By Lamin Cham
President Adama Barrow over the weekend told members of the African Descendants community in The Gambia that The Gambia recognises their status as Africans and expressed his delight at meeting them.
He was speaking at State House where he received members of the community called Council of African Descendants (COAD) comprising African descendants born outside the continent who have returned to live in the continent. The body has been campaigning to meet the president and for The Gambia to accord them citizenship as Ghana and other African countries did. President Barrow told the COAD members that he believes in the philosophy of late Jamaican Reggae musician Peter Tosh who sang that “As far as one is black one is an African”.
“I used to follow that your BlaXit Channel,” the president told the COAD members comprising Juliet Ryan, (Nyancho Kujabi) Adrian Ryan (Hatib Kujabi) and Khafre Lopez-Ryan (Khafre Kujabi. The BlaXit Channel is dedicated to the positive promotion of The Gambia and Africa. Nyancho and Hatib expressed their delight at being granted audience by the president whom they described as “awesomely inspiring”.
“We were surprised to learn that the president actually watches our YouTube BlaXit channel which has over 3.5 million views. He is a really intelligent and humble man who is also dedicated to the grassroots. He welcomed us home and quoted Peter Tosh, Julius Nyerere and other pan-Africanists ,” the COAD members told journalists after the meeting.
The meeting was facilitated by National Assembly members Majanko Samusa, Alagie Jawara and Saikou Marong assisted by Chief of Protocol Alagie Ceesay and protocol officer Wuday Ceesay.
