True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance. - Alexander Pope

Gambia

On the Empowerment of Women

By Jai T. Sarr in Our Readers, Gambia, Person Party, author, Civil Society, curator, Entertainment, Feminism, Feminist movement, Feminist theory, food, Gender, Gender and education, Michele Obama, Religion, Smug, Social Issues, Social philosophy, Sociology, Women's rights

 

I have done a great deal of thinking following the controversy still being  generated from the article titled ‘To Gambian girls: A message for self-preservation and empowerment’ by Momodou Sabally; and I believe now is a good time to add my weight to the discussions. As wife of the author, a member and supporter of the Balafong efforts and as an African woman who lives and believes in ideals of Feminism- towards its greater goal of alleviating suffering in the world - the stakes are too high for me not to. Having waited for emotions to simmer down, my hope is that this perspective is looked at in the spirit of intellectualism and as our kinsmen wisely say ‘nyu deglu wanteh ak hel teh bugn kohdef ak hol’.

Read more »

In Response To The Gambia’s Pen

By Jama Jack in Google, Gambia, Contact Details, advocate, Aisha Sulayman Keita, author, Behavior, e-reputation, Economic Community of West African States, Feminism, Gender, Gender role, Girl, Jama Jack, lecturer, Observer , the author, Religion, Satang Nabaneh, Social philosophy, Sociology, Technology, the Daily Observer, The Gambia, Women's rights
About two weeks ago, I got home tired, after a day of rigorous school work. In one of my classes, the lecturer had digressed into the growing relevance of e-reputation as a criterion for employment. Once I’d completed my daily routine, I turned to the all-efficient Google to see what traces I had left, and continue to leave on the Internet. An article in the Daily Observer caught my attention and I got even more excited when I read the signature: that of The Gambia’s Pen, Momodou Sabally. It was an opinion piece (“To Gambian Women: Love, Honour And Respect!”), written to celebrate Gambian women on the occasion of International Women’s Day. In one paragraph, the author wrote “To the young ones, the up-and-coming I say keep it up and don’t you ever give up! There are thousands of young Gambian girls with great promise but let me mention a few I’ve recognised of late: Jama Jack, Aisha Sulayman Keita and Satang Nabaneh.

Read more »

Suñu Waxtaaneh Juboo: The Case for a Free Press in Gambia

By Amran Gaye in Essays, Dakar, Gambia, Senegal, Business, Earth, Economic Community of West African States, Edward Francis Small, Entertainment, Free Press, Human Interest, International relations, Mariama, the, Perfection, Political geography, President, reporter, Republics, The Gambia

 

ñu ni nee na / ñu ni nee na

ñore bokk rewe mi 

ñu ni nee na / ñu ni nee na
neh ñu yaatal geew bi
 
ootay man ta ñakk naam
y su ñu Waxtaaneh juboo…
 
Yaatal Gueew, Pape & Cheikh
 
 
 
-------------------
 
In May 1922, in Dakar, Edward Francis Small published the first issue of the *The Gambia Outlook and Senegambian Reporter*. This was after the so-called Balanghar incident, when Small had gotten into a physical altercation with a colleague, costing him his job. Small’s criticism of government policies at this point had already put him on the wrong side of the colonial administrators.

Read more »

Barllu (Living)

By Khadijah Aja Tambajang in Essays, Gambia, guard, Hospitality, Technology

 The morning of my return to The Gambia, I left a note for my sister thanking her for her usual lovely hospitality filled with laughter, reminiscing, small rasalantehs (snobs), shopping, and over eating. My last sentence, ‘life is for the living!’ on the note clung to my memory like a baby on its mother’s back.

 

Yes, we are all alive and well, thank God for that, but are we living a purpose-driven life? Are we doing what we love? Are we holding on to excess baggage? Are we refusing to accept the inevitable? Are we being truthful to ourselves?

 

To me, living a purpose-driven life is about being faithful whatever your faith is. It is about loving what you do to define who you are regardless of people’s expectations. It is about being truthful to your core – being in tuned with our instincts to know what is fundamentally right or wrong and how it affects the people closest to us.

Read more »

"To The Gambia Ever True"

By Amran Gaye in Essays, Banjul, Dubai, New York, YouTube, Gambia, McCarthy Square, Culture of Belize, Dubai, Economic Community of West African States, Entertainment, Film, International relations, Law, Political geography, President, Private, Republics, Suddenly, Technology, The Gambia, Walsh College of Accountancy and Business

Another winter, another trip to Gambia. I left in December, planning to take a month before school re-opens - just enough time to renew my love affair with the country, but not enough time to do anything about it. The countours of the trip are familiar now - the welcome home, the standard questions from people you meet on the street ("When did you come?", "How is it over there?", "When are you going back?"). It was the same everywhere I went. People looked at me like I was crazy when I announced that I didn't want to go back, that I in fact wanted to stay in Gambia and not leave again. Either that or like I was punking them, toying with them at their own expense. And then at the end leaving again, the looks of barely concealed envy in their eyes as they watch you get into the car headed for the airport.

Read more »
Nov 17, 2012

Day Fourteen: Someone you’ve drifted away from

Posted by Linguere | Tags: Linguere, Fiction, Skype, Gambia, Akon, Apostrophe, English spelling, HTML element, Linguistics, Mata, Orthography, Punctuation, Technology | 0 Comments

 

Yo Habz,

It’s been a long minute. I don’t know how it happened and who stopped reaching out first. All I remember is that it’s been almost a year of no serious talk and well, I sorta kinda miss our goofy conversations. Writing this, I just realised that most of the people I could/can really connect with were brought to me by the Internet. You were gift-wrapped and sent to me by Mark Z and I remember getting a bit excited by the request from ‘one cute boy’, as I had explained to Mata.

Read more »
Nov 09, 2012

Day Six: A Stranger

Posted by Linguere | Tags: Linguere, Non-fiction, Gambia, Business, Law | 0 Comments

 

Mon ami,

My readers would wonder why I chose to call you my friend when you’re supposed to be a stranger to me. They might not understand, but I bet you are smiling at the term, for we both know what it means and why it was my ‘endearment’ of choice.

Read more »

Oct 05, 2012

Ode To The Black Woman

Posted by Linguere | Tags: Linguere, Poetry, Gambia, Djeliba Hotel, Duplex Strip, CDATA, Omar Malleh Wadda, Social Issues, XML | 0 Comments

Dear reader, please pay attention to the message and acknowledge the beauty of words stringed by one of The Gambia’s finest poets … *drum roll*…. Omar Malleh Wadda.

Read more »

Woman, Honor Thyself

By Jama Jack in Essays, Gambia, Human Interest, judge, Mariama Linguere, Punctuation, Religion

Why do boys insult their mothers instead of their fathers? ’

‘It’s because mothers insult themselves first’.

Interacting with boys and girls of St Peter’s Technical School in Lamin during a co-ed meeting organised by Starfish International, these were some of the questions and responses that popped up. Initially, the radical feminist in me scratched the responses out as  mere excuses from the boys to continue their almost-accepted saaga ndeye around town. Growing up in The Gambia, it has become ‘normal’ to hear the very (in)famous ‘Chapandeyam‘ on the streets. Excuse my language but please tolerate it for the sake of this post. To non-Wolof Linguerites, this is an insult directed at mothers, which has almost become an anthem in the streets and many homes in the country.

Read more »
Sep 07, 2012

Red Black Nonsense - Of Rumours and Bearers of them

Posted by lat | Tags: Lat's Thoughts , Essays, Gambia, Contact Details, Person Career, Bojang, GSM, iPhone, So Lucifer, Steve Jobs, Technology, Winston Churchill | 0 Comments

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.  ~Winston Churchill

Right now as you read this, there is a man somewhere bored off his wits end trying to get himself busy but unable to. In his mind, there is but a single cure for his boredom, so he tells a story. The problem here is, he does not specify that it is a story, but rather insists that it’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He has started what will become another big rumour.

Who said it? He said it...Who is he? A friend of a friend and he swore that it was true! How many times have you been involved in this conversation either as the disseminator or the recipient of some news? As technology advances, the speed with which rumours travel has grown with it. From text messages to the internet, we are but a click away from either spreading a rumour or deciding not to.

Read more »