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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