Mr Sidibeh.

You said it all, Dumo is a decent human being who loves Gambia
and Africa as a whole. A pragmatic Pan-Africanist who despise
Violence in any form and yet sits in Mile2 for a crime he never
Committed.

I knew him personally since his early days in politics with the
NLP headed by Che-Yassin.He worked tirelessly for the party and 
dedicated his loyalty to Che. What a culprit Che-Yassin is since
he was the then AG of Yahya's murderous regime and did nothing to
Stop his incarceration.Dumo is a well skilled brother who will never
Loose faith in what he believes in and certainly not this criminal 
regime in Gambia can make him do that either. You are right he is a
MASTER for many and an intelligent character as well.

Our support goes to Annika and his entirely family for the suffering
they are going through.


Free Dumo
Fye.




 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Momodou S Sidibeh
Sent: 12. februar 2004 21:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: THE "DUMO TRIALl"/Sidibeh/Ndey

Sister Jabou,

You are quite right. I have also believed that it is largely for Dumo's
knowledge, his reputation as a self-styled revolutionary, his
outspokenness
that makes him a natural target of those bent on silencing voices of
reason.
There are historical records of these. But one that comes to mind more
readily is his arrest and subsequent detention at Mile 2 following the
Kukoi
uprising of 1981.
He was MOJA, right. But here was a MOJA militant who during that
bloodletting went around Serre-Kunda and Kmbo St. Mary for days doing
his
best to disarm inexperienced angry youth, warning them of the fatality
of
the AK47s they were toting, advising them to instead lay down their arms
and
help the wounded or stay indoors.

Yet as soon as the Senegalese stabilised the situation and the waves of
arrests began, the police went for him! At the police depot in Bakau,
they
tied him down on a desk and bared his back. Then they whipped him with
twisted wire and rubber cords cut from tractor wheels. His skin was
opened
up and torn into shreds exposing the white of his backbones; the ghastly
crisscrossings of a child's colour pencil screeched randomly on a
poster. It
was an harrowing sigth. (Reminds me of the "tree" carved into back of
Sele
by some slave driver, in Toni Morrisson's Beloved).

S.I King (nick-name) and I eventually took turns helping to nurse his
wounds
when he was finally dumped with the rest of us at Mile 2. Many detained
young people from Sere-Kunda, who refer to Dumo as "Master" were shocked
to
find that the man who probably saved their lives had been himself
severely
tortured and detained!

The irony in his current situation is that Dumo left exile in Sweden to
return home believing the "political opening" ushered in by the '94 coup
was
sufficient to allow him to carry out his work of supporting unemployed
youth
through projects sponsored by Boka Loha.

The Dumo story is a huge and honourable one.

Sidibeh


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jabou Joh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 2:20 AM
Subject: Re: THE "DUMO TRIALl"/Sidibeh


Sidibeh,

I found it very informative indeed. My absence from the country with
only
annual visits which I have not done lately did not allow me to know this
brother
or be familiar with his work until his illegal incarveration, and even
then,
I
only had limited information.
In Africa, those who truely fight for the people are always the ones
they
find threatening. Interesting, isn't it?

Jabou Joh

In a message dated 2/11/04 1:19:18 PM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>
> Sister Jabou,
>
> Eventhough this is just a tiny opening into Dumo's life, I am
immensely
> pleased that you found it informative.
>
> Many many thanks,
>
> Sidibeh
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jabou Joh" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 4:29 AM
> Subject: Re: THE "DUMO TRIALl"/Sidibeh
>
>
> Sidibeh,
>
> Thank you so very much for thsi information about brother Dumo that
some
of
> us did not know about.
>
> Jabou Joh
>
> In a message dated 2/10/04 5:55:53 PM Central Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> >
> > DEAR Annika and All,
> >
> > Having to hang on to timetables set by capricious and obviously
> unconcerned
> > judges is a nightmare of its own. To then hang hope on those
timetables -
> > for one has no other recouse - just for the day to pass without as
much
as
> > the courtesy of a proper adjournment by the judge, is total tragedy,
worst
> > than the Greek kind. One would have thought that throwing people in
jail
> and
> > then abandonning them to the caprices of absent-minded judges, as if
such
> a
> > hell-hole should be their natural habitat must be just as outrageous
to
> > everyone. But obviously not.
> >
> > Even without checking my statistics, I know that there is no other
Gambian
> > who has been driven through the gates of the Mile 2 prisons as
numerously
> as
> > Momodou Dumo Sarho on account of his politcal activism. No other
Gambian
> has
> > ever endured such intense and wicked assault on his psyche for the
sheer
> > purpose of breaking his spirits; no one in our country has ever
> experienced
> > such persistent waves of physical abuse from the powers that be; and
no
> > other Gambian family has had to live with the anguish of continuous
terror
> > of uncertainty about the fate of a rebellious but quintessentially
> > progressive spirit; the fate of a son, a brother, and husband whose
> > banihsment from Saint Augustine's High since 1973, has been followed
by
an
> > endless crusade to teach, to organise, to support the youth and the
poor,
> > and to organise, to militate against social decadence, reactionary
> politics
> > and cultural atavism. Dumo's entire life, up to now, has been
completely
> > usurped by STRUGGLE, in all its concreteness and ambiguity, to such
a
> depth
> > and purpose that he has ceased possession of the word itself. You
cannot
> > imagine Dumo outside the meaning of the word "struggle".
> >
> > I canntot think of a single village in Gambia that Dumo does not
know;
no
> > Gambian politician whose biography he does not master; no department
in
> the
> > Gambian state apparat whose head he does not know. Up to 1982, you
could
> not
> > tell Dumo the registration number of a private car in Banjul and
> Sere-Kunda
> > whose owner he is ignorant of. Dumo knows Gambia and Gambians inside
out.
> He
> > knows  hustlers, bums, businessmen, poiticians, fake
revolutionaries,
the
> > intelligentsia, prison warders and jail birds, peasants and dope
runners,
> > and all shades of red-eyed call-me-comrade radicals. He knows the
police
> > informers, CID and Special Branch undercover(!) agents, policemen
and
> their
> > most fearfully-guarded secrets. Gadding the streets of Sere-Kunda in
> Dumo's
> > company is tiresome business: he stands up for almost everyone and
almost
> > everyone stands up for him; so you just wait and wait while he
exchages
> > words with people; in Dumo's company you may reach your destination.
But
> if
> > you do you always will be behind schedule. He is the type of person
people
> > pretend to know well after hearing of him once. His verbal skills
are
> > unmatched, eclipsing even those of Suslov - Leonid Bhreznev's
propaganda
> > secretary. Dumo's sophistication in Gambia's cultural milieu is
simply
> > amazing....
> > (In 1995 we met in Gambia. After visiting my wife at Bakau NewTown,
he
> > talked me into passing by an auntie of his. The old woman lives just
> behind
> > the Police Depot. As soon as the initual ritual of salutations were
over,
> > the old woman and Dumo plunged into what was for me uncahrted seas.
They
> > talked about the uncles in London and Leeds, the sisters still at
Leman
> and
> > Perseverance streets, the nieces and nephews in different states in
the
> U.S
> > and all the major and minor relations weaved together into this
complex
> > lineage. It went on for hours. I was stupefied and I got hungry. The
old
> > woman spoke like she never spoke before, enlivened by Dumo's
soothing
> > evocation of old memories. She spoke of her children, her children's
> > children, her siblings and their spouses and offspring. She spoke of
> distant
> > cousins and aunts and how these were related to other families. She
> narrated
> > the matrilineal links with other families and their geographic
origins.
> When
> > we finally had to leave, Dumo's aunt could only suppress tears with
great
> > dificulty. She immensely enjoyed teaching us some oral history and
> practical
> > sociology, betraying a deep-seated emotional urge to narrate. In
> > restrospect, it was an extraordinary experience for me, one that
> illustrated
> > how Africa's "history of ordinary people" simply fades into memory,
into
> > dissolved biographies, dismembering our modern notions of "knowing
where
> one
> > comes from"; whole lives, and legends, and narratives imploding into
> > colourless "by-the-ways".
> >
> > While the rest of us have gone on building families and getting on
with
> > mundane carreers, blunting, corrupting and compromising our instinct
to
> > struggle, Dumo has remained staunch and unmalleable, breathing
energy
into
> > the very notion of long-term continous struggle; the struggle
against
> > everything that is backward in our political culture and for
everything
> that
> > means progress in our society.
> >
> > Three years ago there was much activity waged in his behalf and that
of
> his
> > co-detainees. With time and repeated frustration over his fake
trials
> > energies sapped in the process, as all of us grew helpless as we
agonised
> > over his fate. But Dumo is unbreakable; partly because he is not
just an
> > individual. Dumo has developed into an instituion, commanding the
spirited
> > energy for a free Gambia. It is precisely his enormous zeal for a
life
> > charged with meaning, for a better Gambia that must keep the rest of
us
> > going on to struggle for our own sake and for his immediate release
and
> the
> > release of his co-detainees from unjust imprisonment.
> >
> > FREE DUMO SARHO NOW!!!
> >
> > Sidibeh
> >
> >
> > From: "Annika Renberg" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 7:15 PM
> > Subject: The "Dumo trial"
> >
> >
> > For your information:
> > Today was the day scheduled for the long awaited ruling in the 3½
year
old
> > treason case against the remaining detainees Ebrima Barrow, Dumo
Sarho
and
> > Ebrima Yarboe.
> > Nothing happened though - Justice Belghore seems to have travelled
abroad
> on
> > un urgent mission for some (five?) weeks. He did not even have time
to
set
> a
> > new date before he left.
> > Annika Renberg
> > (Dumo's wife)
> >
>
>

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