Dear Editor,
Many years ago, teenagers in the town of Bathurst where I grew up, many of us aspired “going out” one day, which meant going to England, to Europe, or to the USA.
The so-called bookworms, after completing High School, desired nothing other than going to a university, earning a degree in some profession, such as medicine, Law or engineering, then maybe, coming back home to join the ranks of the “been-tos”. The so-called hustlers at heart, on the other hand, desperately desired going out to Sierra Leone, Congo, or Angola, and seeking fortunes from mining and trading of diamonds. For most teenagers in those days, except for those who were perhaps without much ambition, “going out” offered the rite of passage to adulthood.
The “going out” movement of yesterday eventually surrendered its enticements to the “backway” movement of today, which has increased temptations by several folds. It is no more only about pursuing education, or seeking riches from diamonds in other African countries, but it is more about seeking refuge in Europe or the USA, away from poverty, wars, and political depravity and dictatorships in failed states. It is craving to become an international sport star in the West and earning millions of dollars or euros.
But the “backway” movement is extremely perilous; it is destroying, at a frightening rate, the lives of young people. It is estimated over 2000 young Africans (male and female) perished yearly in trying to cross the Mediterranean, or the Sahara Desert, or they died in the camps and jails of xenophobic countries along their passageways. In the days of the “going out” movement, the occurrence of such hazards was minimal, but it was not unusual for someone at home to suffer from “nerves”, a mental crisis believed to be caused by wanting desperately to go abroad.
Yesterday as today, many young people understandably still have the belief that they must “go-out” to have education, or obtain fortune from other countries, or be an international sports star. They do not care if they do not come back successful, or even never come back, just like the so-called “old timers” in Europe or the USA, who did not fulfil their dreams, and do not want to make the return leg. This possibility or outcome is usually not a deterrent.
For the pursuers of fortunes, some of whom hailed from rural areas, some of them did return with success, becoming the richest Gambians, building hotels, factories, mansions, and mosques.
For the pursuers of education, on the other hand, some of whom hailed from urban areas, some never returned. For those who returned, they become employed as government civil servants, or company managers of quasi-public or private institutions. But because of their western education and ways of life, they soon proved to be more self-serving than communal serving.
The Gambia had its independence since 1965, when it was mainly rural and underdeveloped, with majority of its citizens illiterate and poor. The Western pedagogic principles and practices, which remained inculcated in the country’s education system, have since proven anachronistic. Many of the so called educated, who took over the administration, showed no interest in adapting themselves to be effective in government. They chose to retrace steps of the erstwhile colonizers, as a matter of policy, and to beg routinely for technical assistance and for loans, as a matter of strategy. Foreign donors agree occasionally to assist, but only on their own terms and benefit. This ushered into a system in which the horse did not change riders but has additional native riders.
Given the noted circumstances, the prevailing conditions continue to yield indebtedness, poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment; the hardships are almost comparable to the feudal and slave trading years of the 18 and 19 centuries.
The way forward, it would appear, must be to change the moribund policies and practices in all sectors (especially in the administration and education sectors), and to retire the alien ways of life of the few in power, which have been pursued for the past 60 years after independence. These policies, strategies, and ways of life, have immense costs, and many are based on moribund and antiquated beliefs, all of which do not support meeting the needs of ordinary people in general, and the young people in particular, who are in the majority by over 60% of the current population.
Putting in place radical changes, genuinely pursued, have since become the only ways to stop the country from voluntarily wasting its natural and human resources, especially its young human resources.
Lamin Jobe
