By Prince Bubacarr Aminata Sankanu, Cologne, Germany
I don’t care what others would say against this, I am hereby extending my SOLIDARITY with Madame Fatou CAMARA, initiator and host of the FATU SHOW on GRTS (Gambia Radio and Television Services), just as I did with Tabara Samba, Ndey Tapha Sosseh and host of others who were once in distress.
LET THOSE WITHOUT SINS CAST THE FIRST STONES!!! I don’t know the genesis of Fatou’s tribulations. She is part of the domestic rot and knows the dog-eats-dog or shark-eats-shark modus operandi of the system there. So she knows who are taking the knives out for her.
Fatou has her own media company called iMEDIA and she is working for GRTS on contract- similar to what I had in mind with my Fareed Zakaria-like programme, THE SANKANU DISCOURSE. Since GRTS is a swamp of nepotism, waste, incompetence, lethargy and the competition to impress Babili Mansa, it is almost impossible to be professional, innovative, nationalist and ethical. Same is true in many Gambian institutions. It is also a “CRIME” to be innovative, creative or conscious there. You just have to be a mediocre, half-backed and lying sycophant to survive.
Over the past 4 years, Fatou Camara gave media platform/space to countless Gambians and non-Gambians alike. Now that she is in distress, some of those people would now pretend as if they don’t know her while others would start condemning and badmouthing her. They forget the media exposure they enjoyed through her FATU SHOW. This Gambian attitude sucks!!!
Fatou Camara was brave and sincere enough to bring me in her show twice live. Highly sensitive and taboo questions including on homosexuality were posed to me by viewers live on the national broadcaster – a first in the history of the highly-censored national broadcaster. It basically revealed how desperate and hungry domestic Gambians are for free speech and open debates on national issues. The atmospehere of fear and the blanket suspicion are however keeping them in state of shock.
Fatou’s decision to take up job in Youssou Ndour’s TFM is normal for any ambitious person who wants to grow beyond the Gambian swamp of “HEHANTE”, “ANYAN”, eye-service and pettiness.
Christian Amampour left CNN for ABC and then was hired back to CNN. We have many former CNN and BBC presenters, anchors and producers who have now moved to AL JAZEERA, RUSSSIA TODAY or CCTV of China. We live in a free word with global mobility of labour. If not in one country or institution, you get it in another one.
In Gambia, thinking out-of-the-box or being your own person is often seen as a problem. Fatou is not holding full time government job. She is therefore free to work with even the Chinese TV stations should they need her services.
In my last interview on Freedom Radio, I said that I will work with Senegalese TV stations to produce my programme THE SANKANU DISCOURSE. I have long changed my plan/strategy. NO MORE SENEGAL. I am a loner and risk-taker. What I announced in public is often different from what I will do especially on matters of strategic importance. Watch out for what I am doing as of October 2013!
FATOU CAMARA, I once again reaffirm my solidarity with you before God and Man and I wish you peace of mind, good health, resilience and protection from evil. I am NOT the coward or hypocrite to betray or badmouth you just because the people who want you out and down are currently gaining the upper hand.
Alas, your FATOU SHOW brought colour and freshness to the stale and shallow programming package of GRTS.
“For The Gambia, our homeland, We strive and work and pray,That all may live in unity, Freedom and peace each day. Let justice guide our actions,Towards the common good, And join our diverse peoples, To prove man’s brotherhood. We pledge our firm allegiance, Our promise we renew; Keep us, great God of nations, To The Gambia ever true.” Our Gambian National Anthem for Dummies!
PRINCE BUBACARR AMINATA SANKANU,
Film Producer, Social Critic, Author,
Cologne, Germany
TEL/SMS:+4915216265814
facebook.com/princebubacarrs
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