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.


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