They gather under the huge cashew tree at the Bantaba. It is the 
meeting place for the young elites. They aspire to take over from the 
old politicians whose response to politics they deem not enthusiastic 
enough. They want to change the climate of apathy and silence that 
characterized the politics of the day. They are the future leaders. 
However, the rancor within their midst; the tone and depth of their 
political arguments, leaves much to the imagination as to what the 
future holds.

   At the Bantaba they talk about politics. They argue and defend their 
partisan posturing. They engage in heated intellectual debates about 
the economy, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the state of
governance in this tiny African nation, hailed proudly as the Smiling 
Coast.

   The most vociferous defender of the human rights campaign is Abdel 
Kabir. He has a noticeable presence in all the online newspapers. He 
writes voraciously and decry the wanton disregard of civil liberties, 
and the abnegation of the fundamental rights that accords dignity and 
decency to the human being.

   The most astute advocate of democracy, however, is Mam Latir. He has 
a polished and artistic delivery style. With a lot of sophistry. No 
comment of significance escape his scrutiny, and many a time he finds 
himself embroil in more than one disagreements.

   Njogu is a gentleman and a scholar. A literary artists. He 
articulates his disdain and opposition to the hegemony of a political 
dictatorship, by writing political satires and poems that expose the 
deficiences and corrruption of the status quo. He always stays above 
the fray; the acrimonous and bitter exchanges that
at most times ensues at the bantaba.

   There are the other voices too: intelligent, patriotic, measured and 
forceful. They added to the relevance and importance of the bantaba as 
a discussion forum. The exchanges and conversations, to a great extend
are a micocosm of what obtains in the larger society. The anxiety, the 
hopelessness, the anger and frustration, of the intractable 
complexities that bemoan the challenges of a nation.

   At the heart of the problem is the question of being. What should the 
nation become? Or conversely, what has the nation became?

  Rene

NB: This is the subject of a play I would want to write reflecting on 
the myraid voices that has been raised in our discussion forums.





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