social media, as in Egypt, would precipitate mass uprising in The Gambia.
At Mile II, Janneh, was subjected to horrific mistreatment in utterly sub-human conditions: filthy, dilapidated, rat and mosquito-infested prison cells; forced to consume food not fit for humans- amid severely crowded and unhygienic surroundings that threatened the health and well-being of inmates. In the end, disease and inmate deaths from tuberculosis and other ailments became routine. Janneh survived, nonetheless, supported by family, fellow inmates, and sympathetic wardens. He was sustained further by regular performance of the five daily prayers and reading of the Qur’an.
Standing Up Against Injustice is a narrative that is carefully crafted to dispel any lingering notions over Janneh’s complicit and almost deadly collaboration with the devil. The book, like many memoirs, lacks critical self-reflection/ analysis and omits or glosses over important concerns. It would have been useful if Janneh had devoted more space to the day-to-day policy decisions he made to change the system from within, relations with cabinet colleagues or shed light on his days as a college professor. For example, did he leave a tenured or tenure-track position to join the Jammeh regime? Conversely, did the absence of these, force him to sleep with the enemy? While Janneh claims that his journey to Mile II may have started as a child in Gunjur (P. 17), and in his nature to stand up and speak out against injustice, one wonders why he would so readily tarnish this reputation by working for Jammeh.
Janneh’s tenure as SoS for Information saw the enactment of some of the most draconian laws by the APRC-Government, coupled with the most brutal treatment of journalists and civilians that included the assassination and near-assassination of Deyda Hydara and Lawyer Ousman Sillah, respectively. Most concerning was Janneh’s characterization of journalists as “sloppy high school leavers,” which reminded one of Jammeh’s venomous diatribes against journalists, and those opposed to him and his policies. Having begun his career in journalism at the tender age of seventeen at Radio Gambia, Janneh should have been more charitable.
Granted, Janneh may have had nothing to do with these atrocities but his continued tenure as SoS made him complicit in these atrocities. The right thing for Janneh to have done was to resign his position, especially amid allegations of government involvement in these crimes. But he did not, and once he was fired, began a clandestine campaign against the regime. This raises the question whether Janneh would have ordinarily rejoined the ranks of the opposition if he had not been terminated, or continue to serve, as the compliant and opportunistic Susan Wafa-Ogu, who has supported Jammeh’s tyranny for nearly two decades. It appears Janneh’s return to the ranks of the opposition is perceived by many as convenient and self-serving.
What I found particularly baffling, or naïve, was Janneh’s efforts, along with the CCG executive to foment a grassroots social-media revolution in the Gambia when the bulk of youth had little access to the internet. And, who, for the most part, do not own (smart) phones. A social media revolution would have been probable if Gambians under Jammeh had a record of political activism. Other than the April 10 and 11 student demonstrations that turned deadly, there were no reported cases of anti-regime demonstrations by students or youth. Therefore, to expect that events in Egypt and Libya would inspire mass-demonstrations in The Gambia was, at best, far-fetched. Gambians are not Egyptians, or Libyans, and CCG’s strategy to effect change through social media grossly misread Gambians’ political readiness and country realities. In hindsight, a covert poster distribution network, whose origin would prove difficult to trace, rather than a T-shirt campaign, could have been a more prudent strategy to pursue.
These criticisms aside, Standing Up Against Injustice is a well-written memoir with intriguing stories of life, as lived by a cabinet-member-turned-collaborator-dissident. The book provides gripping accounts of life in Mile II Prisons, (some say not enough), as well as deprivations that inmates endure daily. At the same time, Standing Up Against Injustice is a testimony to Janneh’s and the CCG’s courage, and an example of the indomitable human spirit that bends invariably toward freedom and justice.
Amadou also deserves praise for having written his memoir because he could have easily been content to living out his remaining days in obscurity or in business, as many have. Instead, his release from prison, appears to rekindle his “fire” (along with many collaborator-turned-dissident Gambians) to reclaim his place in the struggle against Jammeh. Therein, lies the book’s redeeming value and Janneh’s redemption. His return to the fold is positive- even if he drew justified criticism and scrutiny, which he weathered well.
Ultimately, Standing Up Against Injustice is a readable and affordable book that will continue to spark debate and discussion among Gambians just as his return to opposition politics has. In August 2012, Gambians and the international community were dumbfounded when nine death-row inmates, including a Senegalese woman, were executed. It would take Rev. Jesse Jackson’s intervention for President Jammeh to “amnesty” Janneh and Tamsir Jasseh. Accompanied by Rev. Jackson, reporters and their families, Janneh and Jasseh were whisked away to the US. Their release could not have come at a better time in the struggle to dislodge Jammeh.
Abdoulaye Saine is Professor in the Department of Political Science, Miami University.