Conteh.
your statement below summarise it all.Ancestor Cheik Anta Diop in his book
barbarism or cilisation under the chapter how to define cultural identity
made a detail explanation to confirm your summary of common cultural
identity.the MASTER urgered the present generation of african to study ,
develop and popularise a program of african conciousness to stop the decline
into attitudes that leads to evil sin or barbarism.

>"We are so intermingled that no Gambian can claim
>>to be 100% one tribe.  It is deplorable that we
>>witness discrimination in the US and yet we continue
>>to exercise this evil sin."


The statement of Manneh below needs to be given more impotance and
reflection in the process of discussions,analysis  and agreements leading to
a unified electoral  opposition to the aprc regime and beyond.infact all
areas of the gambia needs to be subjected to similar and more detail
analysis to enable us have a better picture of the gambian reality. Given
the serious influence of ethnic opportunist conciousness in the gambia,i
have problem in understanding why we have not subjected this question to
serious surgical analysis earlier.look at the barbarism it is causing.

some questions for reflections

what is ethnicity in gambian contex?
what is ethnic chavinism in the gambian communites at home and in the
diaspora?
what is ethnic opportunism in intra-gambian relations?
which social groups benifits from ethnic opportunism?
what was ethnic politics and in precolonial gambia?
what was ethnic politics in colonial gambia?
what was ethnic politics in post 1965 gambia?
what was the relationship of ethnicity and class benefits in post 1965
period?
how was ethnic  representation in local and national political institutions?
what was and is ethnic politics in every village, contituency district and
region?
what was and is the ethnic character of political parties and special
pressure groups?
what role did ethnicity play in the process of the 1981 coup de`etat?
what role did it play in  pre and post 1994 coup de etat?
what is the relationship of ethnicity and class benefits in post 1994 coup?
what role is ethnicity playing in the present gambian and diaspora
communities?
how will the unity tendency in the anti aprc opposition deal with this
ethnicity question in the pre election period?
how do we develop a national consciousness platform in the process of the
anti aprc national democratic struggle and beyond?
what is the character of ethnic politics in the immidiate sub region of the
gambia?
how is this ethnic politics influencing the gambian political situation?



"In any political campaign, one need to know the type of people you are
dealing with and must follow certain approach or tools to solicit their
support. You must be conversant with the realities on the ground.
>Anywhere in the world, politicians target certain influential interest
>groups such as trade unions, race and tribal groups, gender and age
>groups,students, religious organizations, etc. This is not peculiar to any
>decent politic as long as providing the needs of these groups is put on
>high premium during campaign. Similarities is what matters but not our
>differences.I don't like tribalism either."
>Cheers
>Lamin

thank you all
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