Sall,

Like Momodou Sidibeh, I have also printed off a copy of your paper on "The
Social Sciences in Sub-Saharan Africa..." and I am looking forward to
studying it in depth in the next few days.

I shall be very happy to send you some comments before you leave for
Washington DC.

By the way, I can also recommend a 2002 publication from the Overseas
Development Institute in the UK entitled "Participation in Practice:  Case
Studies from The Gambia" (ISBN 0-85003-598-8) by several contributors,
including Drs. David and Ken Swindell.

This new book looks at Participatory Rural Appraisal as a facilitator of
socio-economic development, and comes up with some interesting conclusions
pertaining to The Gambia.  The case studies which are cited (including
Action Aid The Gambia, The Gambian-German Forestry Project, The National
Women Farmers’ Association of The Gambia) detail local and national action
and reaction following participatory rural appraisal projects.

One of the book’s authors, Dr Ken Swindell, is a long-term scholar of
Gambian issues and retired as a Senior Lecturer at Birmingham University:
he remains an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre of West African
Studies, University of Birmingham.

People like Professor Arnold Hughes, Dr Ken Swindell, Dr. David Perfect and
Dr. Angela Browne have made, and continue to make, significant contributions
to academic studies with regard to The Gambia, and yet they tend to remain
"unsung heroes".   The late John Wiseman was also a leading contributor to
scholarly debate on The Gambia/Africa, and is greatly missed.  It is only
when people start to research The Gambia that the significance and quality
of these people’s studies becomes evident.

Our "own" Professor Sulayman Nyang in the past has also made excellent
contributions to Gambian research and debate, although his current research
has taken him to more distant countries in the Middle East.

However, The Gambia is fortunate in that there are younger academics (such
as Dr Abdoulaye Saine and yourself) who are contributing significantly to
the latest research programmes involving our homeland and sub-region.  These
people will carry on the work of those other older scholars who have done us
Gambians and our country so proud in the past.


Ebrima Ceesay
Birmingham, UK


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