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Date: | Thu, 13 Jul 2000 22:12:58 -0700 |
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By Susie Emmett in Gambia
I am not sure of the origin of this often-used
phrase "only worth peanuts" but in The Gambia
where these nuts are the principal crop - the
peanuts are not even worth peanuts.
For generations, farmers in The Gambia have
specialised in groundnut-growing. Last year,
unusually, wonderful rains blew in from the
Atlantic at precisely the right time for the nuts
maturing below ground.
But the excellent crop - triple a normal year's
yield - coincided with the collapse of the
marketing system.
In the cool shade of a mango tree at the
centre of his family's cluster of huts, farmer
Usman Koli was sitting steadily shelling one by
one the great basket load of groundnuts on
the mat beside him.
He told me how last year, as usual, he gave
most of his harvest to the traders who came
buying. But that now, eight months later, he -
and thousands others like him - have still not
been paid.
The government had
handed the nut buying
and exporting business
to a businessman and
it has been a disaster.
Not only have farmers
lost out but The
Gambia may well have
lost its export
contracts. For Usman
Koli, shelling the
uncollected nuts he
has kept in store - now
riddled with insect
damage - is a bitter task.
Public anger
In that village and in the streets of the capital
- Banjul - there was a sense of frustration and
uncertainty. But in the capital - there is
another reason.
People are still trying to understand why in
street demonstrations in April, against alleged
police and military brutality towards young
people in their care, the authorities opened fire
and 12 of the protesters died from gunshot
wounds.
Articles in the daily newspapers call for the
authorities to seek out those responsible. "The
longer this takes," one office worker told me,
"the less faith we have in our system of
government".
Storm clouds will soon blow in off the Atlantic.
The welcome rains will cleanse every
dust-laden leaf. But Gambians are hoping for
something to clear the air of confusion as well.
Beach life It is for the young of The Gambia
that one fears. A future in farming is
unattractive if you do not get paid for what
you produce.
And your respect for authority collapses if they
do not appear to follow the law themselves.
I walked down from my
hotel to the beach in
the hope that the stiff
evening breeze off the
brilliant blue ocean
would order my
thoughts.
As a lone white
woman, almost
immediately, I was
approached by one of
the young men who
comb the beaches
searching for a rich tourist who might prove a
way out of The Gambia - and poverty.
But he quickly overcame his disappointment
that I would provide neither and as fishing
boats beached their afternoon's catch he was
happy to talk about his hopes instead.
He had left his home village, where fishing and
farming were the only options, for a spell in
town. Touting for tourists had not gone so
well, nor had working for a builder.
But he had found some success as a weekend
wrestler and so was thinking of investing his
profits in a share of a fishing boat.
He is one Gambian who is fighting his way to a
better future.
Search BBC News
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