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Subject:
From:
Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 21 Jan 2004 02:26:05 +0100
Content-Type:
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True, the path out of the darkness lies primarily within ourselves. That is
exactly why it is such a harrowing nightmare when supposedly intelligent
Africans readily lend themselves, body and soul, to tin-pot scions of
manufactured leaders, who in their vainglorious pursuit of power stop at no
bend, commit every atrocity, spin every yarn, plot evey ploy, to frustrate
every genuine attempt towards true democratisation.

Kemal Ataturk's Turkey seems to be maturing from its oppressive Ottoman
ambitions, as it takes tentative steps towards recognising the national
interests and fundamental rights of the Kurds.  Africa can be saved from its
cyclic relapse into anarchy if first, its schooled elite acquire the moral
courage to stand up to wanton tyranny.

Sidibeh

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koch Barma" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:46 PM
Subject: WAS AFRICA THE DARK CONTINENT? NOT REALLY.


> The rhetorical question whether Africa can afford anything in global
> affairs is preposterous because the continent of Africa does have
> very limited options with very scarce resources to affect anything
> beyond dictates from the West.
> I shudder when neo-panafricanists brandish a romanticized perspective
> of African History and relapse to atavistic paradigms of leadership
> from renown past politicians.   Nkrumah, Lumumba and Mandela belong
> to different categories of leadership in time and space.   Mandela is
> a freedom fighter, Lumumba although enlightened but compromised with
> communist dogma; and Nkrumah was by all means a platonic tyrant and a
> dictator despite his sincere efforts to de-colonize Africa.
> I do respect Professor Franklin and absolutely agree with his
> observations on slavery that it essentially robbed Africa.   However,
> the challenge for us Africans is not only analysis but to think
> synecdochically about slavery in general and the Trans-African slave
> trade in particular- Africans where actively involved in that inhuman
> institution also.  A large number of local chiefs sold their brothers
> and sisters to the white man.  In fact former colleague of mine in
> the Gambian Army used to brag about how is great great grand father
> sold Banjul to the British for a bottle of rum!
> I will never deny that there is a corrosive influence from Europe and
> Arabia perhaps but the solution to the imminent African problem is
> within the Africans themselves.This was the same little secret that
> Kemal Ataturk realized about Turkey and set the agenda for a total
> cultural transformation to get out of the DARKNESS.
>
>
> Ebou
>
> __________________________________
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