Beautiful Rene. This was a good biography of Mam Biram and we are a bit better informed about the human side of Mam Biram. I look forward to the more comprehensive biography for that portends much more inspiration. Thanx again for sharing. I think you can be an excellent writer. Haruna. -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sat, Nov 28, 2009 5:05 pm Subject: Fwd: The Story Of Mam Biram Cont'd -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Cc: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sat, Nov 28, 2009 2:01 pm Subject: The Story Of Mam Biram Cont'd * Mam Biram was carrying a heavy burden; a burden that he had willingly accepted to shoulder out of his own volition. He had asked that no one feel sorry for him. This was his destiny and the life that he had chosen to live. He was conscious of the fact that you could only live once, and he wanted to live that life in dignity and self respect. A proud sovereign citizen. Mam Biram wanted to give as much of himself as possible, before either sickness or old age took control of his body, to the service of his country and humankind in general. He wanted to help carve the destiny of a sovereign republic, The Gambia, a small country in the west coast of Africa. Hailed proudly as the smiling coast, the country is surrounded by Senegal and opened its mouth to the Atlantic Ocean. It all started over two decades and a half ago, when Mam Biram visited the Gambia as a graduate student. He was introduced to a small group of intellectuals, and together they began the long and arduous struggle to transform the nature of Gambian society. It took almost thirty years of his life. Mam Biram left the Gambia when he was sixteen years old. He had not completed his high school. While he was at the Saint Augustine’s high school, he met and befriended an American Peace Corp who promised to take him to America. His friend took him to the US when he was going home after finishing his assignment. He enrolled Mam Biram in a private high school run by Jesuit priests somewhere in the suburbs of South Carolina. This was in the late sixties; a period in which the ashes of racism, and the embers of discrimination were deeply ingrained in the American social medium. This also was the time, when the dialectical process of decolonization swept across Africa, and the fires of Pan-Africanism illuminated a revolutionary path that awakened the conscience, and ignited the passion of young people across the continent. Mam Biram grew up in this epoch of revolutionary struggle, and at a young age had read most of the books written by Kwame Nkrumah and other notable pan-africanist. He was also deeply ingrained in marxist ideology. By the time he enrolled in high school in the US, Mam Biram was well oriented in the politics of resistance exemplified by the likes of Nkrumah, Lumumba and Amilcar Cabral. Surrounded by an environment anathematic to his proud upbringing, he cultivated a stubborn attitude of defiance and self respect that defined his well crafted personality. He became a towering force of reason and substance always capable to influence and shape the public discourse. When Mam Biram completed his high school, he proceeded to obtain a bachelors and a master’s degree, at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He started a doctoral program, but abandoned the pursuit when he visited the Gambia. He met a mellow and conscientious high school science teacher, who had been organizing student plays and musicals, to generate funds to help other needy students. They shared the same values and ideals and formed a very strong bond. Mam Biram took up an appointment with the government as a civil servant, and together with few other like minded intellectuals in the country, the Democratic Organization For Democracy and Development was born. To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] = ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤