Crr — The people of the Central River Region (CRR) on Thursday celebrated the country's 49th Independence Anniversary in the island community of Janjangbureh. The occasion attracted thousands of people including the speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Abdoulie Bojang; governors of West Coast, Lower River and North Bank Regions, Lamin Sanneh, Salif Puye and Lamin Queen Jammeh respectively; NAMs, security chiefs as well as district chiefs. Presided over by the governor of the region, Kanyie Touray, the celebration was characterised by a military parade as well as a march past by students and voluntary organisations.
Like other regions, the independence anniversary celebrations provided the people of this region the opportunity to reflect on the gains and challenges of the country, what steps are needed to further usher the nation into a more modern, prosperous and dignified country, and more importantly, to highlight progress attained in the past 20 years of the Second Republic. But the fact that the celebration took place in a town that still has solid relics of colonial hegemony such as the prison and the old administrative structures, greatly reminded the people of the area about the pain of nationhood and the exploitation endured by their ancestors during an era deemed as "unacceptable" by many people. Moreover, it was also a perfect opportunity to compare the gains of the current day Gambia in that the island hosts one of the only two schools built by the colonial masters -Armitage.
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