“The world never sees us as Wollof, Mandinka, Jola, Serahule, Fula, Manjago, etc. It sees us as primitive Africans that cannot manufacture a bicycle tire, but very easy folks to divide and manipulate…”
Our tiny sliver of real estate is called a country because it gained independence. Otherwise, it would have been, at least for now, a brothel for sex-tourism, drug transiting, and cut-throat corruption.
Why? Because a majority of our people is far below the critical thinking levels of most citizens of other countries. To be exact, Gambia performed better than only five countries out of a hundred and ninety-nine in the global IQ Index.
What else does low IQ or glorified ignorance bring besides poverty, backwardness, and extreme hardship even for the few that are intelligent and wise? Tribalism! Ethnocentricism! Division! Cronyism! Hate! Etc. And doesn’t poor Gambia have all these?
See, when intelligent or great minds meet, they discuss great ideas. When low IQ, ignorant, and narrow-minded folks meet, they discuss tribe (better-than-them notion), hate (don’t like them disposition), or superstition (our marabout, our shrine, our Sereign, our three-legged horse, our great luck wand, etc).
As we put this together, imagine what is happening at Apple or Samsung right now! Or what Toyota and Honda are thinking of! Or what tech giants are doing with even the tiniest data from your smartphone to cater to marketable algorithms!
A tribalist dim-wit doesn’t like to think, especially in the abstract. He doesn’t even understand the present let alone prepare solutions for future challenges. And guess what’s so disheartening? The rest of the world treats both the tribalist and intelligent ones among us like peasants or savages!
To Any Journalist, Artist, or Public Figure!
It’s often very unwise to mention a particular group during a broadcast, especially in a negative observation. Unlike a teacher, nurse, or driver, you completely depend on the crowd. You need as many people as possible!
A media house was boycotted few years ago by Gambians because it offended a section. It kept denying the consequences when we all knew. Today, it has lost considerably!
Gambians in the Eyes of the Rest of the World:
The world never sees us as Wollof, Mandinka, Jola, Serahule, Fula, Manjago, etc. It sees us as primitive Africans that cannot manufacture a bicycle tire, but very easy folks to divide and manipulate.
To address tribalism, our media houses need to admit it has been a serious problem. Then bring people of different tribes on one platform to discuss solutions openly.
Denial isn’t helping us at all. We really thank all those Gambians that intermarry and continue to do so. Marrying a different tribe helps against genetic diseases.
A Recurring Theme:
Why is it that whenever some non-Mandinka Gambian fails a goal, he often resorts to blaming Mandinkas? You want some anecdotes?
- Yahya Jammeh and his frustrations with the Mandinkas.
- Adama Barrow blaming his loss in “all Mandinka territories” on Mandinkas!
- Now a young artist with very little experience of this cruel world blaming Mandinkas in a career suicide?
- Just recently, a Gambian hiding under a pseudo-name attacked forgambia, Kerr Fatou, Mengbe Kering, and former Daily Observer of Mandinka bias.
- He said these folks made it due to Mandinka and Brikama connections. Forgambia was founded by a Jola from Brikama. But in the eyes of this particular hater, everyone in Brikama is Mandinka, perhaps.