Gambians greetings,
I have been following the debate between Hallifa Sallah and the rest, but I
must confess that I am disappoited by Hallifa's adversary. The debate which
started with that unenlightened article by "Dr" Ayitteh and Shirima now is
getting all jumbled up and diverting to hit Hallifa's person and his
activities in the Gambia, while on the other hand he is accused of being a
fanatic or obssesed with Nyerere and Nkrumah. I think people should be
mature enough as Hallifa has demonstrated and that is to hit the point which
should be hit and when that is complete a new point could be created. The
issue is the article by those writers about Nyerere, and Hallifa gave a very
coherent and analytical response, and if anyone disagrees I think that
person should attack Hallifa's analysis and interpretation rather than to
claim that he is a fanatic. That is not the issue. I am a Pan-Afrikan
fanatic, and I am not bogged down in anyway or disturbed if today western
media wants to tell us that the Hamas or the GIA is a fanatic group, or that
Osama Ben Laden is a fanatic. That is their own tactic to destroy their
enemies and I have no problem with that. In fact it is not my business.
Similarly if Osama Ben Laden says that the USA is the enemy or the devil,
that is Osama's business, but I do not take that the devil is synonymous
with AmeriKKKa or that fanaticism is synonymous with Osama Ben Laden. When I
say am a PAn-Afrikan fanatic or obsessed with Nkrumah and his likes does not
mean I worship them, or put them on the same pedestal as the Angel Gabriel
or Muhammad (SAW). And the only reason I am obssessed with him is that he
fought for my freedom and advancement when I was not even aware of my own
degradation.And by reading his books I came to fully understand myself as an
Afrikan and the condition in which I am. He showed me this more than any
other teacher from primary to university. However when I analyse his life
and work obviously reason and intellect would have to be my guiding tool. I
cannot say how Hallifa's feeling stand with regards to Pan-Afrikanism, but
to make fanaticism the issue is misleading. If he is fanatic that is his
problem, but what we should be looking for is the content and quality of his
arguments. English football supporters are said to be the rudest hooligans,
which in this context simply means football fanatics. But the English press
likes to say hooligans, and that is purely strategic. The IRA and and its
allies in Ireland are not dubbed fanatic and seldom are they refered to as
terrorists. So these jargons are just used by other people for their own
purpose, but when we come down here to talk about serious matters let us not
get confused by these terms and misapply them. Let us tackle the issue. I
think what we can conclude is that finally Hallifa has won, because instead
of his critics tackle the issue concerning Nyerere and the facts, they
attacked his person and called him names, and get his activities in the
Gambia a top point. Let us exhaust the Nyerere issue, and if you think we
need to examine our politicians we can open another debate but then all
outstanding debates have been thoro'ly taken of. The amount of words, and
sometimes quite interesting words which I have never thought are in the
Queen's English, that have been used so far are all useless and for that
matter painful, when they could have been better saved for other relevant
issues. No amount of words and colourfulness can distort the truth. Let us
not behave like people with white masks in black skins.
madi
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email 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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
