Did they change the name al well? If it is appropriate to change the venue what makes it inappropriate to change the name and purpose? Just a thought. Ebou Secka >From: "Jeng, Beran" <[log in to unmask]> >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. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------