Dear Editor,
“The sovereign citizen is not born. The sovereign citizen is nurtured, through knowledge, participation, and the courage to claim one’s rightful place in the polity.”
— Hon Halifa Sallah, Nurturing Sovereign Citizens
Some books inform, some books provoke, and then some books awaken. Halifa Sallah’s Nurturing Sovereign Citizens belongs firmly in the third category.
I encountered this work as a reader and a concerned citizen searching for clarity during political fatigue and institutional confusion. What I found was not comfort. What I found was confrontation.
Hon Halifa Sallah issues a quiet but firm challenge from the opening chapters: Are we truly sovereign citizens or merely subjects by another name? This question echoes long after the pages are turned.
The subject within us
Hon Halifa Sallah’s definition of the “subject”, a person ruled without agency, conditioned by colonial structures to obey and conform, is not confined to history books. It is a living reality that seeps into our politics, communities, and sense of self.
As I read, I saw shadows of that subject all around me: In our fear of authority, in our silence in the face of injustice and in the way we speak about the state as something above us, rather than of us.
This book forced me to admit how deeply colonial legacies still live in the psyche. Sovereignty, Sallah argues, is not something that “happens” to a people on Independence Day. It is something they must consciously become.
“You may be independent and still not be free. Independence is a status conferred. Freedom is a condition earned.”
— Hon Halifa Sallah, Nurturing Sovereign Citizens
This is the heart of the matter. Without nurturing, education, and participation, independence risks becoming a flag ceremony, not a lived reality.
History without illusion
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its refusal to romanticise the past. Sallah’s account of The Gambia’s constitutional referenda in 1965 and 1970 is not nostalgia but civic diagnosis.
He shows how political elites often substituted legal independence for people’s empowerment. The result was a republic on paper, but a citizenry still trapped in a colonial mindset.
Yet, Hon Sallah avoids cynicism. His call is rooted in the belief that a politically conscious citizenry can emerge. But he warns that it will not happen by accident. It will demand education, organisation, and the courage to think differently about power and participation.
An uncomfortable mirror
Reading this book was not just an intellectual exercise. It was a personal reckoning.
I asked myself: Do I truly understand my rights?
Have I unconsciously internalised the very structures I claim to oppose?
Am I doing enough to educate others, especially young people, about the meaning of citizenship?
Sallah’s message is clear: protest without purpose is not enough, and criticism without civic education is a dead end. True empowerment begins not with slogans but with knowledge, the kind of knowledge that builds lasting democratic habits.
It was humbling to realise that citizenship is not a status but a responsibility.
Why this book matters?
In a time when politics often feels reduced to personalities and power struggles, Nurturing Sovereign Citizens takes us back to fundamentals. It challenges us to rethink the meaning of the republic, not as a structure of rulers and rules, but as a living agreement among free and equal citizens.
“A republic is not defined by its constitution alone, but by the consciousness of its people. Without that consciousness, even the best constitution will serve tyranny.” — Hon Sallah, Nurturing Sovereign Citizens
This is perhaps the book’s most urgent warning: even the most perfect legal text is powerless without a citizenry ready to defend and live by it. Consciousness is the cornerstone; without it, institutions become shells.
This is not an easy book. It is dense, rigorous, and, at times, intellectually demanding. But that difficulty is its gift. It treats the reader not as a passive consumer but as a partner in building a different political future.
Final thoughts
Reading Nurturing Sovereign Citizens was a profoundly personal experience for me. It stirred frustration at how far we remain from genuine sovereignty, but also hope that we can still bridge the gap if we commit to learning, teaching, and acting.
This is not just a book. It is a call to consciousness, a manual for transformation, and a reminder that the future of any nation depends not on its leaders but on the political maturity of its people.
We have inherited a republic. Now we must become citizens worthy of it.
Thank you so much, Adu Sally Njie, for buying this book for me and bringing it from Gambia.
Ndey Jobarteh
