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

Social Issues

Olympics 2012: A Failed Olympic

 

With every Olympic Games new heroes and role models are born. Last year’s Olympics was no different, whether it was the story of Mo Farah of Britain, who came to the UK as a refugee when he was ten years old and ended up winning 2 goal medals for his host nation, or the story of Read more »

On the Empowerment of Women

 

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’.

Dec 07, 2012

Red Black Nonsense - And then I married another

We all had dreams growing up. I can remember once telling my parents that I wanted to be a “fireman”. As fate would have it, when I got myself lost as a child, I was picked up by a kind policewoman and taken to the Bakau Fire Station where I munched on some memorable “gerrteh saaf” as I waited for my parents to pick me up in the old red LADA. I met a young man aged thirteen a while ago and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up. The young man looked at me dead in the eye and told me he wanted to be a “rich man” with four wives and many children. At first I thought he was joking and then as I looked at him even closer, I could see the excitement swell up in his ears as if he had just won the lottery. This young man wanted to be a “career polygamist”!

It took me three weeks to finally start writing about this.

Dec 01, 2012
Oct 18, 2012

Red Black Nonsense - "Dark Times"

Is it not trying times we live in? I’m typing a new edition of Red Black Nonsense after weeks in absentia and I’m constantly hitting the ctrl+s keys for one reason and one reason only; these are “dark times”. Companies either have no money to spend, or are too scared to spend; the value of the dalasi is on a downhill slope; NAWEC is on the usual; GAMTEL inherited the black cat that went into the NAWEC generator; beggars have multiplied in a month; Price for petrol has increased twice in 2 months; some crazed killers killed 3 people in one weekend; a Gambian got shot in The United States; yet shouldn’t we be happy for the fact that one good thing has happened for all of us recently...the start of a new tourist season!

Ok, so to be absolutely honest, I receive this year’s tourist season with mixed emotions.

Oct 05, 2012

Ode To The Black Woman

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.

Sep 21, 2012

The Silent Reminder

 

‘Leave not for tomorrow what you can do today’