United Kingdom

I left Africa when I was six and a half years old, destination London. To say London was unlike anything I had ever seen before is a vast understatement; it was a completely different world, one in which I was alien. I did not look like anyone, I did not walk like anyone, and I certainly did not talk like anyone. Gloom permeated London; it was in every pavement, crack, and cranny. It invaded the lives of people like an unwanted visitor, dressing them head to toe in black. It dragged their heads and made them walk with unsmiling eyes cast downwards, heading hurriedly to a destination I did not know. It filled the air, making it heavy and painted the houses and streets gray. The gloom that permeated London also found its way into my heart and infected me with a condition called SADD or Severe African Delusional Disorder.

As the emerging winner of the November presidential elections in The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh took oath of office on the 19^th of January 2012. The 30 minutes speech that ensued his swearing by the Chief Justice of The Gambia was nothing short of one of the most famous political quotes of ex-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown - he has lost the art of communication, but not, alas, the gift of speech. The president’s speech embellished in pomp and flower began by imploring all Gambians to unite under the umbrella of citizenship, to fight poverty, waywardness, underdevelopment, disunity, diseases, stagnancy.