Halifa,
Let me make it obvious that this is not another endless debate. I had
promised sometime ago that i will be writing on Pan African Leftists
complicity in repressions in Africa by wittingly or unwittingly adding
allure to the poses of crack-pot dictatorships of Left orientation. My piece
was a fulfillment of that promise. There are far better things to be done
now than engage in something which always ends in a stalemate that leaves
much to be desired.

Of course, as you complained, the Left-Right continuum is not as clear-cut
as we might make it look in writing and at worst makes things obscurer
especially in a "post-modern" environment we are supposed to be living
under. I merely used it to avoid circuitous and descriptive trivia and in
many cases it is not always fair as we project it to be. The alternative is
far more horrendous and painful. To carricature me as some narrow-minded
person obsesesed with dividing people into Left and Right is wide off the
mark Halifa. I am a very open minded and objective person who always gives
'opponents' their fair representation by reading/listening to their side of
the story. Those who have come across me would tell you as much. But you can
attest to that, can't you?

With suave reasonable-ness, you have ducked the issue that i dragged Nkrumah
into: his reign as an enlightened dictatorship. Instead you made the
baseless accusation that i'm merely another Western stooge peddling cold war
propaganda. Once again wrong charge sheet, wrong address comrade as you
yourself know. I suppose next time you will be saying that i have my eyes
set on some fellowship which propels me to attempt to paint Nkrumah as a
historical villian. By invoking these old battle cries of labelling anyone a
Western stooge who critiques Nkrumah, you were deliberately avoiding the
profundity of my judgement that Nkrumah was indeed an enlightened dictator.
You never refuted this.
You drew my attention to where i had heard you say it was prudent in the
libertion struggle for the likes of Nkrumah to strong assertive leaders.
Well, i refer you to your statement you made at the DC Rally of 27 May 2000,
where amongst others, you declared that what Africa needed in the past was
STRONG leaders but now what is essential is an enlightened people [note:
this is not verbatim but a crude nontheless correct interpretation of that
particular statement. I made attempts to listen to the audio again at the
Gambian.com site but was failed by net congestion]. One could infer from
this that it was right and indeed acceptable for Africa to have strong
leaders during the old days and from which it is perfectly legitimate to
interpret as excusing Nkrumah's strong handed reign when he was very
merciless to his political opponents. This is the context in which i
attributed your excusing of Nkrumah's excesses.

I couldn't help but snort a laughter when i read you saying "your BB Dabos
and OJs". Since when have they become my "BB Dabos and OJs"? When i became
critical of your role in the Jammrh experience? See how contrary to your
claims, you are so thin-skinned when it comes to criticisms especially of
your role during the transition. Indeed, any mention of your role during the
transition always leaves you jumping at shadows bawling your innocence in
the loudest of voices.
On your trip here to the UK, i'm sure if you are ready and have no problems
to abode in my modest accomodation, i have absolutely no problem whatsoever
to take it up with you where we left it. Indeed it would be an honour to
receive and confer a distinguished fellow like you in humble abode. I am
sure my flat mate would never object to your presence and that of others who
would wish to be present. A wider public forum is, however, beyond my means
sad as this is for it would be great for Gambians in the UK to engage you in
a much wider public forum.

I believe there are more important things to be done now than examining what
our differences are. The dictator will delight in that and would be against
both our hopes of fighting a common enemy who each day is sucking the Gambia
towards civil strife.
Have a great weekend my good friend.
Hamjatta Kanteh

PS
I look forward to you informing readers what my conclusions were in that
piece which was a rejoinder to your position after you critiqued Njagga
Ceesay's contentions on constitutions in your paper. Oh! and please inform
us why you never published it. I still have my copy i believe.
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------