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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Beautiful |
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Article & Photos By Adjua Dubb |
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The Good On
this trip, I have to say, the women were my most interesting study. The
women of Gambia made this trip a most delightful and intriguing sojourn.
Gambia is all about the women. She is the bread winner, the land owner,
the cook, the maid, the Vice President, the business owner, the farmer,
the mother, and sometimes the father, the organizer--she is all. I have
to say without the women, I don’t see how this little country would survive.
There isn’t one role that the women of Gambia do not play. She should
be President! But that will be left up to the Gambian people
to decide one of these days---and I hope very soon. While it is well noted
to mention their Vice President is a woman, the Hon. Isatou Njie-Saidy.
A woman that holds a great seat of prestige and power, the
The cycle of age is a consistent and coherent theme in The Gambia, the old and the young do mix, unlike in America where the young have very little to do with the old, the young in The Gambia are always aware of the old, and always in their presence. Respect of older women and their role in the family is constant. In America, our culture could learn a thing or two from African culture in this respect, with better ways of raising our children, having stability in our families as we multitask work, careers, school and family. Too often our elders are missing to help us in these endeavors, and we are not there to help them. African customs will not allow the elders to be vanished from their culture, or society.
For the most part, I was moved, honored and delighted to be around African women, who had no pretentious ideas about their role, their duties or their work, whether it was hard or whether it was unsatisfying. She was just playing her role. These women work very hard in every aspect of the word, and we in the spoils of America or Europe couldn’t handle the truth if that sword were in our hands. The pride and joy of being a woman in Gambia is in the small things, not in the big and so you can measure her beauty by her smile, her eyes, and the way she talks in the beautiful Wolof, an amazing sight to behold.
The Bad
The generation gap is very noticeable in this regard, you’d never see the older guard of women in jeans, pants or t-shirts, absolutely never. But the younger generation, those who can sing Alicia Keys' lyrics word for word, wear the fashionable jeans, shorter skirts and might I add some swanky heels and purses to match. The same is true of the men--the older guard who would never wear jeans or t-shirts considered rubbish, but the younger men, those who understand all the lyrics to Sizzla Kalonji, wear the fashionable jeans, t-shirts, cut off shorts, or simply whatever is comfortable. It has nothing to do with tradition--they are dancing to the beat of their own drum.
It is no accident that these influences are taking hold as the global world is getting smaller. Telecommunications, television, movies, music and books have made all of this possible, so it is a matter of time that the fundamental access and rights to healthcare, education, job training, and entrepreneurship will be everyday realities for the women of the Gambia. The President of the country has stated that education is free to all girls living in certain regions of the country especially those who are in the provinces or rural areas, and while that is a start, the girls and women of Gambia have a very long way to go to fulfill that achievement. Unlike technological and industrial driven nations, Gambia depends greatly on its agriculture, therefore women aren’t necessarily pounding the pavement for jobs, but for their mere survival. The selling of all types of agriculture is an essential source of income for many women. The selling of fish, spices, oils, fruits and vegetables is a daily chore that has no level of promotion, or level of wage earning--its all in a day's work. Farming as well is a tradition carried out by the women, who manage to farm rice fields for generations. These methods of making of living are necessary, and more help is needed to ensure that they are getting their fair share of the pie. The coexistence of the modern and the traditional way of living are side by side in the Gambia, and that is what makes it such an extraordinary reach for women trying to get out of poverty, as the stakes get higher. As well as the cost of living, there is a dire need for women to not just learn how to use computers, but also for them to know how to manage their businesses, and how their agri-business can be a viable option for them or their children in the future.
The Ugly
Prostitution - What more can a country do for its women citizens who are on the bottom of the economic barrel when the country itself is on the bottom of the economic barrel? Where time is money and money takes a long time to get. The Gambia of the day and the Gambia of the night are two different realities. Like Montego Bay, Santa Domingo, or anywhere tourist cities fill with tourist money, it is sure to lure an insatiable appetite for the lewd, the desperate and the exploitative. It’s a wretched curse of voluntary slavery for the sake of having bread. Unlike first world prostitution, the make-up of this sex trade is economically racist, strategic, and viciously cyclic. It is common knowledge that Gambia is regarded as the “Caribbean” for Europe’s wealthy or even moderate income gatherers. They come to have fun in the sun. While it was difficult to determine if the prostitutes were Gambian women, it was fair to say they were all African of some sort, either from Liberia, Sierre Leone, or other war torn nations. For many this is a way of life--the economic exploitation of richer European nations has continued to be a cancer that is eating away at the continent. Colonialism did not end simply because a country declared its independence, if we peer closer, it is very much still alive.
The Beautiful
Gambia’s strength, beauty and future is profoundly in her women. Not that the men are an unimportant necessity, indeed they are, but it is the women who gather the corn, who mind the children, who carry the water, who cook the food, who barter the fish, who sells the spices, who manage the nation. It was a profound appreciation for her beauty, for her sisterhood and her intelligence that showed me the inexhaustible capacity that African women have, and I was truly honored to just be around them.
If you find interest in helping any of the Gambian Women’s organizations, below is a list of websites that are useful and highly informative.
BAFROW
(Foundation for Research on Women's Health,Productivity and Development:
Gambia
Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting Health of Women & Children
(GAMCOTRAP) PAGEANT (Projects Aiding Gambian Education And Natural Talent) http://www.pageant.org.uk/index.html
Gambia
Television (Womens' Affairs) The
Women's Association: GambiaHELP http://www.gambiahelp.org/index.html
Gambian Womens Finance Association http://gawfa.tripod.com/index.htm
Women's Bureau of The Gambia
-------------------------------------- For the past 10 years, Adjua Dubb has been an advocate, promoter and writer for Reggae music. She is an archivist and collector of the music, information and all things related. Currently, she has her own production company, Dubbtonical Productions out of Washington D.C.
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What
can I say? I love this little country. From the moment you step off the
airplane and enter into its flat abyss, you delve into a riddim that is
constantly pulsing on its own. Strip away all the things you hear about
Africa, all of the sadness, all of the poverty, all of the environmental
and social hazards, and you will find a magical place, surviving it all.
majority
of women in the Gambia are not so powerful. There are a broad range of
needs for women, from economic to health, transportation and education.
Like many African nations, men rule with an iron fist, and unfortunately
this is also true for Gambia. The irony however, beneath all the men touting,
women are a strong force and make up roughly 56% of the country and as
a result their presence is felt in every sector of society. With this
said, women of the Gambia are organizing and have developed quite a few
organizations that empower themselves, and exercise their rights to freedom,
justice and economic equality. Organizations like The Gambia Women's Finance
Association (GAWFA ), Foundation for Research on Women's Health, Productivity
and Development (BAFROW), The Women's Association, Gambia Health and Education
Liason Project (Gambia HELP), are just a few. The good will of outside
interests also helps to facilitate these ongoing projects to ensure women
are getting the attention they so very much need. 
On
this journey I tried to be a silent observer, but my American-down-home-from-the-streets-of-DC
attitude did kick in once in a while, and it was difficult to understand
how some young adolescent girls were maids, and not in school, or were
the main cooks for up to 20 people every day. It bewildered me as to how
can one man have up to four wives and there not be Jerry Springer antics
in the middle of the compound. While family strifes were barely heard,
it's understood within the confines of tradition. However, it's a tradition
that the younger women of Gambia are watching and many are saying no,
rather hell no, to being a second wife, third wife, or fourth. This is
a tradition that has been rooted in many countries of Islamic faith, and
an older mentality of living in Africa.
FGM-
Female genital mutation. That unforgiving acronym that has played an inadvertent
role in many African societies for entirely too long is also coming up
against pressure and resistance in The Gambia. The practice which is known
for cutting women’s genitals while they are in pre-pubescent stage through
child bearing age, is still a reality in some areas within The Gambia.
It didn’t appear to be a widespread phenomenon but something held in various
pockets or villages, and still in the year 2005, the subjugation of young
women is a continued threat to the development and progress of many African
nations. It is something that all people will have to fight to destroy
as an evil that we need to let go of certain “traditions.". The President
of the country Yaya Jammeh has stated that it's part of the “culture”
of Gambia, so therefore, no need to fight it, but the Vice President,
Isatou-Njie has suggested reform and an end to the practice. A practice
that by all regards is carried out on women by women, and in all its complexities,
continues unabated. 
There
were days while I was in Gambia that I would spend hours just watching
the women in all their glory. Walking, with a baby tied on her back, all
while managing a bucket of wares on her head, and carrying three bags
in her hands, and never missing a beat. Never off balance, and always
on key. She adorned beautiful colors of tie dye, vibrant greens, piercing
blues, and changing hues, draping her blessed form as she sucked on licorice
sticks, cooked in the outdoor kitchen, carried water from house to house.
She was a fashion powerhouse, a force of nature, she danced in the wind
and flowed magically above the heavens, shining Amazing grace on her African
country. She embodied the essence of what I could only dream to become.
