FWD


Independent Critic: Juffureh Loses Roots Festival To Kanilai
The Independent <http://www.qanet.gm/Independent/independent.html>  (Banjul)
June 12, 2000
By D.A. Jawo
Banjul - The Roots Homecoming Festival is a direct consequence of tracing back
to the small village of Juffureh the ancestral home of an African-American
author Alex Haley in the mid 1970s.
Therefore, the natural home of the festival should be Juffureh and nowhere else.
It was therefore a surprise to many people when the epicentre of the festival
seemed to have been moved over to Kanilai, leaving Juffureh virtually relegated
to insignificance. It is indeed a shame on the part of the Department of State
for Tourism and Culture and the National Council for Arts and Culture to
apparently allow the programme to be hijacked by a few sycophants, whose
objective may be is to please President Jammeh and ultimately capture his
attention for their own personal aggrandisement. By willingly taking the
festival to Kanilai and giving President Jammeh the impression that his people
have the purest culture in this country, their institution have failed the
people of The Gambia.
More and more people are wondering why the centre of activities for the festival
should be moved to Kanilai instead of its natural home of Juffureh. Why should
'Sindola culture' be displayed to our visitors from the Diaspora as the only
authentic culture in this country? Obviously, somebody somewhere seems to be
playing a clever trick on the psyche of the people of this country, probably as
part of the scheme to transform Kanilai from an obscure border village to the
most important settlement in this country. However, it is certainly quite unfair
to snatch the 'Roots' limelight from the people of Juffureh its rightful owners
and take it to Kanilai which has absolutely nothing to do with it, but
apparently only because President Jammeh hails from there. Therefore, the
Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture Susan Waffa- Ogoo and her specially
selected Roots committee members should heed the concern of the people and
organise the festival according to its original idea, which is to use the
'Roots' concept to entice our brothers and sisters from the Diaspora on an
annual basis. If however, Mrs Ogoo really wants her 'brother' to actively
participate in the festivities or to even lead the mumbo jumbo activities, she
should invite him to go to Juffureh but certainly not to relocate the festival
to Kanilai for any purpose. I am sure most of our visitors from the Diaspora
would prefer going to Juffureh the ancestral home of Kunta Kinteh rather than
being subjected to the display of mumbo jumbo rituals that have no intrinsic
significance to them, thus making the festival to lose its original flavour.

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