"While the difficulty of discussing tribal politics is understandable, in Gambia, this is wrongly predicated on the assumption that it can instigate a tribal warfare in the country. It is possible, yet highly unlikely; moreover, this is not borne out by historical evidences. On the contrary, addressing tribal biases before they escalate out of control has proven to be an effective antidote to the possible conflicts and social strives tribal bigotry can cause."

By Mathew K Jallow

It is a common strategy dictators have used to prolong their stay in power. But it is divisive. And it has a corrosive effect on the fabric of any society where it is practiced. Sectarian politics which in The Gambia is exemplified by the tribal politics introduced by Yahya Jammeh is based, not on any ideological beliefs which transcend culture and other narrowly defined social boundaries, but on the exploitation of the worst of the human instincts. Liberia’s Samuel Doe practiced it for years before his gruesome slaughter. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein used it to bring about the gory bloodbaths on innocent Kurds and the Shi’a population before his public execution. Libya’s Moumar Khadafy swore by it and used it effectively to suppress dissent only later to be dragged out of a rat-infested sewerage hole and shot in the head. And Adolf Hitler practiced it with senseless brutality to devastating effect before the advance of the allied forces forced his suicide. Artificial divisions based on religion, tribe, race or other agenda driven differentiations, apart from developing into power struggles, tend to always mature into political conflicts which bring out the worst reptilian nature of the human character.

Today, it is with considerable alarm that we witness how The Gambia is spiraling out of control into a worrisome state of affair where tribal bigotry and tribal preference is entrenched into the Gambia’s body politics as an overarching policy objective of the Yahya Jammeh regime. And as sensitive and as exceedingly difficult as it is to talk about, and even harder yet to accept, tribalism under Yahya Jammeh has taken on a whole new meaning. Granted, most Gambians choose to ignore its existence precisely because it deals with human emotions that have the potential to flare up into conflicts, nonetheless it is alive and well in The Gambia; slowly tearing apart millennia of social cohesiveness across tribe and geographic origin in a most insidious way imaginable. While the difficulty of discussing tribal politics is understandable, in Gambia, this is wrongly predicated on the assumption that it can instigate a tribal warfare in the country. It is possible, yet highly unlikely; moreover, this is not borne out by historical evidences. On the contrary, addressing tribal biases before they escalate out of control has proven to be an effective antidote to the possible conflicts and social strives tribal bigotry can cause. But pretending that tribalism does not exist in The Gambia, is what may in reality present an existential threat to Gambia’s future political stability.

Clearly, Yahya Jammeh has over the past decade deployed an unseemly policy objective that has seen the systemic purging and abdication of non-Jola Gambians from most senior position within civil service; replacing them in short order with Jolas who possess neither the education nor the intellectual capacity to man those positions. And if this does not constitute criminally corrupt practices, then nothing else does. Moreover, in our lifetimes we witnessed many human tragedies of the day; from Syria, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Iraq to name just a few, all of which arose from the kinds of disaffections Yahya Jammeh is by sheer negligence causing in our until recently peaceful country. The bigotry he introduced in The Gambia is truly alarming in its divisiveness and moral bankruptcy, with potential for unintended consequences that can be ruinous to a country that has historically prided itself in its harmony and tribal cohesiveness. There are plenty of life lessons to learn from so history does not repeat itself in our country, but Yahya Jammeh’s intoxication with power, his pursuit of momentary gratification and his intellectual myopia, have blinded him to the consequences of his tribal bigotry, and precluded a reasonable chance to reverse the decade long decadence and moral corrupt that is causing material deprivation and psychological traumas among Gambians.

And now, having tasted power, Yahya Jammeh has no appetite to relinquish it, and coming from a minority tribe lacking numerical advantage to keep him in power, he devised many brutal and corrupt ways to perpetuate his rule. This is the origin of his distrust of non-Jola Gambians, a fact that has conclusively been established. The driving force of Yahya Jammeh’s tribal politics and examples of his irrefutable Jola bias is evident everywhere one looks; in the civil service, parastatals, foreign missions, and government projects among others. In a country with seven major tribal groups, the probability that the heads of the NIA, the police and the military will belong to the same tribe that comprises only seven percent of the total population, is a big zero. But this degree of probability becomes impossible to fathom considering also that nearly all the heads of government institutions and parastatals are Jolas. This kind of chance does not happen naturally. Consequently, the overwhelming occupancy of senior government positions by Jolas is a bias construction by Yahya Jammeh, a man who chooses to marginalize Gambia’s other tribes in order to exclusively benefit his fellow Jola tribesmen.

The argument that we ought not to talk about Jolas in our indictment of Yahya Jammeh’s divisive politics because he killed and incarcerated Jolas, and most of the twenty Gambians who have disappeared following their arrests in 2005 by the NIA are Jolas, is without merit. Yahya Jammeh’s destabilizing biases and promotions of Jola interests and his brutalization of Jolas who do not succumb to power and bigotry are not mutually exclusive. In other words, because Yahya Jammeh promotes Jola biases does not mean he cannot also murder Jolas. The two can happen simultaneously and if the atrocities he committed against Jolas can be echoed, it stands to reason that there is an obligation to highlight his overwhelming bias towards and exclusive promotions of Jola interests. Yahya Jammeh has created the tyranny of the Jola minority, a new phenomenon the Gambia has grappled with for the past decade. But the idea that Yahya Jammeh is doing this to avenge the way Jolas were treated under the previous government is on its face ridiculous. Because the Jolas who worked as maids were from Casamance, our government owed them no responsibility of employment as it does to a citizen. The Gambian Jolas were treated like everyone else and did not become maids in Gambian households, instead, they went to school and got their education and the same opportunities the rest of us had. So that argument is lame and stupid.

Finally, by his policies and bigotry, Yahya Jammeh has engineered a new culture of militarizing many Jolas on both side of the Gambian border. Beyond that, Yahya Jammeh’s policies are stunting the intellectual and economic development of many Jolas by steering them towards the military and other security services, rather than promoting their development in other areas of endeavor. And although the Jolas are disproportionately benefiting from government provided overseas education, their limited population means they cannot overwhelm the sheer numbers of the other tribes. But if Yahya Jammeh’s bigotry is not enough, a new mindset that sees the Jolas' role as Yahya Jammeh’s protectors is being cultivated by Yahya Jammeh. This brainwashing is not limited to the Jolas in the military and security services alone, but affects the way many Jolas perceive themselves in Gambian society today. This misplaced tribal obligation was exemplified by a blanket ban of opposition party campaigns throughout the Fonis. This is the manifestation of a new Jola militancy that is seen as dangerous to the future stability of the country. If it is not painfully hurtful to be banned from parts of your country, then nothing else is. This social and political anomaly in our country, could not be written in a simpler way for all the young Jolas to understand so they can be empowered to resist falling into Yahya Jammeh’s divisiveness. But not only is Yahya Jammeh militarizing the Jolas, indication is he is also Jolanizing the military. For now, once again, below is the list of the Jola cabal that is now running the country, however, it is far from a complete, viz:

Yahya Jammeh, President and Minister of Defense (Jola)
Fatim Badgie, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, (Jola)
Ousman Sonko, Minister of the Interior,(Jola)
Pierre Tamba, Minister of Local Government and Lands, (Jola)
Abdou Kolley, Minister of Trade, Integration and Employment, (Jola)
Ousman Jammeh, Secretary General Civil Service (Jola) (recently imprisoned)
Harry Sambou, Permanent Secretary, President’s Office (Jola)
Yankuba Kolley, Mayor, Kanifing Municipal Council (Jola)
Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Majority Leader, National Assembly (Jola)
Nfarama Jatta, Governor, Central Bank of The Gambia (Jola)
Abdoulie Bojang, Speaker, Gambia National Assembly (Jola)
Paharry Jammeh, Solicitor General (Yahya Jammeh’s cousin) Jola
Ben Jammeh, Director General, NDEA (Yahya Jammeh’s cousin) Jola
Numo Kujabi, Director General, National Intelligence Agency (Jola)
Yankuba Sonko, Inspector General of Police (Jola)
Buba Sagnia, Director General, Gambia Immigration Department (Jola)
Muhammed L Gibba, Managing Director, Gambia Ports Authority (Jola)
Nfansu Bojang, Director General, Civil Aviation Authority (Jola)
Mr. Lamin Gibba, Managing Director SSHFC (Jola)
Mr. Tamsir Badgie, Snr. Poject Manager, SSHFC (Jola)
Brigadier General Ousman Badjie, Deputy Chief of Defense Staff (Jola)
Ratatouille DK Sanneh, first and only female Army General (Jola)

Momodou Sanyang, Managing Director, GRTS (Jola)