Against medical advice; we who still have brains cells to think, (as opposed to the willfully ignorant) know it’s a waste of time to subject Yaya Jammeh to psychiatric evaluation. We have long ago diagnosed Jammeh as psychopathic. The real contention has been the appropriate medication to administer to relief Gambia of this diseased condition. “Diplomatic medication” is the wrong prescription. Diplomacy has its place, but not from a position of weakness. Those who know what POWER is have a different definition of diplomacy and its application. We, on the POWERLESS side, use powerless language and engage in powerless action. When one is afflicted with tapeworms, diplomacy with the tapeworms may cost you your life. The only medication the tapeworms will respond to is a revolutionary purgative (Nandal) to get rid of them. There is only one medication for Jammeh’s condition; an open organized revolt to uproot the AFPRC – APRC!
In our determination to avert the corrosive legacy of a reactionary military regime from the annals of our history, the element of fear must become our national enemy. The fear of the consequences of one’s action leads to paralysis of the spirit and courage to resist. Nothing will ever change if the fear of consequences predominate one’s thoughts. Small risks yield SMALL GAINS; big risks yield BIG GAINS!
Long before the APRC ascended on to the bully pulpit of neo-colonialism, we contented that, there is no evidence yet in a Gambia that has zero tolerance for repression; that we will put up with anything. Are we going to tolerate another miserable thirty years under a thuggish military regime? To us who have come to recognize the necessity of our being, it is a resounding zero tolerance for militarism. We are resolute in our determination to abort all of Jammeh’s 20/20 intentions.
In order to move forward, we must understand this phenomenon; the element of fear. What is it in our cultural socialization that breeds meekness and submissive compliance, even in the face of the most repressive and horrendous assault on our democratic rights? What are the attributes of the element of fear?
In my view, all is rooted in ourobscuredcolonial historyout of which emerged ignorance and the confused knowledge of self. Ignorance of self and the hostile contempt towards our pre-colonial African pastleaves us vulnerable to all the mechanisms of exploitation and repression designed to keep neocolonialist presidents like Jammeh in power.
In looking back on the past, this fear that has come to paralyze Gambian society during the Jammeh era makes me ask. Where did this bravery and courage (FIIT) of the 1960’s, known of Gambians fly to? Where ever this bravery and courage flew to; it must be brought back by any means necessary. The deliberate retardation of our national consciousness must be overturned to repel the “fear mongering” that, confronting Jammeh can lead to “civil war” in the Gambia. There will be no “civil war” in our beloved Gambia! This is US against Jammeh and his gang of thugs. It is not a Jola, Wollof, Mandinka, Peul or an ethnic matter. Those who have nothing to offer, resort to the usage of their reptilian brains. We have internalized the lessons of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ruwanda and Burundi. Never again!!!
In the history of struggles of oppressed societies, the element of fear evaporates into thin air as soon a revolutionary movement emerges to champion the people’s aspirations for freedom. This is because; in the absence of a revolutionary movement, the element of fear can overwhelm the consciousness of the masses to such a degree that the state’s instruments of coercion and repression as in the police, army, prisons and jails strikes terror in the hearts of the vast majority of the people. All oppressive and exploitative states such as the AFPRC – APRC subsist on terror and abject brutality to perpetuate fear of the status quo.
In pre-revolutionary Guinea Bissau, the morbid fear of the forest was demolished with the emergence of the revolutionary party, PAIGC, under the exemplary leadership of Amilcar Cabral. The party further demolished the structures upon which fear, myths and backward traditions were cultivated. This morbid fear of the unknown justifies the convenient rationalization of our wretched existence as the will of God and that by the same God’s will, the oppressive conditions and oppressors will disappear.
To the de-colonized mind, it has long become evident that colonial education and ‘colonialist religions’ are the “opium of the masses”. It is within these two highly organized institutions that our minds have been chained to, the social effects of which penetrate deep into our social consciousness.
In an “emasculated class society” where one person, Yaya Jammeh determines who will enjoy any privileges, owna business and to even get employed, sycophancy and sucking – up across the spectrum of religious leaders, “intellectuals”, politicians, armed forces and bandit security forces is the ticket to the deformed “bourgeois class” that exist in the Gambia.
With our growing national consciousness and the emergence of a revolutionary party armed with the theory and practice of African liberation to uproot the predatory – parasitic Jammeh regime and its impotent technocrats; the element of fear with all the factors that cultivated it will dissipate, out of which will dawn a new social consciousness.
The revolutionary party takes task with the work of political education (as oppose to civic education, which evokes a docile behavior of neo-colonial citizens) to agitate the masses into action and organize our actions to transform Gambian society. There must be a willingness from the masses to struggle for liberation notwithstanding the consequences.
Finally, there must be crisis for revolution to occur and indeed, the whole African continent is rife with crises.
It will be the duty of the revolutionary party to heighten the crisis by involving the masses in the process of liberation by showing that, it is highly possible to challenge the neo-colonial state and win.
A revolutionary party represents a spark and the masses a powder keg. It is in the unity of these two components that revolutionary parties strive to attain. It is upon the unity and struggle of the spark and the powder keg that the masses will be charged with the unshakable confidence and willingness to transform their wretched conditions. It is with political education under the leadership of the revolutionary party that the element of fear is transformed into its opposite; COURAGE. When one truly believe in a cause, it should be worthy of sacrifice. Fear has been getting into plenty of trouble in Africa, it has since moved out of Africa. The secret of life is to have no fear! Up the ante! We will win.