Healing the Mandinkos from the brutal Islamization trauma;
Rediscovering our African Native Religions

By Prince Bubacarr A. Sankanu, Germany


The undertones of the current debates on the rivalries between the opposition 
United Democratic Party (UDP) and the People's Democratic Organization for 
Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) as well as the Terri Kafo and Banjul Mafia 
lobby groups are echoing the state of our Gambian ethnic groups and the 
showdown for political influence.

Though emotional, such debates are natural components of a living democracy. 
No matter how much President Obama tries to avoid the sensitive race debate in 
the USA, it waits for him on his Oval Office desk. We just have to be mature and 
sincere when dealing with these subjects as they will never disappear. Anyone 
without a thick skin should just avoid them.



I would like to look at the controversial attachment of our majority ethnic group, the Mandinkos, to the foreign religion of 
Islam. I am not a psychoanalyst à la Frantz Fanon and I stand to be corrected or challenged in the name of mature 
discourse. From my observation, the Mandinkos are traumatized by the “Turuban” (annihilation) of Kansala in the 
1860s, the subsequent brutal Islamization, the loss of political power influence to President Jammeh and the submission 
culture to anything the “Mansa” (king) says.

We the Sarahules were traumatized by the collapse of our Ghana Empire and its last successor bastion of Kaarta. We 
have since then avoided politics and healed our trauma by concentrating on commerce, entrepreneurship, globe-
trotting and the study of moderate Muslim Tijaniyaa Sufi mysticism for spiritual balance. The Jews were traumatized by 
the Holocaust policy of Nazi Germany and regained their pride largely through the fun of making loads of money. 
Interestingly the Sarahule/Maraka diamond merchants in Sierra Leone, D.R. Congo and Angola cooperate with the 
“Alyahudo” (Jewish) diamond traders from Antwerp, Belgium and Tel Aviv, Israel, in what I jokingly call the alliance of 
the dollar counters. They spend most of their times counting the green  notes only to be interrupted by calls to prayers 
and other urgent matters. The Jewish-Muslim religious difference never served as hindrance to their common passion 
for commerce and the  heritage of national ethnic trauma. Some Malian singers went further by saying that the 
Sarahules are the Jews of West Africa.

The Native Americans were traumatized by their encounter with the Anglo-Saxon settlers. The violence in the 
households and communities of our Afro-American brothers and sisters is the symptom of the chronic trauma caused 
by the brutal slave trade, inhuman plantation labour, racial segregation, the American civil war, the abolition and civil 
rights chaos, racial stereotyping in the mass media and literature, among others. The popular music culture, sports and 
the election of Barack Obama as the first Black U.S. President are just serving as temporal cortisones as the Afro-
American elites are yet to come up with tangible therapy against this crippling trauma. The angry or poor Blacks, the 
absentee dads and the bling-addicted Black celebrities are all traumatized.

My reference to the Gambian Mandinko trauma is therefore not an attack on the Mandinkos or a call for tribal warfare. 
It is just part of my taboo-rattling observation of a common reality. The Mandinko elites/intelligentsia are yet to diagnose 
this internal trauma before even thinking of designing a formula for rehabilitating and restoring the Mandinko Pride. 
Please before declaring me persona non grata in “Mandinkadu” (Mandinko nation), I am not singling out and attacking 
the Mandinkos for any hidden personal or political agenda. My current official wife is Mandinko and I dated three sweet 
Mandinko girls before her. So I am Mandinko by love and a future Mandinko “samakungho” (diva) will always find a 
comfortable place in my harem. As the Mandinko saying goes “ning togho manyafu, nya teje nola” which in English 
means if you don't grab the occiput the eyes will not see well. The pragmatic Mandinko elites at home and in the 
Diaspora are snoring like fat cats and I want to pull their whiskers and “chocolili” (tickle) them awake.

The excessive submission to the will of a higher authority be it Allah or the Mansa made the Mandinkos docile and 
vulnerable to abuse by any fool who shouts “Allah ko, Mansa ko” (Allah says, the king says). President Jammeh's 
troubled relationship with the Mandinkos aptly demonstrates this.

But first the Fulas who sacked the last Mandinko Kaabu/Gaabu Kingdom of the Sene-Gambian geopolitical basin had 
no premeditated agenda of forcing the Mandinkos into acceptant Islam through the jihad (holy war). The brutal 
Islamization was one of those by-products of war. The grouse between the Fulas and the Kaabunkas was one of the 
classic cases of conflict between nomadic tribes looking for safe grazing land for their livestock and the sedentary 
farmers fighting to protect their land with heavy tribute charges. In other words, settlers versus natives. The spiritual 
counselling from the Tukulor Alhagie Omar Tall, the reigning Caliph of the Tijaniyaa Brotherhood for the “Bilad as 
Sudan” (Land of The Blacks) at that time and Abdu Khudus, the Imam of Timbo, was meant to simply boost the morale 
of the Fula army led by Alfa Yaya of Labé.  

The Fulas were determined to win at all costs and end the tyranny of the rogue elements of the Kaabu hierarchy. They 
therefore forged strategic alliances with, among others, Bokar Sada the Almamy of Bondu and the Sarahules of Manda 
largely from the present day Bafata region of Guinea Bissau who were led by Alpha Molloh Baldeh. The Almamy of 
Timbo also contributed 25,000 men bringing the total number of fighters to 47,000. About 35,000 made the infantry 
and 12,000 were for the cavalry. The numbers can always be disputed but the fact is that the expedition was equally a 
disaster for the victorious Fulas. Only around 4000 men from the Fula side survived and this was not enough for them 
to fully integrate the defeated Kaabu Kingdom into their Futa Jalon Imamate. They needed time to recover and 
replenish their human resource pool. For both the Fulas and the Kaabunkolu I can say the battle of 
Kansala was MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).

However, the shocking fall of Kansala the capital of Kaabu and the resultant trauma made the Mandinkos embrace the 
violent Islam of the time without filtering it to suit their pre-Islamic soninko heritage well. Some of their Muslim leaders 
jumped into the radical jihad bandwagons by attacking the other vulnerable followers of the Indigenous Faiths of Africa 
(IFA). At times I ask myself if President Jammeh's harangue against the Mandinkos originated from the historic 
injustices meted on his Jola ethnic group by the warriors of the over ambitious Mandinko jihadists like Foday Sillah and 
Foday Kaba Dumbuya. The term “jola” means a person who pays back. Is President Jammeh doing the payback 
without the mandate of the Jolas or just fighting to glue himself onto power?

After independence from British colonial rule, the Gambian Muslim politicians forgot to consolidate Secularism when 
they supposedly pressured first President Jawara to change his name to Dawda Jawara and later made him divorce his 
Christian Aku wife before accepting him as one of their own. This was a crime against love as they broke a functioning 
matrimonial home for religion and politics. Alhagie Ibraimah Garba-Jahumpa and all those urban politicians who 
supported the religious-based “Muslim Congress” were not better than their protectorate Muslim rivals. Their 
colleagues in Senegal did the opposite by electing Leopold Sedar Senghor, a non-Muslim, to lead a majority Muslim 
state without forcing him to denounce his faith or marry a Muslim woman against his will.  

The urban and protectorate Muslim elites who had influencing stakes in the affairs of the newly 
independent Gambia made an historic blunder here. Either the Muslim power players at the time did not 
understand the concept of Secularism or were so traumatized that they saw a Muslim leader as their only 
acceptable “kairaba” (big peace). They forgot that we owe our political independence to the pioneering 
civil rights campaigns of non-Muslims like Edward Francis Small.

Though the Gambia is a Secular State and our public offices are expected to be religious-neutral, the mentality is that 
one has to be a Muslim and marry a Muslim before occupying a high profile public office. President Jammeh reportedly 
dated Jola and Christian ladies but was not brave enough to make the relationships public for fear that their 
backgrounds could affect his political career. Inter-tribal marriages are uniting Gambians but our religious leaders are 
undermining this process with their unwillingness to accept inter-religious marriages.

Shortly after President Abdoulaye Wade occupied the Presidency of Senegal there was an emotional debate over 
laïcité, French for Secularism. This was an opportunity for Senegal's power-brokering religious leaders to dump 
Secularism and adopt the Muslim Sharia. They could have also forced President Wade to divorce his White/Caucasian 
wife or made him marry a Muslim lady. They had the power to do so but chose to maintain the Secular status-quo. 
Instead of copying the radical intolerant and so-called puritan Islam from the Middle East, they settled for the traditional 
Senegalized/Africanized Islam. I am proud of them.

In our own Gambia if at all President Yahya Jammeh was determined to go ahead with his intention of replacing the 
Secular Gambian Constitution with the Islamic Sharia, I bet the Gambian Muslim elites would have blindly followed the 
mad idea. If those zealots could force former President Jawara to switch his faith and sacrifice his Christian sweetheart, 
they would not waste time stoning people and amputating limbs for Jammeh's Sharia project. Liberal anti-Taliban 
provocateurs like me will be among the first people to be stoned to death with fanfare. Thank God the Gambissara 
provincial mosque crisis serves as perpetual Sword of Damocles. The introduction of the strict Islamic Sharia in the 
Jurisdictions of Republic of The Gambia would mean the end of Gambia's unique status as a haven of peace and 
tolerance. We accept Islam but religious fundamentalism is not part of our culture. It is an antibody that will be rejected 
at all times by the enlightened people. Realising this, Jammeh withdrew his Sharia project and instead blamed 
seasoned journalist Peter Gomez for supposedly misquoting him. Peter is a very decent man who is widely respected 
for his professional nobility.

After the Secular Mandinko Terri Kafo gentlemen's club lost influence, some of the remaining Muslim and traditional 
elites thought the best of way of restoring their lost glory was to enter a devilish pact with President Jammeh. When 
Jammeh wanted to transform himself into a civilian president, the first thing he did was to drum together some clowns to 
State House who ridiculed themselves before the entire nation by begging him to contest.

When Jammeh wanted to misuse religion for politics, he engaged the Mandinko-led Gambia Supreme Islamic Council 
(GSIC). The executives of GSIC went on a countrywide tour to corrupt the provincial religious leaders. Many Imams 
were forced against their will to swear by the Qur'an and use their mosques as de-facto campaign offices for Jammeh. 
The hesitance of the provincial Imams of all ethnic extractions showed that the village religious leaders respect 
Secularism or the separation of religion from politics more than their urban colleagues operating under the GSIC. For 
generations our villagers have been practising communal democracy with clear-cut separation of powers. The 
“Alikalolu” (village chiefs) handled worldly politics. The “Alimamolu/Morolu” oversaw Islamic matters and the native 
doctors focused on traditional medicine and pre-Islamic spiritually. But the GSIC officials threatened this harmony when 
they came with their political trouble.

The GSIC can always call for national prayers for Yahya Jammeh and his family. But I cannot remember 
when it last called for nationwide prayers for our farmers, our women, Gambian in the Diaspora and so on. 
When it is national prayers, it has to be for the well-being of Mansa Jammeh as if he is the only Gambian 
alive. May be the GSIC should be renamed: Jammeh's Special Islamic Club.

In spite of the sell-out, Jammeh did not spear the Mandinko-led GSIC executives. He insulted them for lack of internal 
democracy and forced a new election. The GSIC has reduced itself into a Mandinko self-insulting council. In this year's 
holy Muslim month of Ramadan, Yahya Jammeh drove together women as slave labourers to his farms and the 
supreme Islamic council is yet to condemn this exploitation. Even the irrational Saudis, Iranians and other Middle 
Eastern people respect this month. One can work during Ramadan but one has to be careful not to overuse 
the body. Islam is a religion of moderation and does not endorse torture in the name of worship. There is 
no compulsion in religion, my friends.

It is sad that most of our so-called religious leaders are deviating from their traditional role of being the 
credible arbiters of moral rectitude in society. They can issue sermons against their daughters’ 
socializations with their lovers but will allow the same daughters to go and misbehave at President 
Jammeh's parties. I am sure most of those women who were sweating on Jammeh's farms spent the 
greater part of the year disobeying their husbands and neglecting their matrimonial duties.  

If at all my wife was one of those women who rushed to weed Jammeh's plots, I would have told her to stay there 
forever. I have no right over Jammeh's wives and mistresses and he too has no right over my own women. Will he allow 
his wives to come and work for me in brotherly solidarity? Forget status. If he is president, I am prince and I do not need 
electoral votes to build my own principality. Should my wife come back to me from Jammeh's farms, it would be the end 
of her excuses. Even if she tells me she is dying of headache or cancer, I will be very reluctant to take her seriously. If 
she can disobey the holy month of Ramadan, defy the hot temperature of August, the rains and the bad roads to go 
and do slave work for Jammeh, she can fulfil my sexual, culinary and pampering desires on demand. If she continues to 
misbehave, I will bring in a “manyo” (new wife). All the women who rushed to Jammeh's farms should not be surprised 
when their husbands pick additional wives in the coming months and years. They asked for it.

Anyway, when Jammeh opened a mosque at State House against our Secular common sense, he appointed Mandinko 
head preachers to distract the attention of the Mandinkos from real politics. The State House preachers delivered by 
cowing the Mandinkos with scary tales about “alikiyama lolungho” (day of resurrection) and the need to stupidly follow 
the Mansa. Why are you so afraid of alikiyama? Are you consuming too much religious advertisements?

In one of Jammeh's last actions of creating the office of the paramount chief and the council of chiefs, Mandinko 
traditional rulers came running for their “palasolu” and “makamolu” (prestigious positions).I do jokingly tell my Mandinko 
wife that the Mandinkos are just crazy about prestigious jobs by reminding her of the saying “Mandinko ning palaso.” 
Even if the pay-cheque is miserable   the Mandinko will go for the job as long as it is prestigious. If it is their culture, I 
respect and support it. For us Sarahules it is the opposite. Why should I dream of becoming the President or   the Pope 
when the amount of money I will be making from one single deal as a simple and anonymous “djoula” (merchant) triples 
the annual presidential salary?

Bitterly, the Mandinkos too brought the current Jammeh humiliation onto themselves. Today the Mandinko pentagon of 
Gunjur, Brufut, Sukuta, Brikama and Pirang is one of the most disgraced and divided regions of our country. One 
cannot just blame it all on Yahya Jammeh. President Jammeh respects only people who value their principles and 
heritages, not those who turn themselves into his toilet papers. He is afraid of his own Jola people for the fact that the 
Jola, as a classless and egalitarian people, will not waste time to behead any leader who misbehaves. Jammeh can 
ignore the ECOWAS courts but he will never ignore customary Jola verdict. He has brought a lot of bad name to the 
Jolas that he will sooner or later face the Jola justice. He is like a dead meat.  

The Mandinkos through their Mansa submission culture follow anything that comes from “Mansakunda”  (king's court or 
government) without finding out whether it is in their interests or not. Just tell my Badibunka sanawuolu “Mansa ko” (the 
king says), before you complete your sentence they will jump into action for their good or bad. History has it that many 
Mandinkos sought refuge in the “Morikundalu” (quarters of Muslim clerics) as they were being persecuted by their own 
people acting on the orders of their concerned Mansas. This laid the foundation for the virtual Islamization of the parts 
of the Gambian Mandinko nation that were earlier saved from the post-Kaabu Islamization process.  

Today the Gunjur-Bundung-Talinding axis has now been transformed into Gambia's urban Qur'an Belt 
dominated by “Arabkarandingholu” (Arabic languages students). Please, the Gambian needs engineers, 
ecologists, artisans, doctors, inventors, scientists, venture capitalists, organic agricultural experts and 
other technocrats and not “Talibancrats” preachers. We have an oversupply of preachers of foreign 
religions already.

I know some will make reference to that Sarahule-dominated “Markaz” (centre) in Bundung as part of the Qur'an Belt 
just like that Mauritanian school. I was among the first young men who took part in the construction of that Markaz. The 
original name of the centre was “Markaz ahlu Sunnah” (centre of the followers the Sunnah). The founders later 
changed it to “Markaz ul Daawa wa Tabliq” (centre for the call and spreading of faith) to avoid conflict with the majority 
Sarahule followers of the traditional Tijaniyaa Islam. The Markaz people with all their extreme forms of worship are not 
allowing themselves to be used for politics as it will be the end of their activities.

I am not speaking for the entire Sarahule community at home and in Diaspora as I am not their appointed 
spokesperson. But for my lineage and “kabilo” (clan) I can say that we have long filtered Islam and kept the extreme 
teachings on the fringes. To cut a long story short, the Gambissara mosque crises that indirectly affected my own clan 
(at least two of my uncle's died of the spiritual tit-for-tats) showed that we will not accept any of the so-called new 
puritan Islam that threatens our social cohesion and balance between our moderate Islam and traditional beliefs. There 
is a red line between the Markaz in Bundung and my own side of the Sarahule community that only insiders can see.  

We tolerate them in the name of freedom of worship but we do not allow Islam to destroy even our most important 
activity of creating “nabureh/nafulo” (wealth). Our cooperation with the Jews in the diamond trade confirms this. From 
the outside one might think the Sarahules are conservative but from inside, my own lineage is progressive. We just 
value our culture and the philosophy of “Sumpudo Khati” (umbilical cord and maternal milk bond) solidarity. Our internal 
criticisms of authority and Islam are harsher than those of notorious Islam critic Ayan Hirsli Ali. Should President 
Jammeh hear the criticisms we make about his empty promises to our provincial people, he will commit suicide. We just 
ignore him publicly since most of us have no time for politics.

I bet the most valuable parts of my body that if Yahya Jammeh goes to the Mandinkos for another  stupid 
assignment, they will forgive him and say the Mandinko humiliation in the last 16 years was “Allah la kitiyo” 
(Allah's will or predestination) and they will rush to wipe his Mansa backside!

Please free the Mandinkos from the religious drugs that are making them submissive. I want to see Mandinko 
renaissance. Save my Mandinkos from the humiliation and the trauma!  

For sure not all Mandinko religious and traditional leaders sold their souls to Jammeh. There were, and are still, 
Mandinko torch bears who stood firm and showed Jammeh his limits but they are in the minority. I hope their numbers 
will increase after analysing my this controversial article.

My lovely Mandinkos you have a beautiful pre-Islamic “cheddo/soninko” tradition of “balang ba” (big 
resistance) that gives you the right to resist tyranny. Rediscover the positive values of your “folonko” pre-
Islamic heritage, please. Filter Islam, filter Christianity and filter the Western practices and come up with a 
modern Mandinko philosophy that will guarantee the survival of the Mandinko Civilization in this 21st 
Century and beyond.

We have Mandinko websites like “iladinolong” (know your religion). I want to see more Mandinko websites 
on “ila folonkolong” (know your pre-Islamic ancestral values), “ila hakolong” (know your liberal human 
rights), “ila musuyalong” (know your femininity) and so on.

Stop misusing foreign religion to suppress your own Mandinko creative artistes. DJ Corrah, you remember him? He 
made a music video about Islam. Some Mandinko Muslim leaders misunderstood it and brutally abused him. I once saw 
that DJ Corrah video by accident and could not notice any thing disrespectful to Islam on it.  

Look in Senegal artistes produce audio visual works that are not only supportive of religion but also critical of it. To 
date, I am yet to hear that Senegalese religious leaders have issued “ndigaleh” to permanently muzzle a single artiste 
over religious videos. You wonder why the Wolof language and culture are thriving? They did not let religion and 
politics suppress their talents. The Wolofs never allowed the Francophone-Anglophone divide to cut them off their pre-
colonial Jolof roots. This makes its easier for Senegalese musicians, fashion designers and others talents to cross over 
to the Gambia as they wish.

Sadly the Mandinkos took the artificial boundaries too serious and cut them themselves from the Kaabu (Guinea 
Bissau), Senegal, the Guineas, Sierra Leone, Mali and the greater Manding commonwealth. It is culture and not the 
artificial borders of our nation states that will eventually unite Africa.  

Fore sure Kora maestro Jaliba Kuyateh performed in Senegal, Guinea Bissau and the offshore Diaspora communities 
but that was not enough. The last serious world class Mandinko talent to cross over to the Gambia and match the 
Malian Manding stars was the late Lalo Kebba Drammeh from Kaabu. No Mandinko talent is yet to fill in the gap left by 
Lalo Kebba. I respect Jaliba Kuyateh, Sambu Susso, Tata Dinding and all the other current stars. But my standards for 
artistic quality are very high and I am sorry to say that the current stars are no avant-garde artistes. They are just mass 
entertainers interpreting the griot “fassa” traditions for their own survival. How many young talents has Jaliba Kuyateh 
promoted so far? Youssou Ndour with all his big ego and fear of competition manages to use his resources to promote 
new Senegalese talents from time to time.  

The last serious independent qualitative revolution on the Gambian Afro-Manding music scene was 
initiated by the Sotokoto band members who did a marvellous job of continuing from where the legendary 
Ifangbondi stopped. In between we had serious talents like Babucarr Jammeh and Demba Conta but they 
disappeared into oblivion. Now we do not have creative artistes. What we have are noise-makers and 
wannabe American pop stars. None of them is yet to compose a song to break the quality standards set by 
Lalo Kebba's “Kura M'Bissane” evergreen romantic smash hit. Let alone his back catalogue. Most of them 
care more about quick money and fame than the passion for brave creative risks.

I am however very proud of the promoters of the new Kora Foundation in the Gambia. I hope they will be brave enough 
to nurture the next generation of Lalo Kebbas, Ifangbondis and Sotokoto bands without succumbing to religious 
morality censor. Progressive culture is more important than religion. I also hope to see more Mandinko cultural 
productions and innovations in the areas of fashion, dance, literature, heritage protection, traditional architecture, 
photography, food, visual arts, drama, living history, romantic arts and so on. The “Kankurang” (masquerade) centre in 
Janjanbureh is a wonderful project. I also thank businessman Salifu K. Jaiteh for being a true arts patron of the 
Mandinko culture. The Diaspora people who are inviting Jaliba Kuyateh are doing a great job and I hope they will look 
out for the undiscovered talents of Manding culture who deserve a chance to be known far and wide.

Culture is not just about music and dance. For me culture means the way you think, the way you dress and what you 
wear, the way you speak, the way you live and what you eat. It is the daily civilization package. The most important 
asset of a person is his/her culture. You can lose all your material wealth and still survive but if you lose your cultural 
pride, you are doomed. Our Afro-American brethren lost everything to the slave trade. But the African culture they 
carried in their souls kept them alive and laid the foundation for their modern creative culture. They urgently need fresh 
inputs from Africa since they have depleted their Afro-Cultural reservoirs. For example, the African fertility dance 
has been reduced to a derogatory butt-shaking garbage of the gangster rappers who have no respect for 
the Black woman. They are not getting new inspirations from home in Africa as most of the Africans who 
are migrating to the West prefer to just copy the Western or Afro-American pop culture instead of showing 
them the African steps. Only a few immigrants from Africa are proudly living as ambassadors of the 
authentic African culture in their respective host communities.  

The Brazilian Samba dance came from the Angolan “Masemba.” The Angolans are not copying the Brazilians. They are 
instead promoting and exporting the original African Masemba steps with pride. I am sure there are a lot of Afro-
Americans with Mandinko ancestry who would like to consume genuine Mandinko culture but do not know where to go. 
Only a few can afford the ancestral pilgrimage to Africa. With the exception of the moribund Kunta Kinteh roots festival 
there is no serious Mandinko-related living heritage programme that adds flavour to our national cultural cocktail. The 
Jolas have been proudly celebrating their “Futamphaff” long before Jammeh dreamt of becoming President and no 
amount of Islamization and Christianization made them abandon it. They are not allowing the Kanilai festival to 
overshadow the “Futamphaf” as they know it will disappear once Jammeh leaves office. Their respect for their native 
culture makes me very proud.

The African Union's Charter for African Cultural Renaissance of 2006 gives us the legal and moral right to rediscover 
our rich heritages and native languages. All of us, not just the Mandinkos, need to re-examine our relations with Islam, 
Judeo-Christianity and the Western cultures. We are in the midst of a multi-polar global clash of civilizations and don't 
tell me you want your Negroid Civilization to lose out to the Chinese, Indian, French, Portuguese, Lebanese, Saudi, 
Iranian, Jewish and other foreign ones. Look at what racist President Ghadaffi of Libya is doing. He wants US$ 6,3 
billions from the Europeans so that he can help prevent a Black African Europe by torturing African migrants who 
transit through Libya but has no problems calling for the open Islamization and Arabization of Europe.

Wake up my Africans. If we cannot fully regain our positive traditional values, we must not allow the new wave of 
Christian evangelicalism and Islamic extremism to destroy our African heritages. We have a supreme Islamic council 
and a Christian council in The Gambia. It is time to start working on an Indigenous Beliefs Council in the Gambia or an 
association of “Jalangbatulalu” worshippers of African Deities. Count me as a proud member! If the followers of foreign 
faiths are allowed to build churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, devotees of native beliefs too have the right 
to openly maintain their sacred groves and ancestral shrines. The marginalization of native African faiths on the African 
Soil must be stopped. How would you feel if foreigners try to squeeze you out of your own house?

The Wolof proudly wolofnized Islam through the Mouride Brotherhood of Touba in Senegal. The Serers are very proud 
of their pre-Islamic heritage. In Mail the Tuaregs (Tamashik) embraced Islam without giving up their matrimonial system 
and traditional beliefs. They do not also put their daughters through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The Wudabe in 
Niger organize traditional fashion contests for their men with their women serving as judges. Is this not a romantic 
tradition?

Many provincial Fulas maintain the “Allah Jabi Jabani” (Allah responds or not, it will happen) spiritual tradition. I am 
ready to strangulate anyone who says this “Allah Jabi Jabani” tradition is bad. It is double insurance against 
disappointments and I support it. If one god disappoints, the other will not. Even the last Mandinko Kaabu King Mama 
Jankeh Walli sought the advice of both the Jalang African Deities and then the Muslim God through the Jahanka 
marabout Foday Barika Drammeh. Had Jankeh Walli trained his Nyancho warriors in the arts of exercising patience, he 
would not have lost his throne.

My paternal grand mother is Fula from Bondu and I can say that the Fulas hate disappointments and humiliations. This 
is why they always have Plan B. If I were a Sahelian Fulani cattle owner, I would ask myself this rational question: why 
should I put all my faith in the god of a desert religion when drought and desertification are killing my cattle and 
destroying my land?  

Our African native belief systems are not evil. It is the Judeo-Christian and Muslim propaganda, the abuse of fetish by 
dictators like late Mobutu Seseko of Zaire and Papa “Doc” Duvalier of Haiti and the Hollywood voodoo stereotyping that 
gave African religions the bad image. But all religions have aberrations and the African ones are no exceptions. Not all 
Christians are evangelists, missionary zealots and Inquisitors. Not all Muslims are terrorists and arrogant self-styled 
purists. Not all Jews are extremists. So not all followers of African Voodoo/Spirituality are evil doers. We just have to 
name, shame and isolate the quacks from the genuine native doctors through a credible vetting system.

You see President Jammeh uses the urban Muslims leaders for his politics but does not trust their spiritual advice. He 
patronizes them and the marabous from Mauritania and Senegal just for protocol. When he needs serious spiritual 
healing he goes to the heartland of Jola culture in Casamance or the provinces of the Gambia. He alternately 
commissions the Allah Jabi Jabani spiritualists from the two Guineas and the “Allah Sonna Amanso” (Allah agrees or 
not) Bambara healers from Mali. I salute and support him for that as long as he keeps the harmful witch-hunting and 
human sacrificial activities out of it. Genuine African traditional medicine does not involve the killing of people. 
The killing of animals and the use of animals parts substitute the human items of the rituals. Only 
charlatans ask for albinos and other human sacrifices.

During the recent football world cup in South Africa there were exaggerated reports about Juju and sports in Africa. I 
fully support the involvement of Juju in our African customary and conventional sports. It is a morale booster that gives 
the games authentic African touches. The sportsmen and women in Europe, the Americas and Asia have their own 
morale boosters. Some go to the extent of using steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs just to win 
their games. We hear reports of doping and match-fixing scandals every day.  

At least the African Juju does not include the ingestion of toxic substance. It is a soft traditional natural medicine. The 
World Health Organization supports traditional medicine. In most cases amulets (girigri, safo) or herbal concoctions 
mixed with medicinal plants and animals parts are used. Other forms include incantations before or during the games. 
But since brainwashed Africans are ashamed of their culture, they allow racist commentators to call it evil fetish. The 
appropriate generic English name for the professional practitioners of African traditional medicine should 
be Native Doctors. Instead they are all insulted as witch doctors without any distinction.

African national football teams are not winning serious international matches for the following 
reasons:

a.They spend little time training together to build harmonious teams.

b. African sports officials are just corrupt bastards who do not always select the best sportsmen and women in their 
respective countries.

c.Organized crime lords are gradually dominating and manipulating the games for money laundering and other 
underworld projects.
d. Africans still believe in foreign coaches more than their own talents.

e.The loyalties of expatriate Africans players are divided between their foreign clubs and their  countries of origin and 
thus maintain nonchalant attitudes.

f. When engaging native doctors, they go for the ones who are connected to the powerful people in government 
ignoring the most competent healers with no political connections. They do not understand that the real native 
medicine men/women are the ones in the bush who do not use their Indigenous Knowledge for quick money and 
materialism like some of their city colleagues. In India the best healers are not the gurus showing off on TV and other 
urban centres. The real Hindi healers are the naked Sadus wandering from one temple to another or one forest to 
another without any addictive interest in materialism and consumerism. It is not different in Africa. The real native 
healers live near the forests or water bodies where they have access to plants, gemstones and animals with healing 
properties in nature's pharmacy.

g. Many Africans do not also respect the African Deities. Whenever they see the Bible, Torah or the Qur'an 
they wet their pants and denounce their own ancestors. How do you expect the African Deities to answer 
your prayers when you are not respecting them? The African Deities accommodate Islam and Judeo-
Christianity but Islam and Judeo-Christianity are not  willing to accommodate our African Deities as if they 
have the monopoly on faith. We need diversity of faiths and it is left to us the children of African 
Renaissance to put our feet down and defend our African Deities with dignity.

Back to the Mandinkos, I once more call on you to rediscover your positive “folonko”  heritage. Restore the progressive 
heritage sites that were hurriedly destroyed by Islamization. Abandon the practice of “nyakatota” (FGM). It makes no 
sense taking the Mandinko girls to the nyaka when you are dreaming of the “Suruwamusu solima” (uncircumcised 
Wolof woman). This call to drop FGM goes as well to my own Sarahule ethnic group and the others who are yet to 
debate it.  

Dump the “nikab”  (veil). We have our traditional “tikko” and “musor”  headscarves that are beautiful and 
protective. No need to force the women to wear this boring “ibadu” veils that are alien to our moderate 
culture. Yes I am against the veil in all its variations as it has nothing to do with religion. It is a symbol of 
Arab and Middle Eastern cultural imperialism. Our African women should not be slaves of foreign dress 
codes be they Western, Eastern, Northern or Southern when we have our attractive traditional 
alternatives. I support modernity and freedom of dress choice but I want to see more self-pride in our 
native cultural identities. I am an African cultural militant.

It is sad that we do not have even a single Mandinko “folonko” shrine between Guinea Bissau, Senegal and the Gambia 
honouring the proud Kaabu Nyancho women who chose death over captivity. Please build this shrine so that people 
who are proud of the Mandinko heritage can seek libations from the ancestors and the deities. I will be among the first 
pilgrims to this shrine as I am a proud devotee of the Allah Jabi Jabani African spirituality corpus!

Call me a Muslim by name or “Fulankafula”, I do not care. My African religion works very well for me 
especially as last resort when the going in life gets toughest. The Germans were wasting my time over my 
naturalization even though I met the most important compulsory requirements. Thanks to some Allah Jabi 
Jabani Voodoo rituals, they cut the bureaucracy and gave me my nationality one year earlier than the initial 
date they told me. On top of that they slapped me with a full post-graduate scholarship as an exemplary 
immigrant.

Stop destroying each other in the name of foreign religions. Professor Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, the first Black African 
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is as a proud follower of his native Yoruba spirituality. He is more respected on 
the global stage than most of those lousy so-called civilized Africans who are abusing each other for Islam and Judeo-
Christianity. Wake up and be part of the African Cultural Renaissance.  

The next time I visit the Gambia, I would like to pray at a Mandinko folonko shrine that symbolizes the healing of the 
Mandinko trauma. Remember it was not the African Jalang Deities that failed the Kaabu Nyancho warriors. It was their 
own impatience. The last Kaabu King Jankeh Walli reminded the warriors that "both our Jalang (African Deities) and our 
marabout (Jahanka Foday Barika Drammeh) have warned us not to shoot at them first. The Nyancho fighters said "that 
is cowardice" and then got their Waterloo. So our African Traditional Medicine and Spirituality (ATMS) are neither 
backward nor inferior. It is the way we treat them that makes the difference.

For a start, how many Mandinkos and lovers of pre-Islamic African Civilizations are willing to contribute cash or kind for 
the reconstruction of the destroyed Kaabu fortresses of Berekolong in Sankola and Kansala? How many more are 
willing to work as volunteers for the various phases of the reconstruction project? Find out among yourselves and set 
up heritage restoration project teams of your trust. I am ready to offers my services as a neutral advisor, wherever and 
whenever need, free of charge.

On the rivalries between the Banjul Mafia and Terri Kafo and the impacts of the battle of the Mandinko and 
Wolof sexuality, watch out for my next piece. You can miss everything else but do not miss the sexy 
“haram” (forbidden) article on Maafanta.com.

Prince Bubacarr A. Sankanu
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