By Momodou Ndow

Momodou Ndow

Alcohol is probably the most ancient and widespread psychoactive substance in the world. It is a naturally occurring substance wherever free-floating carbohydrates are available and thus is widely known and used. Clearly, there are alcohol uses related to health, nutrition, entertainment, religion, and a variety of other social activities. Alcohol has for centuries played a prominent role in the social and religious life of African societies south of the Sahara. As early as the eleventh century A.D., Al-Bakri (The Andalusian Muslim geographer and historian) described offerings of alcoholic drinks in royal funeral rites in the kingdom of Ghana. It is clear from the dotted references that alcohol pervaded the African continent, and the consumption, exchange, or offering of alcoholic beverages was often a central element in the ritual life of communities. Before the latter part of the nineteenth century, distillation was largely unknown and imported distilled drinks were confined to a few areas; but virtually every community produced one or more types of fermented drinks from grain, fruits, honey, palm sap or sugar cane.

Indigenous alcohol and rituals – Origins of Palm Wine and its ritual use

Among all the fermented drinks in West Africa palm wine was the most popular. The origins of the use of palm wine in the Gold Coast is masked in myth and mystery, but an examination of these myths shed light on the perception of alcohol as the locus of sacred power and early concerns about the potential profaning of this fluid through substantive abuse. Carl Christian Reindorf recorded two oral anecdotes on the origin of palm wine.

The Fante king had a celebrated hunter called Ansa, who went hunting for him. Ansa had a dog which accompanied him on hunting and scouting excursions. It happened that in one of his hunting excursions, he found a palm-tree which had been knocked down by an elephant, and a hole made in the trunk of the tree by its foot. It seems that the sagacious animal had long known the secret of tapping the palm-tree, and had long enjoyed the delicious but intoxicating sap that it yielded. The hunter, perceiving some sap oozing freely from the orifice made by the elephant, was half inclined to taste it, but fearing that it might be poisonous gave some to his dog, who seemed to relish it greatly. Finding that his dog took a liking to this new liquor, the following morning he drank so freely of the sap of the palm-tree that he got fairly intoxicated.

Ansa soon found the best way of tapping the tree and took a pot to the king. The king liked the taste so much that he overindulged, got drunk, and fell into a deep sleep. The king’s people, failing to arouse him, concluded he had been poisoned by Ansa. Ansa was apprehended and beheaded and since then, the sap of the palm tree received the name of Ansa which is corrupted into “nsa”.

Reindorf records another anecdote of the origin of palm wine. Wirempong Ampong, a hunter of Chief Akaro Fireampong of Abadwiren, with his dog discovered split palm trees on the ground. Again the juice was offered to the dog first and the liquid found to be harmless. The hunter gave some of the palm wine to chief Firampong, who in turn introduced his friend Anti Kyei of Akrokyere into drinking palm wine. Then Anti Kyei over indulged and died as a consequence. To prevent blood shed, as a result of the desire of Anti Kyei’s friends to take revenge, Firampong committed suicide.

Mythical explanation of the origin of indigenous alcohol, as Luc de Heusch has illustrated in his central African study, can, sometimes, shed light on the peoples world view. The Akan myths may implicitly shed light on how palm wine, and later European liquor, came to occupy such central roles in the religious life of Akans and the other ethnic groups of the southern Gold Coast. The early Akan users of palm wine were baffled by its intoxicating quality. In two of the myths on the origin of palm wine, the king and his high priest fell into drunken sleep assumed to be dead. Their recovery amazed their followers: almost “ a return from the dead.” Then alcohol, in the Akan context, was often used in rituals involving the ancestors- for example, when new members were added to the family or when ancestral lands were leased. It is possible that the intoxicating quality of alcohol, enacted in the myths of palm wine in an almost miraculous “return from the dead,” lay its choice as a medium of communication between the living and the dead. That palm wine was discovered by a hunter underscored its spiritual connection. Within most African societies, hunters, in their intimacy with nature, were seen as maintaining close connections with the supernatural world.

An early desire to guard palm wine against abuse is discernible in the myth. In both versions it is not mentioned if the king or Anti Kyei drank with anybody, so it may be safe to conclude that they drank alone. Also, in all the traditions of the origins of palm wine, tragedy (death) resulted. Akans frowned on solitary drinking. It was seen as a sign of a troubled person. Communal drinking was the norm, and solitary drinking was perceived as an antisocial act. In the several Akan traditions about the origin of palm wine, excessive solitary drinking resulted in tragedy. The emphasis on tragedy was reflected in a real-life ambivalence towards alcohol. Although alcohol was central to all important ceremonies like rites of passages and festivals, its use was always public and communal and was circumscribed by rules and regulations.

Social Drinking

It is in the less ritualized social drinking that one sees the connection between alcohol, generosity, patronage, wealth, and power. The powerful saw possession and use of abundant palm wine as an index of wealth. As male elders had control over land and labor, they had more access to palm wine. In fact, by having palm wine available at all times in the house, an elder displayed his control over land and labor – that is, political power and wealth. Although young men tapped palm wine, they did not control its consumption. Taboos banned women from working on economically important palm trees. Royal largesse and power were reflected in the generous distribution of alcohol to all and sundry. A certain amount of palm wine was made available at the palace for visitors. This generosity was a strong expression of a king’s magnanimity and reinforces his standing among his people. To assist a chief or king in meeting these commitments, it appears that palm wine tappers were required to provide the chief or king a pot of palm wine daily for entertaining their guests. But royal favor was also expressed by gift of alcoholic drinks to the favored.

Trade and Social change

The link between alcohol, wealth, and power had previously privileged male elders with their control over land and labor. From the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth century, expanding economic opportunities spawned by cash-crop cultivation, land sales, wage-labor, and commerce, dissolved the ties that bound some young men to the land and elder kinsmen. Indeed, the very worldview which endorsed the ritual use of alcohol came under attack from Christian missionary influence as colonial rule was establishing itself. And Islam, which forbids the use of alcohol, was also continuing to spread, especially in West Africa. As trading brought new opportunities, especially in the nineteenth century, wealth and power was now based on commercial achievement, and the possession of land and pursuit of traditional office was no longer viewed as the basis of power. And young male migrants to coastal towns, elaborate patterns of social drinking came to represent their new found freedom. The numerous economic occupations that had sprung up around European commercial activity had afforded these young men an independent source of income, and their quest for power based on new-found wealth was expressed in the abuse of the very fluid they had been denied access by elders. Young men took advantage of the low cost of rum and gin to binge on alcohol – the fluid sacred to the elders.

Exogenous alcohol and restrictions

The consumption of indigenous alcoholic drinks in traditional settings is almost invariably described in positive terms in the scattered literature. African beers are described as drinks of low alcoholic content and high nutritional value that function – on both actual and symbolic levels – as lubricants for high integrated social systems. The low alcoholic content of these drinks, their high food value, the necessary seasonality of brewing, and the substantial time and labor required in their production supposedly ensured the absence of excessive and destructive drinking. In Robert Netting’s exemplary view of Kofyar society in Nigeria, drinking remained strictly controlled and never in any sense constituted a problem despite the pervasive presence of beer and substantial levels of consumption. In the nineteenth century alcohol began to gradually migrate from the home to the market. A world where alcohol had played vital ritual and social roles was now beginning to see alcohol in local markets. Nineteenth-century accounts of the Niger region show that local grain beer and palm wine were readily available from trading women and at markets.

The gradual expansion in the use of imported spirits in the nineteenth century marked the beginning of the process of the introduction of industrially produced alcoholic drinks that would accelerate rapidly during the century and especially after the Second World War. The flood of spirits soon began to cause disruption and human devastation, and that became a concern for temperance groups. Not only were European spirits stronger than fermented drinks, they were also much less perishable. African beer and palm wine would last no more than a few days, while gin and rum could last years. Prior to the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, African societies had apparently not developed the deep ambivalence that has long characterized Western attitudes towards alcohol. Drinking in Africa was strictly limited and essentially functional.

Rural and Urban

One of the ironies of the social history of colonialism in Africa is that European liquor, which was now a coveted fluid for rural elders, constituted one of the cheapest commodities in most costal trading towns. In the light of alcohol’s association with power and wealth, European liquor (rum and gin) represented one of the goods that young male migrants in coastal trading towns could usurp easily to express their new autonomy.

As urbanization grew as a result of increased European trading, the context in which alcohol was being used began to change. Palm wine maintained its ritual use in rural areas, but was no longer a sign of power and wealth. European liquor became a status symbol for young men in the urban areas and they formed their own social drinking clubs. The explosion of drinking clubs among young men in costal trading towns, and their excessive abuse of alcohol, would encourage a new, forceful form of temperance organization by coastal chiefs, elders and missionaries. With alcohol being a social lubricant, it quickly found its place in urban life as people connect and interact in the public and private space. Aside from the private drinking clubs, bars were operated for the general drinking public to gather and socialize. While alcohol continued to maintain its ritual and ceremonial use in the rural areas for the most part, the drinking pattern among urbanized Africans was evolving. Studies have shown a connection between drinking and anxiety among urbanized Africans in response to economic insecurity. What was once a social lubricant was now turning into an urban social problem.

Era of Islam and European penetration

Islam’s steady advancement in West Africa and the dramatic success of revitalization movements in the eighteenth century led not only to decline in the use of alcohol among converts, but a broader re-evaluation of the meaning of alcohol. Perhaps more than any other outward aspect of behavior self-denial symbolized faithfulness to Islam. Some Muslims maintained some of the rituals in which alcohol was used, but replaced alcohol with water. For example, water is now used by Muslims to pour on the ground and stepped over to chase away evil spirits, especially, when one is embarking on a journey. In 1867 when Kabaka Mutesu of Buganda, came under the influence of Muslim advisers, he began to fast during Ramadan and stopped drinking; and even when that influence ceased, he apparently continued to abstain. In the interior of West Africa, visitors’ descriptions of the absence or nature of alcohol rituals suggest some of the contours of Islam’s frontiers. In 1830 when the Lander brothers traveled along the Niger River they repeatedly moved in and out of the realm of abstinence. In the bigger towns local leaders offered kola, but in smaller villages the brothers received gifts of beer as well.

The Gambia is full of palm-trees, and I wonder which dog tasted the sap there first. In spite of Gambia being a predominantly Muslim society, alcohol is abundantly available. Banjul Breweries, a factory that manufactures beer and other soft drinks was opened in the mid-1970s. Its opening was initially opposed by some of the influential Muslim elders in Banjul because of the beer element, but the government at the time went ahead and gave the company license to operate regardless. Furthermore, Gambia is a tourist destination for some Europeans and that has contributed in permeating alcohol into the society even more. A good amount of hard liquor is imported every year for sale in the hotels, bars, restaurants and night clubs. Alcohol has always been used by the minority non-Muslim population too. Among the non-Muslim population, the Christians drink alcohol in some of their social gatherings. For them, alcohol is for social use rather than ritual use. They mainly drink commercial beer and other imported gins, spirits and rums, and less of the local palm wine and other locally home brewed alcohol (like fire water). A good collection of imported spirits to entertain guest is a sign of wealth and success in a sense.  On the other hand, palm wine is used both for consumption and for rituals purposes among the Jolas and Manjagos, some of whom still practice their indigenous religions. They use palm wine in their initiation rituals, burial rituals and wedding ceremonies. Even some of those who have converted to Christianity continue the ritual use of palm wine on certain occasions. The main purpose of the ritual use of palm wine is to bring spirits together.

In the past few decades, some of Gambia’s young Muslims have gradually picked up social drinking and the numbers have been steadily rising, both at home and in the Diaspora. For the Muslim drinkers, a good collection of expensive imported alcohol to entertain guests has also become their way of displaying wealth and success. This practice is very common among some of the educated who have adopted drinking and sometimes have their own drinking clubs too. When alcohol is abundant and readily available, there is bound to be abuse, and Gambia is no different. To my knowledge, there are no government or private programs for alcohol addiction treatment or education in Gambia, and I’m not sure if any other form of professional help is available either. If you are unlucky enough to become an alcoholic, you will probably stay an alcoholic, unless, there is divine intervention or family support. Personally, alcohol has never attracted my sensitive curiosity, and I have convinced myself that drinking it will not benefit me. I can search for the health and nutritional benefits of alcohol somewhere else, and I don’t need it as a social lubricant either.

From Globalization to Social Problem

Alcohol in Sub-Saharan Africa has historically been a medium for religious and political expression controlled by male elders. Over the past century and especially during the last few crisis-ridden decades, alcohol’s ceremonial role has been largely reduced. Rapid income separation and economic marginalization have spurred production and consumption of alcohol. In many localities, expanding supply has led to drinking patterns that impinge on general social welfare. Alcohol consumption and its consequent effects on health are on the rise all over Africa. Reports published by World Health Organization (WHO) have recorded some concerning trends. Despite average alcohol consumption per capita being only half of Europe’s (largely thanks to Africa’s many abstaining Muslims and Christians), the latest WHO report found  Africa to have the highest rate of binge drinking in the world at 25%. “It’s true that most people in Africa don’t drink for cultural, religious and economic reasons, but those who drink, drink a lot”, says Vladimir Poznyak, Coordinator of the Management of Substance Abuse unit at WHO.

In many western countries this would instinctively trigger the implementation of higher taxes on alcohol and better public education. But corporate influence is strong in much of Africa – a relative new market where many companies are hungry to capitalize on profitable expansion. And the prevalence of illegally produced local alcohol is further complicating the issue. These drinks are usually extremely potent, often dangerous, and occasionally lethal – many worry that increased taxation will simply drive more people to resort to these illicit concoctions.

Currently, alcohol is a taboo subject for donors and African government alike, yet it is at the center of many of the continent’s most pressing problems. Decline in the agricultural sector, high unemployment, household instability, and AIDS have also been linked to changing alcohol usage, especially in South Africa.  Over the last couple of years, legislation on alcohol use has picked up pace in Africa. Recently, South Africa proposed new laws to raise the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21, properly license taverns, restrict alcohol advertising, and get tougher on drunk-driving. Earlier in 2012, Zambia banned the sale of alcohol in cheap plastic packets. Meanwhile, back in 2010, a strict regulation known as the “Mututho law” was introduced in Kenya, prohibiting the sale of alcohol by grocery stores before 5pm. The Act has been credited with a drop in alcohol related deaths in Kenya by 90%. However, much has yet to be legislated across the continent. While most countries have set a minimum drinking age, enforcement is another matter altogether. Appropriate steps are being slowly taken, but much more needs to be done in terms of education and awareness.

By Ousainou Mbenga

Ousainou Mbenga

Against medical advice; we who still have brain cells to think, (as opposed to the willfully ignorant) know it’s a waste of time to subject Yaya Jammeh to psychiatric evaluation. We have long ago diagnosed Jammeh as psychopathic.

The real contention has been the appropriate medication to administer to relief Gambia of this diseased condition. “Diplomatic medication” is the wrong prescription. Diplomacy has its place, but not from a position of weakness. Those who know what POWER is have a different definition of diplomacy and its application. We, on the POWERLESS side, use powerless language and engage in powerless action.

When one is afflicted with tapeworms, diplomacy with the tapeworms may cost you your life. The only medication the tapeworms will respond to is a revolutionary purgative (Nandal) to get rid of them. There is only one medication for Jammeh’s condition; an open organized revolt to uproot the AFPRC – APRC!

In our determination to avert the corrosive legacy of a reactionary military regime from the annals of our history, the element of fear must become our national enemy. The fear of the consequences of one’s action leads to paralysis of the spirit and courage to resist. Nothing will ever change if the fear of consequences predominate one’s thoughts. Small risks yield SMALL GAINS; big risks yield BIG GAINS!

Long before the APRC ascended on to the bully pulpit of neo-colonialism, we contented that, there is no evidence yet in a Gambia that has zero tolerance for repression; that we will put up with anything. Are we going to tolerate another miserable thirty years under a thuggish military regime? To us who have come to recognize the necessity of our being, it is a resounding zero tolerance for militarism. We are resolute in our determination to abort all of Jammeh’s 20/20 intentions.

In order to move forward, we must understand this phenomenon; the element of fear. What is it in our cultural socialization that breeds meekness and submissive compliance, even in the face of the most repressive and horrendous assault on our democratic rights? What are the attributes of the element of fear?

In my view, all is rooted in our obscured colonial history out of which emerged ignorance and the confused knowledge of self. Ignorance of self and the hostile contempt towards our pre-colonial African past leaves us vulnerable to all the mechanisms of exploitation and repression designed to keep neocolonialist presidents like Jammeh in power.

In looking back on the past, this fear that has come to paralyze Gambian society during the Jammeh era makes me ask. Where did this bravery and courage (FIIT) of the 1960’s, known of Gambians fly to? Where ever this bravery and courage flew to; it must be brought back by any means necessary.  The deliberate retardation of our national consciousness must be overturned to repel the “fear mongering” that, confronting Jammeh can lead to “civil war” in the Gambia. There will be no “civil war” in our beloved Gambia! This is US against Jammeh and his gang of thugs. It is not a Jola, Wollof, Mandinka, Peul or an ethnic matter. Those who have nothing to offer, resort to the usage of their reptilian brains. We have internalized the lessons of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ruwanda and Burundi. Never again!!!

In the history of struggles of oppressed societies, the element of fear evaporates into thin air as soon a revolutionary movement emerges to champion the people’s aspirations for freedom. This is because; in the absence of a revolutionary movement, the element of fear can overwhelm the consciousness of the masses to such a degree that the state’s instruments of coercion and repression as in the police, army, prisons and jails strikes terror in the hearts of the vast majority of the people. All oppressive and exploitative states such as the AFPRC – APRC subsist on terror and abject brutality to perpetuate fear of the status quo.

In pre-revolutionary Guinea Bissau, the morbid fear of the forest was demolished with the emergence of the revolutionary party, PAIGC, under the exemplary leadership of Amilcar Cabral. The party further demolished the structures upon which fear, myths and backward traditions were cultivated. This morbid fear of the unknown justifies the convenient rationalization of our wretched existence as the will of God and that by the same God’s will, the oppressive conditions and oppressors will disappear.

To the de-colonized mind, it has long become evident that colonial education and ‘colonialist religions’ are the “opium of the masses”. It is within these two highly organized institutions that our minds have been chained to, the social effects of which penetrate deep into our social consciousness.

In an “emasculated class society” where one person, Yaya Jammeh determines who will enjoy any privileges, own a business and to even get employed, sycophancy and sucking – up across the spectrum of religious leaders, “intellectuals”, politicians, armed forces and bandit security forces is the ticket to the deformed  “bourgeois class” that exist in the Gambia.

With our growing national consciousness and the emergence of a revolutionary party armed with the theory and practice of African liberation to uproot the predatory – parasitic Jammeh regime and its impotent technocrats; the element of fear with all the factors that cultivated it will dissipate, out of which will dawn a new social consciousness.

The revolutionary party takes task with the work of political education (as oppose to civic education, which evokes a docile behavior of neocolonial citizens) to agitate the masses into action and organize our actions to transform Gambian society. There must be a willingness from the masses to struggle for liberation notwithstanding the consequences.

Finally, there must be crisis for revolution to occur and indeed, the whole African continent is rife with crises.

It will be the duty of the revolutionary party to heighten the crisis by involving the masses in the process of liberation by showing that, it is highly possible to challenge the neocolonial state and win.

A revolutionary party represents a spark and the masses a powder keg. It is in the unity of these two components that revolutionary parties strive to attain. It is upon the unity and struggle of the spark and the powder keg that the masses will be charged with the unshakable confidence and willingness to transform their wretched conditions. It is with political education under the leadership of the revolutionary party that the element of fear is transformed into its opposite; COURAGE. When one truly believe in a cause, it should be worthy of sacrifice. Fear has been getting into plenty of trouble in Africa, it has since moved out of Africa. The secret of life is to have no fear! Up the ante! We will win.

Dear Sir,

Secretary General Momodou Sabally

A lot of people, Gambians and friends of the Gambia, all around the world have taken keen interest in your new appointment as Secretary General and Minister of Presidential Affairs. Albeit your appointment as the most senior civil servant in the Gambia has generated a lot of interest, it is important to remove the grain from the chaff to avoid drawing inappropriate conclusions.

It will be an understatement to opine that the fundamental essence of history is to avail and arm us with lessons of successes and failures of both great and lesser men of yesteryears in order for us to avoid making similar mistakes. In an ideal situation in the Gambia I will not be writing you this letter. Our paths crossed at the University Extension Programme way back in 1997 up to our convocation in 2000. As we shared classes and many other forums, we got to know each other better. You earned the respect and admiration of many of us due to your academic excellence, charming sense of humour, trustworthiness, upright character and personality. It was owing to these reasons why you were unanimously entrusted with the mantle of student’s presidency. I must hasten to add as humans grow and progress most often than not change to adapt to their prevailing circumstances. However, there are some who will never compromise their integrity and self-esteem no matter their conditions. The way you carried yourself all these years made me conclude that you will strive to keep your integrity in check while executing your responsibilities without fear, favour or ill-will. Unfortunately, you are serving under an oppressive and dictatorial leadership who believes his way is the only exit route. He does not entertain a second or different opinion. As a result, many of your predecessors who dared to subscribe to a different view from his suffered both humiliating verbal and mental abuses from him. It goes without saying that you will be of no exception if you choose to contrast his opinion.

Your situation is a catch 22 with two choices: choosing the right path by executing your duties and responsibilities as you are sworn to do or hop in his wagon to rob the Gambia. Either choice embeds consequences. If you choose the honourable option of chasing the desire of upholding the principles of good governance, the rule of law, and running your offices in accordance with dictates of the national constitution you will go down in history as one of Gambia’s finest youngest Secretary General and Minister of Presidential Affairs who defies all odds of injustice and tyranny to put his national interest above his personal. You will be remembered for transforming a dictator into a democratic leader. Furthermore, your footprints will be indelibly crafted in the hearts and minds of all Gambians even for generations yet unborn. This of course you can achieve not through open antagonism and disobedience to the President. When Allah sent Musa (AWS) to Pharaoh, He cautioned Musa to speak to Pharaoh with humility. In other words, being humble, respectful, obedient and upright can earn you great returns. Changes can also be effectively attained from within and you can be that seed of change in Jammeh’s oppressive regime. You are now opportune by virtue of your position in government to help open the eyes of your colleagues to the sufferings of ordinary Gambians around you and together you can work to halt it.  In some quarters it is argued that the president is not aware of most of the injustices systematically perpetrated on vulnerable fellow citizens on a daily basis. If there is any iota of truth in this notion, you will do yourself and the nation a great service it you draw his attention to them. As a youth who still socializes with his mates, you might not miss some of the burning issues which often resurface in your rendezvous discussions. Experience is said to be the best tutor. As a note of caution, do not let yourself fall prey to temptation. Once you lose your hard earned respect and integrity, it will be very hard to regain it. A life without respect, integrity and self-esteem is worthless and liken to that of a beast of burden.

On the other hand, if you decide to collaborate with Jammeh to oppress and repress your fellow countrymen and women, you will go down in history as an intellectual who aided and abetted a brutal dictator who systematically harassed, intimidated, killed, tortured and unlawfully incarcerated his citizens. You will be remembered with utter disgust as a Secretary General and Minister of Presidential Affairs who prostituted the hopes and aspirations of his fellow citizens. I am of no doubt that Jammeh will try and test your firmness and integrity by tempting you with dazzling pleasures to caress your ego. If you fall for it, you will be compelled onwards to accomplish all his dirty jobs. Just like he did with your predecessors, he will dump you when he finds no use for you. When he does, how will you look at your colleagues in the eyes knowing that you have betrayed their hopes on you? Will you then be able to admonish the youth again on how to give their quota to state and country? The thread between right and wrong is very thin and slippery. It requires a lot of courage and strong will to balance oneself on the right path especially when you find yourself trekking on a volatile path. You have walked into a system whose leadership has eroded all institutions of good governance and the rule of law. To add insult to injury he has stained and destroyed anyone or thing that has the potential to revive democracy and rule of law under his administration such that all chances to changing his regime through a democratic system are absolutely slim.  This makes your task a herculean one. It entails cleaning all the mess created by Jammeh and your predecessors who shamelessly adulterated anything good in the Gambia. I am conscious of the fact that you find yourself between a concrete floor and a rock but with determination and a solid will power you can do amazing things for your country and fellow citizens.

Finally, ensure your safety by establishing mechanisms that will protect the safety of your person and integrity. Whatever you are doing or assigned by the President be guided by law and document all your dealings in and out of office for posterity. When the day of reckoning strikes you will be able to vindicate yourself. If you fail to do so, you will live to hate yourself and wishing to have done the right thing but it will be too late. I have no doubt you have the potentials and capability to measure up to your new role’s expectations.

While counting on you subscribing to doing the right thing, please accept my unflinching service to the Gambia.

Yours compatriot,

Sulayman Jeng, UK

By Sidi Sanneh

Sidi Sanneh: Gambia VAT is a mess

The devastatingly negative impact the value added tax (V.A.T) has had on the Gambian economy, coupled with apprehension and public outcry, mainly in blogs and online papers, has led the IMF and some agencies of Government to convene in Banjul to “discuss the VAT and its socio-economic condition of the people”, according to reports emanating from The Point newspaper. 

A postmortem became necessary barely six months of its introduction because, as I have said from the inception, the consultant who conducted the VAT study didn’t appear to have done a good job, assuming that his recommendations were what was being implemented by GRA [Gambia Revenue Authority] and the allied agencies.  Even if the recommendations of the Study, including the 15% rate were theoretically justified based on empirical evidence, the timing and the roll-out which was poorly handed would have guaranteed failure.

As part of ECOWAS’s efforts to harmonize regional trade policies among Member States, it is assumed that The Gambia bought into the program i.e. introduction of the VAT region-wise but phased over a period given the different prevailing economic circumstances that exist in the region.  For example, big economies like Nigeria’s introduced the VAT earlier, but not making adjustments to the overall tax structure to reduce the burden on citizens by reducing income tax rates by 5% to accommodate the new tax regime.  Jammeh promised the repeal of the sales tax in place of the new VAT.  Unfortunately, he failed to keep his promise to the people which contributed immensely to the current state of affairs.

Gambia’s payroll tax stands at 35% for businesses with turn-overs of a million dalasis and more, a sales tax rate of 15% and a VAT of another 15%, not to mention numerous other taxes and excises Gambians and businesses are subjected to, making Gambians one of the most taxed people on earth. This heavy tax burden in a country where 60% of the population live in abject poverty whose main source of income is derived from agriculture – a sector that continues to under-perform despite government’s claim that agriculture is its major preoccupation.

In his statement at yesterday’s meeting, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance said that ultimately government’s desire “is to lessen the burden of taxation on the policymakers, the business-people and the consumers.”  I find this statement to be not only scurrilous but presents a case of conflict of interest for the same policy makers responsible for tax policy to have as their primary interest to lessen their own tax burden.  At least, lessening the burden on policymakers should not have been listed as one of government objectives.  The primary objective of reducing the tax burden should be for business and consumers.  Policymakers are part and parcel of the latter category and should never be mentioned as a separate class.  It is out of place even in Yaya Jammeh’s Gambia.

The Commissioner for Domestic Taxes at the GRA at his turn at the podium expressed his view that “tax is very fundamental; [and that] it is the most important responsibilities they (businesses) need to discharge…”  He also solicited “constructive criticism” of the tax system in order to improve it.  Of course he is assuming that the reason d’etre of businesses is to pay taxes and nothing else, and that criticism of any kind is allowed under the regime he serves.  He’s , of course, wrong on both counts.  Businesses exit primarily to provide services in exchange for profits which they reinvest, in turn, to provide growth and employment.

Businessmen and women, for fear of reprisals from Jammeh and the very officials at the meeting, have been contacting anyone who will listen to them outside Gambia to put pressure on the Jammeh regime to reverse course on the VAT.  Even businesses aren’t allowed to express their views on how the private sector should operate.  Soliciting their views after the horses have bolted out of the staples is futile.  They should have been at the ECOWAS table when the regional trade harmonization policies were formulated.  Business men and women should have taken a lead role during the consultants presentation of the VAT implementation and their views taken into account, and seriously.  They should have been adequately trained, lead time provided and the purchase of points of sale (POS) cash registers should have been put out to tender rather than sole sourcing it to a single person who ended up pricing the machine out of reach to the business community.

The mishandling of the VAT has resulted in businesses fleeing The Gambia in droves to Senegal and neighboring countries. So when the IMF Country Representative spoke of the intricacies between VAT and business and investment, he was simply reminding officials that public policy is intricately linked to our lives and livelihoods and, therefore, requires public input.  Unfortunately, this regime lacks public policy expertise as well as openness – necessary requisites for success.

There are steps government can take to mitigate an impending disaster, especially as FAO is now projecting yet another food deficit year due to what amounts to government negligence in not making sure there is adequate drought-resistant seeds readily available to the farming community despite several warnings from FAO and other donors active in the agriculture sector.

1.  Government should seriously consider ditching the VAT altogether.  This action assumes that the current protocol will allow such an action.  If this action cannot be accommodated by existing protocols, suspending implementation will be in order until such time that an amicable resolution can be reached with ECOWAS.

2.  Maintain the VAT with immediate repeal of the sales tax.

3.  Reduce the income and/or payroll tax rates

Option 1 is the most desirable because of the immediate and negative impact it has had on the economy, and the mess it had created in implementing it with unscrupulous petty traders taking advantage of the situation by raising their prices of ineligible goods by 15% or more.

Inaction by government will accelerate the flight of businesses to Senegal and neighboring countries, further worsening an already desperate economic condition – a condition that could have been avoided if minimum level of competence was maintained by a regime that is also plagued by high level corruption – a combination that has proven deadly.

NJOKU’S SPIRITUAL BATTLE ENDS IN A STALEMATE 

The removal of Dr. Njogu Bah as both the Secretary General and Minister of Petroleum has perhaps sealed the purported spiritual battle chapter in the Gaambia’s highest office.

Kibaaro News was informed about how the disgraced former Secretary General had plotted to get rid of Saihou Gassama as the Cabinet Secretary at State House. “Dr Njogu Bah put spanners to work after sensing that Mr. Gassama’s capabilities could earn him the Secretary General position,” a confidential source told reported.

Dr. Bah was reported to have bragged that “Mr. Gassama will know me.” Since both men hail from well-known marabout families, Mr. Bah’s statement insinuated the beginning of a spiritual battle. Gassama who was taken unawares soon lost the battle. He was sacked and detained at the National Intelligence Agency headquarters in Banjul before being allowed to walk out a free man. The fight resulted to the seizure of his cars.

Dr Njogu Bah saw the exit of Gassama as a victory and even bragged about it. The firing of Dr. Bah undoubtedly means the alleged spiritual battle ended in a stalemate. Unfolding developments in the coming days and months will determine who will emerge victorious. Kibaaro News will keep an eye on how Njogu Bah, President Jammeh’s once most trusted ally, will fare.

 NO FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN GAMBIAN PRISON SYSTEM

Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh

Mile 2: Home of Fear, Death & Hopelessness

Attendees at a human rights conference in London were left crestfallen upon hearing that not a single fire extinguisher exists at the Gambia’s entire prison system.

“A far greater fear for prisoners is the possibility of a fire,” the Gambia’s former Information Minister told a conference on the human rights situation in the Gambia jointly organized by Amnesty International and Bar Human Rights Committee.

“The electrical wiring was poorly done: cables were exposed everywhere and electrical sparks were common,” Dr. Amadou Janneh told his audience in Central London on Wednesday. “There was no fire extinguisher in the entire prison system,” Mr. Janneh said in his key note speech loaded with surprise.

“Prisoners complained about the various problems facing the inmate community, but the officers were more interested in tightening security and warehousing than anything else,” he said.

Dr. Janneh, who was imprisoned for a year and half, said “the Gambia’s prison system faces a massive health crisis. The number of prisoners contracting diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, pneumonia, and tuberculosis was on the increase. One of my co-defendants, Michael Uche Thomas, contracted both pneumonia and tuberculosis in March 2012 and died four months later,” he said, adding, “there is no viable medical facility within the prison, and the limited medical staff is untrained, inexperienced, and ill-equipped. Just a handful of patients are referred to the hospital in Banjul, where there is an acute shortage of drugs. Political prisoners generally have a harder time securing referrals.”

The Coordinator of the Coalition for Change Gambia added that “the mortality rate of prisoners is very high, but the information is closely guarded. Only cases involving prominent figures attract public attention. The extreme heat, poor sanitary environment, unhealthy diet, stress and mistreatment, were probable reasons for many deaths.”

Ends

YOU’RE A DICTATOR AND THE WORST OF ALL TIMES

Your Excellency,

As a young boy growing in the provinces, every evening especially during the harmatan season, all my siblings and friends who happened to visit at the time gather around a log of wood burning to keep us warm. During such gatherings exciting and chilling stories were usually narrated occasionally accompanied by singing and clapping to school us about living a respectful and meaningful life. Most of the characters of these stories were the wolf and the hare. Almost all the stories centred on these popular characters often depict betrayals, deceits, hatred, jealousy, love, kindness, righteousness, conscience, and self-esteem to recount but a few. Now and again we hear stories whose characters were humans.

Of all the stories I heard, the one which stood prominent still in my mind is that of a very beautiful woman married to a humble hunter who had leprosy. At the beginning, the relationship was not only mutual but it was erected on the bedrock of sincere appreciation of each other’s way of life. The hunter pampered his beauty queen with undefiled love, tokens and his best catch on a daily basis. It got to a certain level that he believed that the love of his life will never abandon him for another man. He not only kissed the ground she walked on but also showered her with undivided attention, care, love and gifts. Every evening, the hunter’s griot will come with his musical instrument to sing song of valour and praise of the hunter and his ancestors. The griot also coined a special song for the hunter’s wife. In return, she also ensured that the wounds of her knight in shining armour are well looked after. She cleansed and medicated them daily. She reciprocated his love in equal measures until one fateful day when her path crossed with a charming prince. With a blink of an eye, the beauty queen was swept off her feet by the prince. She made up her mind to go with him but first she had to say farewell to the hunter. As soon as the hunter arrived home, she changed her face. She responded to his greetings with a cold and insolent one. The hunter was startled by her cold reception and started regurgitating what he might have said or done to her before he went hunting to warrant her passive attitude. All of a sudden she was rude and impatient with him. She snapped at him all day. When it was time to cleanse the hunter’s leprosy wounds, she mixed soda and warm water to clean the wounds. She also used thorny sponge to clean his wounds. She lacerated his sored hands and feet further and rinsed it with the soda water. The hunter was distraught to the marrow. As he wallowed in agony, she hopped on the prince’s horse and rode away with him leaving the poor hunter to die a slow and painful dead.  At the prince’s kingdom, the beautiful lady realised the pasture was not greener on the other side. Her hopes and dreams were thwarted. With a heavy broken heart, she cried until she lost her eyesight. Blind and dejected, she was thrown out of the palace when the she was of no use to the prince. Lonely, blind, poor like a church mouse and no place to call home; she resorted to begging for her daily bread. After many years of hard ship, she entered a compound and started to beg. The hunter now healed and a prince recognised the voice of the woman.  The voice was very familiar but he did not recognise the woman. She was paled, blind and in rags. A closer look at her his heart leaped to his chest as it dawned on him that the poor woman he was looking at was his once beauty queen. He then asked his council of elders to be quiet for a moment. He also ordered the woman to be given shower and properly fed and comforted. Everyone around the courtyard including the servants and attendants were taken aback by their prince’s interest in the poor beggar. She was very grateful and touched by the kindness she was given. She started to cry violently as memories of how she was pampered by the hunter and the chilling betrayal she earned from the prince. The hunter comforted her until she calmed again. When she bid farewell, the hunter started to sing that special song the griot coined for her. When she heard the song, she stopped and said this is a song that was specially sung for me. It was at that time that the hunter revealed his true identity to her. Consumed by shame, she turned into an anthill were she was standing.

Your Excellency, what lessons do you learned from this hair-splitting anecdote? I can sum a couple for you: what goes around comes around, no one can avert the course of destiny, greed leads to self-destruction, and righteousness will always triumph. However, the central theme of the story is people who have self-esteem and conscience will always strive to avoid anything that will bring them shame. Such people prefer dead to shame. Unfortunately, you are not one of those who will choose dead instead of shame. That is precisely why you unashamedly admitted: “Yes, I am a dictator but…” You know more than anyone else who is a dictator. Therefore for you to stand and ask who is a dictator spells your shamelessness and lack of self-esteem. A dictator, Mr President, is a leader who imposes his will and authority on his people. He does not respect the laws of the land. Moreover, anyone who disagree in view with him is classified as unpatriotic, a traitor, a rebel and to borrow your own term a “cockroach”. A dictator is any leader who perceives and believes that he is the only one fit or destiny to lead. His personal wellbeing is the only thing that matters. He is the law, the court, executioner, and the provider. In a nutshell, he is everything and anyone else is nothing.

You see Your Excellency it is your conscience that is tormenting you. All those adjectives you said is what the west sees in an African whenever he or she stands are only in your deluded guilty mind. The mandinkas have wisely captured it in one of their sayings: an elder who stands in the dark, if no one sees him, he will see himself. Deep inside your dysfunctional mind, you are grilled by self-guilty in all your shady drugs and illegal arms dealings. How many of your African colleagues think like you about the west. To be quite honest, it is Gambians who are crying out loud against your chilling atrocities on them. Today, anyone who even says life is hard in the Gambia is arrested and fined D1000.00.  Where on earth Mr President is any citizen punished for just saying life is hard? Gambians are so scared of even mentioning your name. Is that what you call freedom of speech, Your Excellency? Certainly not, freedom of speech is where people are allowed to expression their views without fear of intimidation, harassment, torture and imprisonment. Freedom is where citizens witness the due process of the law taking its own course with interference. Anyone arrested by a law enforcing officers is informed of the reason for his arrest; he is accord a legal representative, and arranged before a competent court of law to be proven guilty or innocent. What do we see in the Gambia today, extra judicial killing, arbitrary arrests and detentions, disappearances and nerve-racking tortures? To sum it Mr President you are a dictator and the worst dictator of all times.

In the Gambia up to your advent into the political and executive leadership, drugs confiscated by the police were of small quantities and mainly marijuana. Cocaine and heroin were very rare. Can statistics speak the same about drugs in the Gambia today? Who is the major drug baron in the Gambia today? Yahya Abdul Azziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh is the major drug baron in the Gambia today. Mr President that is why whenever you stand amongst your colleagues you think everyone is seeing you as a dictator and drug dealer.

Furthermore, you are shamelessly claiming that you have done for Gambians in your 19 years of misrule more than what the British have done in their 400 years of colonial rule. If you are not a colonial master why always compare yourself with colonialists? Statistically, your 19 years of misrule has done more harm to Gambia and her people as opposed to the 400 years of British colonial rule. Even though the British were not elected representatives, they established institutions which witnessed the birth of the rule of law and democracy in the Gambia. Yes, they built only two hospitals but life was a lot better than compared to your era and dozens of white elephant hospitals. Drugs were available with qualified doctors and nurses. Do I have to bring to your attention that anyone who goes to any hospital or clinic in the Gambia is only given prescription to go and buy their medication? What use is a hospital that has no drugs or qualified and well trained doctors and nurses Mr President? The only hospital with drugs is the Jammeh foundation hospital and the private clinics. How many Gambians can afford treatments in such private hospitals and clinics Your Excellency? Besides, where does your mother get treatment? She comes to Belgium at the expense of the state anytime when she needs treatment. Is that what you feel is better for Gambians? Hell no.

When it comes to education, you even admitted education then was far better and meaningful than it is today. How many young Gambians finished their Grade 12 and cannot write simple and proper English or solve simple algebra? You can do yourself a great favour and stop caressing your bloated self-ego. It is only putting you on the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. You steal, you lie, you fornicate, you kill, you rob, you maimed, you torture, you kidnap, you are disrespectful and a hypocrite. Dismissing people and demoting officers is not the answer to Gambia’s problems. You are Gambia’s main thorn in the flesh. If you do not want to be seen or called a dictator and a drug dealer then do the right thing. Allow freedom of speech to prevail in the Gambia by reopening all the private media houses you closed even though the speaker of the house believes it is unjustified an illegal to close those houses. Repeal all the draconian laws you established to muzzle Gambians such as economic crime and giving false information to a public officer laws. Allow all political parties to take part in the establishment of a free and fair independent electoral commission, give them equal access to the state own media, free all prisoners of conscience and let the rule of law reign. It is on then that you will cease to be seen as a dictator and a drug dealer.

While hoping that you will heed to reason, please accept my unflinching service to the Gambia.

Your truly patriotic Gambian,

Sulayman Jeng, UK