The Daily Observer (Banjul)
3 March 2008
editorial
As the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad was a living example to us of godliness (and our Christian brothers and sisters see the life of Jesus as a personification of God's own example), we must admit that President Jammeh, in his words and action represents an African president whose whole outlook in life is pan-Africanist through and through. He is pan-Africanist "to the core".
Just as the jailed Nelson Mandela became the personification Azania's African peoples' yearning to be free from racism, President Jammeh's effort to establish fraternal links with and amongst Africans is a testimony of his commitment to the African peoples' yearning for a united and progressive continent.
In less than two weeks, we have had President Mwanawasa of Zambia, President Peres of Cape Verde, prime minister of Guinea Bissau Martinho N'dafa-Cabi, the chief of Defence Staff of Senegal General Fall, and now President Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania.
It is not the quantity (the numbers) that matter, but the quality. And the quality of the relationships The Gambia has with all these visitors is indeed deep. It goes beyond being merely diplomatic; these relationships are brotherly, fraternal and signify our common bond and unity.
Our Big Read last week, coincidentally, was Cheikh Anta Diop - the "Pharaoh of Knowledge", the man who wrote the monumental "The Cultural Unity of Black Africa". President Jammeh, and the generation of Africans born in the era of Cheikh Anta Diop, have now taken the reigns of power across Africa and these new generation of African leaders are giving real meaning to our unity.
The West was "shocked" in 2007 when African governments voted together at the UN to give Zimbabwe chairmanship of a UN commission (and again when our leaders stood together to say "No Mugabe, No EU-Africa Summit!"). They were "shocked" because they failed to realise that there is a "wind of change" blowing across Africa.
A new generation of Africans, who saw the dastardly game played by neo-colonialism at the expense of Africa, are now in power. These new leaders understand what is needed. And it is a united Africa that is their vision. United not just on paper and through institutions, but through our fraternal bonds as Africans, through our "cultural unity" as a people, and our political unity as a continent.
President Jammeh is, we are delighted to say, at the forefront of this new African vision, an African yearning for unity and brotherhood.
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