By Lamin Darboe, Leicester, UK
I listened attentively to his testimony and it smacks of obfuscation, evasive response and obvert condescension towards our religious leaders.
Gambians can be proud of the spirit of amicable coexistence that persisted between Christian's and Muslims since time immemorial. A poignant case is the neighbourliness ambience the Manjago and Mandinkas enjoyed over the years in Kombo and Numi exemplified in cross-ethnic marriages and symbiotic pursuit of livelihood. We do say Manjagos don't cheat and are very honest, in my childhood, many mandinkas put their goats in custody of Manjagos in Taaneneh, Kukujang Tababaato, Maasia etc. What a testimony of trust and co-beneficial enterprise.
In my decades of life, the only communal tension I ever witnessed was the "Taaneneh" graveyard imbroglio which was later amicably settled.
Let him phantom the nuances of colonialism embedded in christianity that indelibly changed the Gambian religious landscape. The colonial masters with a Bible in one hand dominated our nation for decades, destroying the local kingdoms changing their culture and indigenous administration that persisted for many generations.
Subjugating their traditions and extracting their resources with antecedent political disenfranchisement and economic control which in many manifestations brainwashed the colonised to think the colonists and their ways are superior and that Jesus was white thus opposing them means opposing GOD.
Then, democracy and human rights was not born, it was all about colonial power wielding and parasitic resources exploitation.
After independence, the bitterness nurtured for years dissipated and Gambians opened a new chapter, graciously, Christian minority imposed by the colonists, who were sympathetic to the colonial rule were never targeted or maligned.
That was the spirit of togetherness we should all strive to maintain and eschew any attempt to divide us by evoking minority sentiments.
Lamin Darboe
Leicester, UK Editors Note:
Views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Gunjur Online. Got an opinion article? send it to us at Editors@GunjurOnline.Com
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