I like to  quote the late Great Osagyfo Nkrumah that " the degree of
development of any country can be measured by the political maturity of its
women".

Beran




Women in Politics



The Independent (Banjul)

COLUMN
October 5, 2001
Posted to the web October 8, 2001

Aisha Dabo
Banjul, the Gambia

Gambian women have contributed tremendously in charting the political
destinies of their men-folk by helping them to be considered and known. But
women themselves never really manifest political leadership ambitions. They
make great politicians, they even represent 51% of the population, but yet
within political parties, women are relegated.

The percentage of women in the National Assembly is edifying enough with
Mrs. Cecilia Cole as the lone female in the fifty-member legislature.
Although Mrs. Cole is deputy speaker of the House, this is no consolation as
President Jammeh nominated her based on her being a member of the civil
society, rather than representing any political party. Since the start of
general elections in 1960 when the Colony and the Provinces were finally
given the right to vote, a woman had contested a seat in parliament. That
woman was Mrs. Augusta Jawara aka Darling, first wife of Gambia's former
head of state

Sir. Dauda Jawara. She was a candidate for the APPP later renamed PPP. Mrs.
Jawara was said to have made an affective campaign despite the lack of
adequate media coverage at the time. According to records, she won 1, 870
votes out of 183.000. She did not win a seat in parliament but the figure
she gained was at that time very significant. The fact that as a woman Mrs.
Jawara had the capability to contest for political office in the midst of
men in the sixties was seen as a big step-forward for women.

This was however a short lived phenomenon as the other parliamentary
elections that followed 1965, 1966, 1972, 1977 up to 1982 never saw a woman
candidate.

In 1982 almost 22 years after Mrs. Augusta Jawara, a woman contested and won
in the then thirty-six -member parliament. Mrs. Nymasata Sanneh Bojang of
the PPP won the Kombo North constituency. She was a member of the PPP
Central Committee. During the appointments, Mrs. Bojang was sadly enough,
only offered the post of parliamentary secretary.

In 1987 she did not contest the elections and was subsequently dropped by
the PPP. Up to 1996 no woman contested.

All along this period no constitution in The Gambia ever gave recognition to
women.

Interestingly enough, one woman played a historical role in the making of
The Gambia's constitution in 1961 in London during what was called the
Constitutional Conference. Mrs. Rachel Palmer is that woman. After the
constitution of 1959 was rewritten by the colonial administration, the
political parties of the period wanted a new constitution because the former
was somehow controversial according to them. The conference in London was
attended by the APP (or PPP), UP, Congress and Democrats. These parties
formed two groups: that of the radicals who wanted an all out independence
and those who wanted gradual independence. As these two parties could not
reach any semblance of agreement for the future of the country, they choose
Mrs. Palmer who was then a member of the civil society to be a mediator.
According to records Mrs. Palmer's efforts harmonized the conference and
brought rapprochement between the two groups. Sadly, even though Mrs. palmer
was a mediator in the Constitutional Conference of 1961 in London, that very
constitution had no place for women.

What has really kept Gambian women and continues to keep them off from
political leadership? With the colonial system, which favoured boys'
education over girls, the administration worked with men rather than women.

The British system, under the segregated Victorian era, had not yet given
women equal rights back in the home country. It was therefore the same
system they had brought with them into Africa.

What they failed to realize was that in traditional Africa, although men are
the heads of families, women had they own areas of authority which men dared
not challenge.

During the pre-colonial period in Africa and especially in the Senegambian
region, women played a great role in chieftaincy, kingship and succession.
There were Queens more courageous and brave than men in handling state
matters with competence.

During the colonial rule in The Gambia, Akus or Creoles were the ones
predominantly sending their daughters to school.

The low rate of educated women in those days, gave these female pioneers the
determination to aim for high posts in the different political parties and
this in-turn made women into faithful voters.

Presently The Gambia has many educated women who can vie for political
leadership.

The main problem is that the population now accepts as gospel truth the
misconception that a male leader is better than a female one. Even women
nowadays seem to feel more secure with a corrupt male leader than a good
female leader.

For women to gain or regain population trust today, a campaign of
sensitization is very necessary. Both men and women should contribute in
this campaign for the betterment of all. Therefore, it is high time
political parties agree with APGWA on the quota of women to be nominated as
contestants in any constituency all over the country. It will be better if
political parties themselves take the initiative to appoint women to contest
in the coming parliamentary elections. But even where the quota is agreed
upon, the issue of political demands and interests will arise.

It is known that political parties contest elections to win and in-line with
this school of thought, they put all the assets (human and material
resources) on their side. Therefore the political demand is that to be able
to secure the popular vote and be nominated as candidates, parties prefer
male candidates to female.

Except, it seems, the party wants to loose.

Granted, the female youth is less prominent when it comes to civic and
political engagements and activities.

This however can be counteracted by the fact that the female youth also play
prominent roles in civic work through fund raising activities, writing
letters and catering. To change this biased social class system, women need
to reinforce their participation and representations at all levels of
society so that they can become active participants in the world of politics
as they are the paramount stake-holders in nation building. In this regard,
men should contribute and help women in their struggle for political
equality in The Gambia.




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