Right now the country seems thrown apart: its social, economic and political views run the gamut, from titillating partisans of Jolacracy (APRC) to sympathizers with human right activists and Diaspora Gambians.
Unlike some Diaspora Gambians, I do not vouch for any political party; not that I am a knee-jerk anti-politics, but I wish not to play chess in the dark. The manner and period under which the current government comes and stays in power have taught Gambians bittersweet lessons.
In his dystopian novel - Animal Farm -, George Orwell shows us how important it is to have passion when attempting to make things right and to revolutionize the world, and went further to caution us about how passion can lead to destruction especially when we assume a leadership role.
This is a cautionary tale, which draws my ire to believe that the journey to democracy and good governance in The Gambia is neither by revolution nor insurrection – though a contrary opinion held by some Gambians.
The book - Animal Farm - x-rays how the pigs (figuratively the people who assume leadership after a rebellion) betray the principles of the revolution over and over again. Yet no betrayal is quite as poignant as what happens after Boxer’s lung collapses. Squealer tells everyone that Boxer is going to be taken to a veterinary hospital in Willingdon for surgery.
When the animals go to see Boxer off, Benjamin the donkey appears and starts crying that they are all idiots. He reads the side of the van to them: "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler" (9.19). All of the animals shout to Boxer that he must kick his way out, and he tries, but old and weak as he is, he cannot.
Though the betrayal of Boxer might be a bit akin to the episode of the alleged prison van that was transporting Daba Marenah and inmates to the Janjanbureh’s prison, but it might be as well seen as a brief allegory within an allegory for Jammehism as a whole.
As the van rapidly moves down the road with Boxer trapped inside, one can’t help but think of so many victims of the Jammeh’s regime that were made to disappear or were sent to Mile II.
Anyone with a seminal understanding of George Orwell's political ideals and written pieces could find similarities between his books, especially ‘Animal Farm’ and the governing practises of modern nations that have undergone insurrection or military revolution, which The Gambia is no exception.
The July 22nd revolution has long been betrayed and the fence is devouring the crops it is meant to protect. By means of metaphor, I mean Jammeh’s government is supposedly the fence and Gambians in general are the crops.
The journey that betrayed the masses in a country with demographically young people and put the July 22nd revolution in the lexicon of political quagmire started when Jammeh resorted to getting rid off the Alpha boys who helped in the successful execution of the 1994 coup.
This automatically grants him the opportunity to rule the country like a medieval fiefdom. 'Treason’ and ‘sedition’, with which Jammeh uses to eliminate his antagonists and solidified his political base, find expressions in Animal Farm.
Consequently, this de facto has resulted to ruffling feathers in international gatherings as seen in the Raleigh (North Caroline, USA) May 19 conference. To many, Jammeh’s prompt use of ‘sedition’ and ‘treason’ is a vendetta that can be viewed but as a salad of lame excuses concocted by his regime to bring down his arch-nemeses. It seems Orwell shows it all coming.
However, this political counterbalance offers commentary on the development of class tyranny and the human tendency to maintain and re-establish class structures even in societies that allegedly stand for total equality.
All this didn’t go without illustrating how people that are initially unified in the face of a common enemy might become internally divided when that enemy is eliminated and power is bestowed on one character. I hope a Rambo departure of Jammeh and his government will not result in a situation like this!
The political corridor, which some pseudo-politicians and Diaspora activists wish to see transpire in a country of 1.8 million, is in itself tantamount to democratic suicide.
For quite a while now, my mind has been preoccupied by the dreadful vision of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, especially whenever I read articles and listen to people’s view about the odyssey of power struggle in our land. Some people wish to see president Jammeh relinquishes power, others are advocating for either a revolution or a rebellion and only a few are offering the panacea to the plights of the average Gambian.
As an independent thinker, the more I dig deep into Animal Farm, the more I view these calls as delusional and unfitting in a country where a revolution is still under betrayal and the masses continue to wallow in abject poverty, ignorance and intellectual exploitation.
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Until recently, only few victims of the 22nd July revolution suggested some elixir of the current status quo. One such people who pointed out the hubris and speak truths that are not known, is Burama Jammeh; in a magnum opus titled: “The neutral brokers’ – Diaspora Gambians.” I do not know him, neither have I ever met him, but I salute his political and emotional maturity.
“Many of us are with the notion that Yahya is singlehandedly the sole problem. No he is not. Certainly he is one bad guy (Darth Vader) in our history but so too anyone of us will be with the current environment. Our problem created Yahya and if we did not stand our grounds quickly we can expect many more Yahyas in the very near future,” he indisputably explained.
To think about some people who offer the metaphor to remove Jammeh from power as future presidents of our beloved country, is to reach for my pillow during my insomnia moment beside my Swedish princess and under it only to find a copy of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
In his piece, Burama Jammeh literally (perhaps unintentional to Animal Farm) interpreted the message Animal Farm tries to communicate to the world: “However, even if we remove and replace Yahya that is not the same as democracy in [The] Gambia, at best it will be the better of two devils.”
As a result, I believe the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know.
To accurately reflect the varying grotesques of chaotic revolutions around the world, I have since come to understand that only a velvet revolution such as the one carried out in Czechoslovakia two year after I was born, can likely help restore democracy and the rule of law in a country where one man does and says what he wants as if the land was bequeathed to him by his forefathers.
As Gambians, our minds should be perfectly attuned to a common passion and live by the strictures we set for others; otherwise Gambanimal Farm will be in the making.
God bless the struggle!
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