Dear Latjor,
I read your response to my question and found it informative to some
extent and getting my standpoint misuderstood in another sense.
I now like to highlight those points where you seems to get me wrong.
To begin with your first paragraph, you stated as follows: I think
there are many ways one could respond to your rhetorical questions,
bearing in mind that these issues have been rehashed many times on
this forum over the years. My questions were posed to get the facts
right and satisfy my curiosity on this issue. Whether these issues
were raised many times on this forum is not up to my knowledge.
In your second paragraph, you opined that, a simple answer could be
that you assume there is such a class called "intellectuals" among
Gambians who act in a concerted manner, and therefore could have
impacted the "politico-socio-economic development of the country and
its citizenry during the past thirty years". This assumption is that
of yours and not mine. Never misconstue my question to give another
meaning. I wrote in simple English that I am amazed to notice that The
Gambia... Here I am expressing my surprise to the number of
intellectuals that Gambia has, having read your posting inviting
people to a conference and giving names and titles of those
participants. Most of those you named are unknown to the majority of
Gambians including me, as compared to those living in The Gambia and
making their contributions known, like Halifa Sallah, Sidia Jatta to
name just a few, as renown scholars.
You also referred to Demba Kunda and Basse, as a point of focus in my
posting. Far from it. But thanks to God, Saul understood my point
better and I therefore go by his response to you. I just gave Demba
Kunda and Basse as examples to mean every corner of The Gambia.
In your second to last paragraph you asked: Is it wrong to be an
intellectual? NO, but... It is wrong to be an intellectual if someone
who has trained herself or himself in one or more disciplines and
failed to utilizes her/his skills to addressing the myriad of
"politico-socio-economic" issues attendant to humanity, especially
where he or she hailed from.
Be informed that, the purpose of my posting was not at bashing our
intellectuals nor ridicule anyone of them. I have that high respect
for each and every one of them and I am looking forward in the long
distance future to be one of them.
Finally, I want to thank you for that interesting information
regarding the contributions of some of the intellectuals you listed
though I would have like to get their names.
I appreciated the efforts of those professors who went on vacation and
gave some lectures at the university, who needed them most at all
times. Also commendable are those who donate books to Gambian school
children and of course the one who initiated this forum as well as the
one who co-edited a major work on the new African Poets.
For all those intellectuals in The Gambia, I salute all of you.
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