Kairaba

Editorial

The first president of The Gambia, Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara has made history again by becoming the first Gambian statesman to write and publish his autobiography, 'Kairaba'. The publication of the book is no mean achievement. It is a worthwhile read for not only the general public, but also historians and scholars interested in this country's political and economic evolution over the past 50 years, when Sir Dawda was a strong and illustrious civil servant, leader of the independence struggle, and of the country for three decades after independence. Books like this record and preserve history.

We are grateful that the burden of age did not prevent the old man from chronicling the rigorous service he rendered to the people right from the days of the independence struggle to three decades of presiding over the affairs of the country. The development is indeed a significant one because it is only through the writings and preaching of such veterans that the younger generation of this country and Africa at large can know what exactly happened yesterday to give birth to today. Studying Gambian history of any epoch can be a hard task for the uninitiated historian, especially, for the severe lack of published secondary materials by Gambians themselves.

This makes us to rely heavily on what Europeans have written about our country, with all the bias, prejudice, ignorance and sometimes, arrogance of the foreign scholar writing from the outside. Sadly, even E F Small, perhaps the only Gambian pre-independence statesman who is in any way comparable to Sir Dawda in terms of their great contributions to the political freedom of this country, did not leave behind an autobiography; all what we know of him were gleaned from his patriotic musings in his newspaper the Gambia Outlook or from the intelligence reports on his movements by the colonial secret police in Bathurst and London. These of course are not near enough to fill in all the gaps in the illustrious career of Small. We therefore say a 'big thank you' to Sir Dawda for his effort in preserving our history.

We commend the person who made all these developments possible -President Jammeh. The fact that Jawara was allowed to return to the country despite being deposed, allocated a salary, given comfortable accommodation and above all the freedom to continue his public life speaks volumes of the hospitality and humanitarian character of President Jammeh. This is the first instance in Africa that such respect is accorded a president who was overthrown by the military. As the president himself stated at the launching, himself and others did not come to power with a heart of hatred but with a heart of love and development of for the country. In fact, the presence of President Jammeh at the launching speaks volumes of his determination to ensure the unity, love and oneness in the country.

It is therefore time that those public officials of the First Republic who distance themselves from President Jammeh to put aside all their personal grudges and come aboard to work and complement the efforts of government. The fact of the matter is that the president is here for all and his developments know no political boundary, this is precisely the reason Sir Dawda accepted the reality and is now part of the national development process. Vanguards of the former parties that existed in the First Republic should therefore take the former president as a role model and uphold his footsteps to accomplish the complete development of our dear Gambia.

We also want to remind our scholars that in writing his autobiography, Sir Dawda has thrown a challenge to other living Gambian political leaders to share their rich experiences with posterity by documenting them in a book. Of course, this does not mean that historians shall henceforth cease scrutinising Sir Dawda's tenure for new materials. What the autobiography can do to the serious historian in fact, is to whet his|her appetite for more research. It has provided a baseline on his career, and for sure as the years go by, a lot more will have to be discovered, analysed and written on this very important episode in our collective memory.

Author: Daily Observer

Kairaba

Website Search

Social networks