Land of the Griot

The Republic of The Gambia is one of the smaller African nations. It has three times the population of Djibouti but is only half the size of our tiny neighbor.
The country is among those few nations which is usually referred to with the article ‘The’. This is because it is the human and political extension of an entity that is defined by the Gambia river which has its source waters in the highlands near the town of Labe in Guinea (Conakry), and snakes north-west through Senegal before it cleaves its way through The Gambia to join the Atlantic at Banjul, the capital.
It is in order not to confuse the river with the country that we refer to this nation with ‘The’. The Gambia occupies a dubious record in the annals of colonialism in Africa. It is the first land in all of the continent to be colonized by the the Great Britain. This occupation lasted from 1588 to 1965 – all of 377 years of colonization.
The Gambia is the smallest of the four West African countries which were British colonies. English is therefore the official language like it is in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. In a geo- linguistic sense, The Gambia is a sliver of Anglophonia inserted into the belly of Francophone Senegal.
The Gambia and Senegal enjoy very close relation of course and in fact, from 1982 to 1989, the two were united in confederation called Senegambia.
The country’s first president was Sir Dawda K. Jawara, deposed in 1994 after 24 years in power. He was succeeded by Yahya Jammeh, a military man, who has held tight to the reins of power since 1994.
The Gambia was made famous by the 1975 mini-series ‘Roots’, as it isthe land from which Kunta Kunte, Alex Haley’s African ancestor, (a Mandinka), was abducted by slavers in the 1600s. Large numbers of African Americans still visit The Gambia largely after having been influenced by the moving ‘Roots’ saga – one of the most powerful films ever made.
‘Roots’ has made cinema history for having had a profound influence on race relations in the United States. As it was produced so soon after theCivil Rights Movement, spear headed by Martin Luther King Jr and others, the film transformed black and white relations in America.

Destined for the Kora

Jaliba Kuyateh is a recognized Gambian artist in the area of performing arts who contributed greatly to the promotion of Gambian culture and the development of African and Gambian music in particular. He composed many songs conveying messages to the people on social issues and rendered services free of charge to build schools, religious centers and health centers.
As a child during the ages of five to seven years, Jaliba was trained on the Kora - a twenty-one stringed musical instrument, mainly found in countries along the west coast of Africa. This happened through his father who was also a player of the Kora.
At this time, if he did anything wrong, his father was using the Kora as a form of punishment by giving him a tune to play on the Kora before he was allowed to go out and play with friends. Through this, he was able to acquire the basic skills on the instrument since the time he was very young.
Because of his school career, he almost left the Kora completely, apart from during leisure time. Only when he entered the Gambia Teachers Training College, he became interested in the instrument again. During the college course, he was with the Kora constantly, and rapidly became known by all Gambians as well as in other West African countries because of his performances and interviews in the national radio.
Interested students came and formed a group with him. The group became famous and started touring the country, especially during school holidays. This development went ahead to date. Jaliba and the group have since then in a very characteristical way been able to blend traditional and modern musical instruments in their repertoire, thus making it possible for them to produce music that is appealing to both the young and older generation of Gambians as well as visitors to The Gambia.

Facts and Figures

Location-Far West Africa, almost completely encircled by Senegal except for Atlantic coastal area.
Area-11,300 sq.km
Topography-The whole of Gambia consists of the land on either bank of the Gambia River
Population-1,642,000
Distribution - 45 % urban
Ethnic Groups-Mandinka, Fula, Wolf, Jula, others
Languages –English (official), Mandinka, Wolf, Fula, others
Religions –Muslim 90%, Christian 9%, others 1%
Capital City – Banjul
Government Type – Republic
Head of State – President Yahya Jammeh
Currency – Dalasi (GMD) 28.33= $ 1 US
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – $ 3 bln
Per Capita GDP -$ 1900
Economy – Fishing, Peanuts, hides, tourism, rice, agri-machinery, wood products, clothing
Electricity Production – 150 mln kwh
Literacy – 41%
Life Expectancy – 52.3 male, 56.0 female
AIDS Rate – 2.4 %
Ports :- Banjul
Vehicles:- 10,100 units
Telephones :– 44,100 lines
Radios – 394 per 1000 people
TV sets – 3 per 1000 people
Daily Newspaper Circulation: - 1.7 copies per 1000 people
Internet – 49,000 users

Facts and figures are the latest available at time of publication and may not necessarily be the most accurate.

The untold story of Ashenge

By Kirubel Tadesse

Directed by: Paulos Regassa
Written by: Yonas Gorfu and Paulos Regassa
Type: Epic
Duration: 1 hr. 22 min
A few years back the production of Amharic films was as low as four to five per year; but now that has changed. In the last three years alone, more than 85 films were produced. One recent work is Ashenge.
‘Ashenge’, name of a locality in Tigray, is about the Italian poison gas and bomb attack with 150 planes. It gives us a glimpse how Ethiopians reacted to the attack on their sovereign right to life and to their land. What happened in Ashenge is only known by a few. Most of us don’t know it in detail or have never heard about it. The resistance of Ethiopians, which was broken down by the inhuman act of toxic gas attack is something which remained nearly untold, at least not in a movie. According to the author, Yonas Gorfu and Paulos Regassa, more than 75% of the anecdotes in the movie are true. The authors claim they have referred to various history books and consulted several well known historians such as Prof. Richard Pankhurst.
Paulos Regassa who is also the director of the film asserts that even if one is not entertained, at least one would be inspired by the touching story of ‘our ancestors’.
The movie also has a love story of two victims of the war who find many things in common and fall for each other.
Shewaferaw Desalegn played the main character beautifully.
Cinema always loves a new face, which was proved by the performance of Mariyamawit Nekatibeb as Serke. The movie was shot in Sebeta, Debre Zeit and Sululeta areas over eight months at a cost of over 800,000 birr, with more than 1400 people participating, including nine Italians.
Viewers comment emphasized how much the movie is enjoyable. Some thought that the movie is a little short. “We Ethiopians have thousands of stories that are mostly untold. Movies could really put those stories out, so we and the rest of the world could know about them. I think Ashenge opened that door and the rest is for others to follow,” said one viewer.

Painting the Hamer from Addis

By Tedla Desta

Sitting in her small cute room that can’t even be wider than four by four meters, Kidist Berhane shoos
the cat which was walking on her paintings set outside to dry.
“Hey shhhooo ….Shhhhhoo,” she says to the small cat.
Kidist Berhane is a young painter based in Addis Ababa. She has never been to the Hamer, located south of Ethiopia. Born in 1983 in Addis Ababa, Kidist was supported and encouraged by her parents to join the life of painting.
Half of her paintings are on the Hamer people. “I have been drawing since I was a child and as I completed high school, my parents supported me to join art school where I graduated from three years ago.”
Her over 40 works that focus on the life of women and Hamer traditions, she is about to exhibit, are very impressive for such a young artist.
She used to sell her paintings to various galleries and this is her first solo exhibition.
“The coming exhibition is going to be very special as it is going to be a solo exhibition and secondly, because I am going to hand over my very best painting about Hamer’s dancing, Evangadi to the Ethiopian Millennium Secretariat,” says Kidist.
Her paintings generally focus on women. “ I don’t much care for the word ‘equality’ which has the connotation of making a woman reach only to the status that men are and stop there. But the truth is that we can go beyond this and reach another level.”
Woman vendors, selling their stuff on the pavements are depicted in her realistic paintings.
“I will gradually go into painting abstract from the realistic... It has its own steps,” Kidist says with confidence.
Speaking of the challenges she went through in her professional years, she says that she had faced various problems from her male colleagues and other workmates.
“In painting, there is nothing that will cause you more trouble than bad materials. You can get by with few materials, but you cannot get by with bad ones. That is not where you should save. To do good work, economize where it will not be a hindrance to you. Your tools can make your work harder or easier according to your selection. The relative cost of good and bad materials is of slight importance compared with the relative effect on your work,” Kidist says.
Through the books that she reads, the songs she listens and other sources, Kidist continues to paint the Hamers living very far from where she lives.