Posted here on 12/12/2013.
On 4 December, 2013, a member of the TANZANET GROUP posted this interview:
GRTS
broadcast the recent New African Magazine's Deputy Editor Kegin Jane's
exclusive interview with President Jammeh held in Banjul.Excerpts of the
interview.
Question:
To start with your decision to withdraw Gambia's membership from the
commonwealth is the story that everyone is talking about. Could you
explain the reason behind the rather surprise decision? And why now,
after 48 years of membership?
President
Jammeh: First of all, I want to welcome you to the Gambia and we are
proud when we see international magazines published by Africans and
other media houses owned by Africans. I have known New African Magazine
for a long time, I have been reading it since I was at school. I used to
read Africa now, West Africa, and New African.
Question: yes we have been going for 46 years?
President
Jammeh: You have come a long way. I know the other magazines have since
disappeared. Now regarding the so-called breaking news. It is not
supposed to be breaking news. The decision has been made primarily
because in the Gambia, we want to be very independent of anything that
has a vestige of colonialism, especially where the same old story goes,
in which one person decides for all of us and that is it. We believe
that we are better off being on our own than joining institutions that
tell us what to do and not what we want to do. So for 48 years of
independence, we have had enough of colonialism and Britain. They have
not taken us anywhere but backwards and we want to be free to be able to
be ourselves. We want to make sure that we remain true Gambians,
independent of all institutions that have anything to do with
colonialism.
Question:
But why now after all these years and right after your speech at the UN
General Assembly which received very negative media coverage?
President
Jammeh: I am surprised that people believe that you have to have a
problem with someone first before you decide to leave that person. I
don't think so. If I have a problem with somebody, I resolve the
problem. But what I am saying is that the commonwealth is still a
colonial institution and we have decided that we are not going to
subscribe to that anymore. It is not only commonwealth, I am saying we
are not going to be part of any institution or organization that has
that legacy of colonialism or that is a representation of colonial era
because colonialism brought us nothing but poverty, backwardness,
exploitation and slavery. Infact we cannot in today's age continue to be
associated with a country that was responsible for slavery in the first
place. And while the Jews have been compensated and other people are
being compensated, nobody is doing that for Africans.
We
have not even received an apology from Great Britain, which
orchestrated slavery in the first place, and then brought us
colonialism. Colonialism and slavery go together. However, under
colonialsm, Gambians were never trained to be scientists or doctors, and
I believe that there has not been any country in Africa where during
the colonial era they trained indigenous people to become either doctors
or scientists. Are we not human beings like anybody else?
Question:
Why do you reckon there is such a backlash against you and by
extension, the rule by African leaders by and large? Why do you feel the
West is still trying to hold back the advancement of Africa?
President
Jammeh: You are a journalist who has travelled the world. Now can you
tell me an African country that is well developed today, that can be
compared to Dubai or any middle eastern country, thanks to the West or
their former colonial master? My view here is if you follow others, you
can never lead. We Africans have been following others for a long time
and still keep following. That is why we are always backward. It is high
time we stop following others to be on our own. That is my message for
Africa. Africa's relationship with the West has seen Africa losing and
the West gaining and that will continue as long as we do not take a
stand, but for me and the Gambia, we are no longer going to follow
anybody else, but our religion, our culture and our beliefs. We need to
question and act on why Africa is the richest continent in terms of
mineral resources, but the poorest in terms of the bank balance.
Everyone knows the status quo and that the current relationship has not
benefited any African country but the Europeans. Now who are the
Europeans that they should always teach the Africans what to do? From
colonialism to now they think they are the gods of Africa, and that they
should continue to tell us what we should do. The Gambia is saying no
to that. And because you are not dancing to their tune, they will call
you a dictator.
Question: Following your decision to leave the commonwealth, should other African member states be following suit?
President
Jammeh: I think it is in our best interest to follow only what benefits
us. If you follow something that is keeping you backward, I don't think
you are being intelligent or doing a good service for your people.
Colonialism or neo-colonialism in any form should be kicked out of
Africa that is my belief but because it is not bringing us anything, but
disgrace, humiliation, and insult.
Question:
But your critics, Mr. President will come back to say why just the
commonwealth, which probably does not come with great economic benefits,
while you are part of other international organizations that the Gambia
relies on in terms of economic advancement. You surely do not see this
as the beginning of the Gambia or Africa standing on its own feet
without Western help of any kind?
President
Jammeh: Look, let me not be misconstrued. What I said is very clear. We
are against any institution of neo-colonialist nature. The Gambia will
not support any institution or be a member of any institution that is
neo-colonialist. That doesn't mean I am anti any international
organization. Not at all. The reason why we have left the commonwealth
is because it is not only a neo-colonialist institution, it is also an
institution that is not subject to elections. Indeed it is not subject
to change any time soon and it is an institution where one person is the
supreme life leader. What type of democracy is that? Do you understand?
Question: Don't you think the British will say you are only just getting at them?
President
Jammeh: If the British think that they own the commonwealth then that
is good reason for us to leave. Why would they think that they own the
commonwealth?
Question:
In terms of other institutions, there is the International Criminal
Court (ICC), which is now led by a Gambian woman who served under your
government, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda. What are your views on an institution
like that which has drawn a lot of criticisms from many Africans
including African governments and even the African Union?
President
Jammeh: The ICC as far as I am concerned is not a colonialist
institution. It came into being not long ago, may be less than ten years
ago if my memory serves me right. However, as we do with many other
international institutions, as we have done with the commonwealth, we,
Africans are fond of jumping into these institutions very quickly. We
become members at a stroke of a pen, ratify our allegiance first and
then read the test later and only then do we realize what we have got
ourselves into and usually it is too late. I have warned my colleagues
that we must be very careful about jumping into one bandwagon after the
other. We jump into every bus without knowing the destination. And when
the driver stops in hell and asks the Africans to drop off. We find
ourselves asking; why are we here?
We
have accepted everything created by the West without even questioning
anything. But coming back to the ICC and speaking as an African, not
just a Gambian and a Muslim, don't forget that the African continent
constitutes the largest block in the ICC and it is on the back of this
African bloc that the ICC rose to its feet very quickly. I made it very
clear from the outset that before we accept and make a resolution on the
ICC, we have to understand what it was for because we have burnt our
fingers on several occasions before. But everybody said the work of the
ICC is very clear. Then came the indictment of President Omar al-Bashir
of Sudan. Some African leaders were for and others were against the
indictment of a sitting African president without even informing the AU.
Who can indict a European president or Prime Minister without informing
the European Union? That was an insult. And they said the indictment
came as a result of the UN Security Council to which Africa is not a
permanent member. Be aware that there are two ways of getting somebody
to stand trial at the ICC, either by an individual country referring the
accused or the case may be filed by the Security Council. Now when I
hear my colleagues complain about the ICC, I feel ashamed because apart
from the case of President Bashir, all the other cases before the ICC
were referred by African governments themselves.
Do
you understand? For example the cases in Kenya, the case in Ivory Coast
of former President Laurent Gbagbo who was not arrested by the ICC but
by his own people, their own government and handed him over to the ICC.
As far as I know, there is not a single case apart from that of
President Bashir, which an African government didn't refer voluntarily
to the ICC.
Then
we turn around and say the ICC is racist and is targeting only
Africans. If it is only Africans, no one else referring cases to the
ICC, we cannot blame that court for trying only Africans. If Africa does
not want the ICC to treat African cases, then don't refer cases to the
ICC.
Question:
You don't therefore at all agree with the notion that the ICC targets
Africans because Africans actively chose to refer cases to the ICC out
of their own free will?
President
Jammeh: I do not agree and I will never agree to it, that the ICC
targets Africans. I have made it very clear that if we Africans have a
problem among ourselves, infact it is very shameful that instead of
being brave and putting it before the AU and letting our continental
body sort it out, we want to use international institutions to solve our
problems.
Question: So you must be very proud of Mrs. Fatou Bensouda for what she is doing at the ICC?
President
Jammeh: She is an international civil servant. I am proud because she
is an African woman. This was a post that initially was not meant for
Africans, but today if Africans head an international organisation, I
think we should work with the institution. I am not defending the ICC,
but I am defending the truth.
Question:
Turning to the Gambia, under your leadership, your country gets a lot
of bad press. Rarely do we read about the developmental changes that
have happened under your leadership. It is my first visit here and I
have learnt from ordinary people I have been speaking to on the streets
how a few years ago there was no university in the Gambia and there was
no television. What have you done since you came to power in 1994?
President
Jammeh: Yes a few years ago there was no university here. And that is
part of the reasons why we have left the commonwealth. The British were
here in the Gambia for 400 years and in that time they built only one
high school. Yes, for 400 years, the British built only one high school.
Then there were thirty years of socalled independence under President
Dawda Jawara whom Yaya Jammeh deposed in a bloodless coup in 1994 with
no university, no high school and yes the post independence government
never built a single high school, a single hospital in the 30 years it
was in power.
Do
you understand? Even the British high school called Armitage high
school was for the children of traditional rulers to appease them and
that was the only high school they built in 400 years of occupation. So
if one high school was built in 400 years how many years would it have
taken us to add a college or university? Nearly a billion years.
Therefore, when you listen to BBC saying we didn't tell anybody about
our decision to withdraw from the commonwealth. What they are saying is
that we should have taken permission from somebody after informing them
ahead of time and they would have advised us whether or not to withdraw
or not to leave the commonwealth. And it is not only about the Gambia.
They want every African government or leader to do the same. Consult the
West before doing anything. Well, that time is long past. We don't want
to be anybody's servant. Now they are telling everyone how the Gambia
was benefiting from the commonwealth, though they won't say how much.
But let me tell you the story about how much the Gambia was putting into
the commonwealth annually compared to what we got form the
commonwealth. It didn't balance.
If
I have to give say 8 million dollars annually to an institution that
belongs to both of us, and I get less than one million dollars back
annually who is benefiting and who is losing? And from now on we shall
do what is right according to our norms, culture and religion. And we
shall leave them to practice what is right according to their norms,
culture and religion.
Q | On
the issue of good governance, your political opponents and the Western
media say you are a dictator and you abuse human rights including
homosexual rights. Why should they say otherwise?
Oh
yes, I am a dictator of development, a dictator of progress, and a
dictator that will not be dictated to by outsiders. But in The Gambia I
am a servant of the people. We have come a long way, we still have a
long way to go, but we have depended only on God and other countries
that recognise that we are human beings and that we are an independent
and sovereign country.
And we shall not accept any British person
telling us what to do, or that homosexuality is a human right and
therefore we should legalise it here in The Gambia. Well, if they want
their countries to be led by homosexuals, that is their business, but
not in The Gambia. So if they think it is right, let them practise it
there, but not here in The Gambia, do you understand?
On
governance, when did Africans participate in elections in the colonial
era? It seems the idea of human rights, freedom and good governance
never applied to their colonial subjects.
Q | Your stance is sure to affect the level of international funding you get, do you realise that?
What funding? Now show me one African country that has developed today thanks to the West, tell me.
About
99% of the infrastructural projects here have been built from our own
national resources. Yes, we have built this infrastructure. We have
built this country from the Stone Age. If you look at The Gambia divided
into two by the River Gambia, the north bank of the river never had a
highway until we came into office. Today the north bank has the best
highway in the country. Let me tell you one thing, but I don’t know
whether I should tell you this.
Q | Yes please, do.
You
know that 75% of rural Gambia is electrified, and 90% of rural Gambia
has potable water. No, they will not want the world to hear about that.
Q | But
why so? You are increasingly accused of human rights violations, being
homophobic, and executing political opponents and journalists. We hear
more about these things, not about potable water and the electrification
of rural Gambia. We know bad news sells, but how do you react to such
strong sentiments?
Nobody is saying anything about
the Gambian people who were murdered by the murderers we executed. Now
if they have abolished the death penalty [in the West], that doesn’t
mean that they should impose it on The Gambia or the developing world.
They hanged people right here in Africa during the colonial era.
Do
you know that you will never read any history of Africa where the kings
ordered somebody to be hanged. The idea of the death penalty by hanging
was brought to Africa by the colonialists.
Before colonialism,
offenders paid in kind, there wasn’t anything like policing. The only
time somebody was killed was when different kingdoms fought against each
other. The idea of policing and prison was non-existent here in
Africa.
Now the colonialists who brought the harsh prison regimes want to lecture us about human rights.
What
could be more cruel than capturing Africans, packing them like sardines
in a boat, like cargo, and taking them for auctioning in America, and
then letting them live like dogs while working under harsh conditions
for the white man, for hundreds of years! And at the end of it all,
Africa does not get as much as an apology for the inhumanity and
suffering and the sheer trauma imposed on us by the USA and the European
slaving nations. After looting the whole continent and killing so many
people [they] still fail to give any apology whatsoever! How can they be
teachers of democracy and human rights to Africa?
But they will argue that, that was a long time ago. It was their ancestors who did it, not the current generation.
Q | Looking
ahead, in the next five years, what can Gambians expect, as there is
still a lot to do and achieve in terms of development in this country?
Five
years is a long time, in The Gambia we see changes, positive changes,
every three months. So I will tell you that if you come back to The
Gambia in one year’s time, you will see something different, you will
see more advancement. In the next five years we want The Gambia to be
one of the leading economies in the entire world, not only in Africa.
Yes, in five years we want to see a Gambia where only the most extreme
medical conditions are sent abroad for treatment, where the literacy
rate has improved tremendously, where we have more university students,
where education is free.
Q | That
is monumental for a country that is not so rich in natural resources.
In fact, some media reports say The Gambia’s success actually depends on
foreign aid, how do you react to that?
Those who
say The Gambia has been built on foreign aid, let them show you one
infrastructure here that was built with foreign aid. They have never
given me a respite, they have been attacking me all the time because of
my stance on important issues, which will never change, and then they go
ahead and report that The Gambia’s success story is due to foreign aid.
Foreign aid from which Western country?
We are not dependent on
foreign aid, and I don’t think if we were dependent on foreign aid for
our livelihood I would be taking the decisions I take. I wouldn’t be
able to follow this position of complete independence. I am fighting for
the dignity of the African wherever he or she is, and defending my
religious belief. If we are dependent on foreign aid, to be where we
are, let them tell the whole world who gave us that aid. Because the
West is shamelessly brave about taking credit for other people’s
efforts, let them tell us what they built for us in The Gambia for all
those years that they were here.
Q | It
is interesting that the country, as you say, is not dependent on
foreign aid at a time when much of Africa is so dependent on foreign aid
though.
I always tell my colleagues and even
Gambians that if anybody in Africa believes that the same colonialists
of old, will come and develop their countries, they are big fools. In
the case of The Gambia, they were here for 400 years and all they did
was to take away our resources.
They took and took from us, and
sold our land. The Gambia was much bigger than what it is today. It was a
land of great elephants. I bought a map of The Gambia published in 1578
and discovered that one of the main reasons why the British came here
was the trade in ivory. And then in 400 years of British occupation and
exploitation, the last elephant was shot in 1958. The hill is still
there on the River Gambia, they killed all the elephants and all the
rhinos in this country. They depleted our wildlife, and at the time of
independence The Gambia that used to be an elephant was handed over to
the natives in the form of a snake.
If you look at The Gambia
today, do you wonder why the map is in straight lines? For example, from
the edge of the River Gambia to the border with Senegal is 25 miles,
and you know why? It is because that was the range of their cannons.
So
you look at The Gambia today at any point, and measure the distance,
where the river meanders and twists and turns, you can see that they
used a calliper or whatever instrument to follow the river, but the
distance to the Senegalese border remains the same. Up to today the
British will not tell us what agreement led to the reduction of our
land, how we lost our land. So when we are talking about development and
they say “Oh, The Gambia is dependent on foreign aid”, I say foreign
aid from whom?
Q | The Gambia has unexploited oil resources, doesn’t it?
Of
course, that is why I don’t think that any African country can be told
it has no natural resources. In the Gambia we have minerals and oil
resources that we have not started exploiting. One of the crimes I am
supposed to have committed is to say we are not going to accept 5% from
our petroleum resources, and the rest going to the foreign oil companies
exploiting our resources.
But they tell me that other African
countries have accepted the 5%, and in fact they told me that no African
country, except three, get more than 3% from their minerals. So if
other African countries have accepted that ridiculously low percentage,
then you must be in the wrong not to accept the same ludicrous deal. To
me, any talk of 3% or 5% royalties to exploit our resources is an
insult.
So, they expect me to have diamonds in the Gambia and go
to my people and tell them, “Oh, don’t worry we are getting only 5% of
what God has given us, and a western company is getting 95%.” No, I
can’t say that. And so, this is the crime I am supposed to have
committed.
But if you look at Dubai in 1990 and the Dubai of today,
and the Qatar of today, both countries are completely changed. But look
at some of the oil-producing countries in Africa, I won’t name them,
it’s a sad story. The irony is that African countries are the richest in
mineral resources, but our citizens are the poorest in the world. This
state of affairs must change.
Q | So where do you lay the blame? Africans have so much yet so little.
I
will tell you a story. Somebody told me, “Oh, little Gambia I will give
you $400m a year, but that’s too much for a small country”. I said,
“Are you going to give it to me for free?” He said, “No of course, the
oil”. I said, “You want to exploit our oil, and you tell me that giving
us $400m a year is too much for The Gambia?”
The surveys already
carried out show that this country has maybe four or five billion
barrels of oil and they want to give us only $400m, by a calculation of
5% royalty, and even that they say is too much for The Gambia. And who
is he to tell us that?
The oil belongs to the Gambian people, but he
thought he was doing me a favour. I told him to go to hell. He didn’t
like it, but I told him that if he ever set his foot on Gambian soil
again, he would regret it.
Q | So
where do African solutions lie in terms of making sure that the
monetary value of these natural resources remains with Africans,
ordinary Africans in particular?
With regards to
natural resources, the solution lies in African leadership. There are
some leaders who really fight for their people, but there are also those
who just say yes sir, yes sir to foreign powers. These are the type of
leaders we never hear being criticised by the Western media. These are
their people! And they come to preach to us about democracy. Democracy,
is it a 21st-century invention? No, it’s not! You come from Zambia,
don’t you?
Yes, I come from Zambia, the copper rich country.
When
I was in Form 5, our geography lessons talked about copper in Zambia
and our Sierra Leonean teacher, Mr Camara, would tell us how the copper
in Zambia was one of the most expensive metals in the world. And since
then, up to today, Zambia has been the largest producer of copper in
Africa, but is there much to show for it?
Q | You talked about the royalties being 3% to 5%.
Yes,
and I know, that tells a lot. But as a leader, you have to be brave
enough to say, “I’m not going to accept this.” For me in The Gambia, I
have made that very clear.
They have cited to me all the
countries that accept 3% or less for natural resource royalties, and I
said that is not for The Gambia. So my only crime is standing up to them
and saying I am going to defend Africa. They can call me any name they
want, they can pay Gambians or other people to criticise me, I don’t
give a damn! What I care about is the welfare of my people, the dignity
of my people. Unfortunately, the British sold the greater part of our
country, for the elephant they met in 1578 and they turned The Gambia
into the small snake it is today.
But The Gambia will never be
enslaved again or colonised again. That is never going to happen again,
and I wish my colleagues in Africa would also stand up and ensure that
their countries are not enslaved or colonised again.
It may not
be physical colonisation, but it can be for example in the exploitation
of our mineral resources of which I find the deals they offer us
insulting. And if you stand up to them, they turn against you and call
you a dictator.
But it is better to fight for the rights of your
people and be called a dictator than being a puppet that they will
discard when they don’t have any need of you any more.
Remember
the Zairean leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, who was at one time the most
important ally of the USA and the West in Africa, and how he was used to
prolonging apartheid in South Africa. Mobutu was the bastion of all the
anti-African elements that supported apartheid, and sponsored by the
West. South Africa was free to use Zaire to attack countries like Zambia
and Tanzania, that supported and hosted the African freedom fighters.
Mobutu
was the most important ally of the West and when he outlived his
usefulness, they sent another of their so-called leaders to kick him
out. In the end, they called Mobutu a dictator, and when he died, just
four people buried him in Morocco. Why don’t we Africans learn lessons
from that? If they could betray their staunch ally Mobutu, who served
them so faithfully to the detriment of his own country and people, who
is safe in their hands?
Q | So you have a real problem with deals being offered to exploit Gambia’s oil?
Of
course I do. We African leaders deprive our people from benefiting from
their God-given resources because we accept ridiculous deals that
prevent us from earning enough to improve the lives of our people. This
is the problem. Because if they come and give you 5% and tell you how
much the president is going to get, we agree. But the oil resources do
not belong to the president, but to the people. So I will not accept 10%
on behalf of the Gambian people. If I did, how would I explain to them
that we have 10% and the foreigners have taken 90%? [scoffs]. Why would
they want me to accept 5% for 35 years, do you understand?
Unfortunately
for most of us, when we want to become president, we promise a lot to
our people once we become president, we turn around and believe that the
West is god, [thinking] if I don’t please the West, we will not rule
for a long time. And as long as Africans turn their backs on the real
God and their own people, this status quo will continue, unfortunately.
Q | How
would the question of living in a so-called globalised world come in
then, a globalised world where you have to work with partners and
foreign investors to help develop the natural resources of your country?
Well,
globalisation doesn’t mean we have to give away our natural resources
for a song. No. And I am not saying that all companies are bad, but we
have to make choices. This is where being truly independent is very
important, and working with countries who have moral values, who know
that this wealth belongs to Africa. We have heard many times about how
China just gives to African dictators without regard to their human
rights record.
I was going to come to that.
But
then the same Western countries turn around and accept the same Chinese
capital investment. If the Chinese should pull out their capital
investments in the USA today, the American capital markets would
collapse. But they think Africans are stupid. No! We are not.
The
advent of China in Africa has given the Africans the latitude to choose
who they want to work with. And this is a threat to the West, to their
hedge funds and so forth, so they will do anything to discredit China.
Today,
we also have the Gulf states, we have Asia and the BRICS [Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa], but what is more important is to
work with whoever has a conscience. I am not saying that all the
Western countries are vampires, there are people and countries there who
have a conscience, who have always stood up for African interests, but
they are very few. But importantly, let us take control of our
countries, our resources, and then from there we will decide who we want
to work with.
Q | Another problem is the low prices that Africa gets for its resources, isn’t it?
Exactly.
It’s like you having a herd of cattle, and there is only one buyer in
the village who is always fixing the price, take it or leave it and if
the butcher is wealthier than the owner of the herd of cattle, where he
is buying the cattle from, then there is a problem, which is what is
happening with African resources.
Take for example crops such as
cocoa or coffee, the companies that buy coffee from Africa are
wealthier than all the African coffee producing countries put together
and they are buying their coffee and cocoa beans from Africa. What does
it take you to turn a bean into drinkable coffee? It’s just roasting. So
I spend all day working on the farm, harvesting the coffee beans,
washing them, drying them, and then they come and say I will buy your
coffee at so-and-so dollars, that is the world market price. So the
buyers of African raw materials are always wealthier than the African
producers of raw materials, and the status quo doesn’t seem to change.
Q | As
I was being driven in, I saw the arch and the inscription on it says
“Behind every successful man, there is a woman”. So how is the issue of
gender parity in The Gambia?
This vocabulary –
gender – is new. During the colonial era nobody talked about gender
parity in Africa. They really thought the matter was not a factor in
Africa. In The Gambia, we do not see ourselves, man or woman, as
adversaries or opponents or competitors.
We don’t see ourselves
as half beings that need another half to make ourselves whole. In the
Gambia no decision is taken, even in the villages, without the
participation and consent of the wife. That has always been there, and
unfortunately today they will tell you the African woman is
disenfranchised, that she is not empowered, and has no access to land
and so forth. But for The Gambia the issue of gender is not an issue, it
has never been, and it will never be.
I have the longest serving
vice president in the world, and she is a woman. She is not there
because I wanted to please anybody. In this country one’s gender doesn’t
matter, what matters is your willingness and patriotism to work for and
help develop your country, it’s not a gender issue.
Q | How
would you sell the Gambian story, to counter the negativity and bad
press that the country and your government gets outside its borders?
I
put my faith in the Almighty Allah and as long as I know that what I am
doing is right, I fear nothing. I am used to this negativity from 1994
to date, but would that make me back down from my stance to defend
Africa, to defend our interests and our independence? No. I will never
back down. A Gambian proverb says an enemy is an enemy, and even if you
dance in the water he is still going to complain that you are raising a
lot of dust and making him cough.
Q
| Finally, I know that agriculture is a passion of yours, do we see
Africa’s future in an agricultural revolution, and why are you so
passionate about agriculture?
I am a natural-born
farmer. In my family, from my age upwards only two of us have been to
school, the rest have always been farmers, so farming is in my blood.
But I can’t believe that after all the arable land we have in Africa and
the conducive environmental condition for agricultural production
available in Africa, the continent is still a net importer of food such
as rice. This is very, very alarming.
So the future of Africa
and our independence will depend on our ability to feed yourselves. A
prosperous and healthier Africa will depend on Africa’s ability to
produce its own food.
Lack of food is becoming a deadlier weapon
than anything else. For example, The Gambia is not an industrialised
country, but we see children born with deformities that are horrifying,
that are synonymous with highly industrialised polluted countries, yet
Gambia is not a polluted country. So that can only be attributed to what
we eat. And so the only guarantee of good health is our ability to
produce what we eat.
Agriculture is very important and that is
why I believe in leading by example. And I want to change the notion in
this country that if you are a farmer, you are a social failure and that
is why you are farming. Yet in most parts of the world the richest
people are farmers. So I want to remove that stigmatisation.
Q | Can
I comment on the Zimbabwean example, where the white farmers were
commercial farmers while the rest of the farming population produced
largely on a subsistence level, so, that’s not what you envision.
No,
not at all. That is the problem we have in Gambian agriculture too, and
it is something we want to change. Agriculture is not sustainable at
the subsistence level because not all of us are farmers or can be
farmers. So if we encourage subsistence agriculture, we are encouraging
importation.
If I grow what I need to eat, then what about the
one who is not a farmer who lives in the urban area where there is no
farmland? So, let us move away from subsistence agriculture to
commercial agriculture.
In fact my policy is commercial
agriculture, I want to mechanise it and make it attractive for young
people to get into farming and agro-processing. You cannot be
independent if you don’t grow your own food. So let’s stop being net
importers of food and become net exporters.
Nothing is more pleasant for me, apart from praying than having a long day’s hard work on the farm.
BRAVO, JAMMEH !!!!
