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13.09.2022 Feature Article

Balanced Facts Around Colonisation and Way Forward for Africa

Balanced Facts Around Colonisation and Way Forward for Africa
13.09.2022 LISTEN

It is vital for young Africans to have balanced facts, including Colonisation. In the wake of Queen's Elizabeth death, I notice misleading publications from African media houses and young Africans echoing lies and fractional facts in anger. Human beings must see truth as our best friend, concurring or even above intelligence and kindness. Our common enemies are fear, greed, and arrogance-- these three existed in Africa and other places way before Colonisation.

They are the roots of evil, but the main branches are ignorance, lies, and cruelty. Colonisation of individuals and families existed in Africa, but Colonisation of countries is largely by Westerners and Asians. All evidence points to Africa as the origin of humankind, thus good and evil of humans likely started in Africa, but our Children of other races have become better and worse than us? Let young Africans choose the best and partner up around the world. Colonisation was a hard rescue for Africans with advantages and disadvantages, but are we optimizing even the advantages? Although financially deceptive, Colonisation brought Africa steps closer to unity, but many refuse to see even the opportunity, much more to push ahead. Slavery started in Africa and was much worse than Colonisation, but all enslavement were not equal; similarly, all Colonisation were/are not equal and it is vital to differentiate them, without justifying the bad over the worse. Our character in the learning and working worlds must be gauged and improved to acceptable levels, not just our fun character ... Remember sex is just one big aspect of fun, which can be play (ok/bad) or worse than play...

I have repeatedly criticise the English language, even though it is my favourite language and see it as huge blessing, waiting to be improved. Languages evolve or devolve within oral level, then similarly when written. English is no exception, the writers of old and modern English took English to a new higher level, but that does not mean squarely. The very word 'Colonisation' is actually closer to the word clone than colon. We colonise our clones may be right, but we clonise our clones may be closer to reality. We cannot say all humans had children due to fear and greed, but in all honesty most humans sought children (clones) due to fear and greed, sometimes arrogantly, from having to managing. Even such individual Colonisation have advantages and disadvantages; so where family problems grow big, an offspring may disown a last name or even a language. Colonising families is still in existence in Africa, including small Gambia. Sometimes they call a whole family 'our slaves', but the treatment is closer to Colonisation, deceptive relationship with zero or near zero force. Both are sometimes happily together in slave and master relationship...

Beside the questionable social level in old Africa, the pre colonisation Africa must be honestly studied to understand why God allowed Colonisation as hard rescue. Africa, largely, had very cruel Kings and under resisting populace. Now we have stupid than cruel leaders with under resisting populace? Beside cruelty, these African leaders failed to significantly develop learning and working aspects of Africa. As little as writing, over ninety percent of African languages failed to evolve to poor or good writing level. The cultures revolve around fun or play and abuse. A king that rules beyond the Gambia once reportedly built a house with four alive women as pillars, built around them. When my 'uneducated' mum was narrating it to me, she said, 'it was good the whites came...' My point is cruelty existed in Africa and needed to be challenged by Africans or others . When bad whites have to confront worse Africans, I will say be my guest, but understand how to confront the bad whites after?

Colonisation was done with near zero resistance in most part of Africa. The African Kings were lured with gifts, then told what they can no longer do. The whites were the new looters, sharing the loot with prominent Africans. The children of the Kings were offered learning opportunities above others, while slaves in America were denied learning opportunities. In places like the Gambia, some chiefs were reluctant to send their children to free school, many chiefs sent others until they saw it was beneficial, then they sent their biological children. Some ordinary parents allowed their children to go to school, but lacked the needed patience or changed mind. The very person I am named After is my grandfather, Jarga Kebba Njie, and was said to be an exceptional student, but his father forced him out of free school and the teachers appealed to no avail. The little school he got was enough for him to be a highly successful peanut trader, buying peanuts from the largely zero schooled farmers and selling to bigger traders and international world. The colonisers in a nutshell: 'We will loot three million dollar worth of gold from Ghana, million dollar of sand from the Gambia, but we will give back one or two million worth to the Gambia as 'free education'; we will determine the price of peanuts then and now, you get something and our people can taste and research on and beyond peanuts? Who forbid you to research on peanuts+ or force you to buy our value added products? We will address one or few cities as example, but how many years before your liberators do nationwide?

When God made man million+ years ago, some people respected learning and learners than others. When the God of heavens and earth revealed Learn( iqra) about 1500 years ago, some people misinterpreted it to mean learn only one religious knowledge, but the root word of iqra includes up to research. Reality and common sense reveal humans should learn to improve themselves and avoid hurting each other. That special book called the Koran or Recitation is also very balanced: it warned us about hypocritical Christians, but said other good things about Christians, including 'they are lovers of knowledge'. A great Muslim must ask why such a verse and see it as challenge to love knowledge more than the best of Christians or at least average Christians. Such a verse also confirms not only so called 'Islamic knowledge' is knowledge to God or the Angels. The misinterpretations by some arrogant Arabs were sadly unquestioned by Africans, so when Timbooktu taught mainly one religious knowledge, others were respecting other aspects of learning. Nas, the hip hop artist, may not truly understood Timbooktu or ever visited there, but more important is how we can have high end universities all over Africa, through Black+ billionaires and millionaires. We must learn from Cuba and seek 100% literacy, but we must start and support higher end learning. SARJO Manneh and Mo Sallah can challenge other footballers beyond Africans, Akon and Youssou ndure can challenge singers, LeBron James and Jay z, etc but beyond their countries. A billionaire like Oprah Winfrey sponsoring a high school or even college may be too low; we need many high end universities in Africa, or just say thanks to slavery? 'Lovers of Knowledge' means they spend enough time and money to get knowledge and reward knowledgeable folks than praise singers and questionable marabouts and pastors. There is some good in Religion, but time must be balanced. When you scan African satellite TV and see mainly Christian channels, the Arabs are on questionable hadiths than Quaran, then few African entertainment than edutainment music channels, it is almost scary, except it is better than doing drugs.

Deception through culture, Religion, or government are all bad. Since our focus is Deception around Colonisation, we must narrow it due to limited knowledge and to avoid a book like article. We all agree, Colonisation was largely financial Deception, but the world is more than finance. A country like the Gambia happens to have near zero 'raw materials ' to loot. The Gambia happens to be a unique country in Africa and the world! People may rightly talk about the Berlin Conference, but the Gambia was not discussed there. The Gambia is the only country in the world that was created to end slavery, the worst human treatment. The Portuguese came to the Gambia, but felt like Bissau was better; the French were in the Gambia and Senegal, but when the best of westerners wanted to end slavery, Portugal was not cooperative and taking slaves from Bissau+. Since the French were either cowards, not determined enough, or lacked equipment than Portugal or England, the English carved out the Gambia as the strategic point to confront slave traders. Thus was Gambia born. Forth Bullen of Barra have the evidence for Tourists who believes in facts than the fiction of Roots, Kunta Kinteh. I wish Gambians were freedom oriented and champion freedom around the world, but I am one Gambian who thinks we have a task greater than praising the past achievements.

The crimes of the western world post Colonisation is arguably worse than during Colonisation, except they have African partners in both eras. Murdering our best leaders and helping our bad to worst leaders is not minor. Like a good parent will not prematurely release an offspring; the west was suppose to have a quota of over 50% literacy before independence. Or set it as conditions within xyz years, through xyz of taxes and aids must be dedicated to education.

When you contrast how African Kings occasionally conquered tribes to how Asians did to each other, you will again conclude Africans are almost never best or worst, often in the valley of WWbogBB. The Whites coming here was much better than allowing Asians against us, especially then. The Loans our leaders are taking must be smartly invested in learning than education, through compensating achievements than research funding. The sick mindset our children 'cannot repay us' is harming Africa at different levels, including leaving them with mismanaged loans as 'favor'. Remember the God who allowed lying whites to claim slavery as 'favor' is still alive and may allow Angels to do worse to you, if you refuse to repent. Let the African+ children take better route than our ancestors , whites, and others. God is not against Africans, but let us never think that we are above the universal laws.

It is very wrong to pay for a crime you have not committed. As much as I believe the west still have terrible criminals against Africa, I think good whites exist and we must never harm them in anyway, or become like the bad whites. Needless to beat on my Grandparents for failing to invest in learning or resisting bad Kings and bad whites; if the average yearly loot was one dollar per person during colonial days, I think it was much worse in the Jawara days of the Gambia. Worse than the looting, our education and working standards went down, except those who count quantity of schools. Then comes Yahya Jammeh, another hard rescue against Gambians and possible testimony of reincarnated Cruel African King and under resisting populace? Jammeh was not just cruel, but he was a hypocritical coward who enjoyed marijuana and feared legalising it. Despite his occasional political rages against the west, he licked their ass when a drug shipment was caught in Gambian waters and he was among the suspects. He worsen the Gambian law to include seizing compounds were marijuana was found, while he was using marijuana, according to many folks, including Jamaican musicians who wrongly praised him and claim to smoked with him. President Adama Barrow lacks respect for truth and yet to understand the dangers of oppressing the minority on personal rights. Although less personally corrupt as Jammeh, he simply does not seem to have the courage to crackdown on corruption. We need culture of cameras, people must stop stealing time through late, absence, and idle at work time. We pay taxes for work to be done, not simple attendance and bad work. We need thinkers in government, but also how to help thinkers outside government. He may arrogantly say, he greedily sold Land to success, and blind to the land reforms we need for humanity over business.

Loving knowledge is good, but how truthful and kind are the Christians, whites, and xyz? Keep trading blames, but we must know the race is not who is much worse, but who wants to be the best, squarely.

All of Africa should choose English as first language, but develop it to be much better than present English, then name it . This does not mean making it more 'African', but making it simpler, more consistent, and more stranger friendly. It may require doubling or tripling the vowels, harder start and smooth ride after. This means even the British will learn ours. As a lover of languages and knowing many western and African languages, I fairly know the weakness and strength of the languages I know or functional in. First, it is very important to know it is in our best earthly interest to have one primary world and African language. English is already the number one language, but if we can improve it, then why not? If the rest of the world choose our English, Uk+ will subdue, otherwise we will have a simpler English for our people and a much smaller percentage of Africans will learn the present English, French, Portuguese, etc. I do not recommend the route of taking one African language to develop it, because English took lot from African languages and we should be global, not just African. We should develop African languages to written level, but not separately as we are doing. Those languages should still be secondary to our new English. Beside our interest, the past shows the French and Portuguese were much more brutal in Colonisation, so largely abandon their languages. Rwanda ditch French and prospered. Guinea and Mali do not have the courage to ditch French, partly because Present English is hard, except French is harder. Our New English can be learned in six months, by average adults. I am highly functional in French, fairly functional in Spanish and Portuguese. So I don't hate these languages and not calling for total banning, but switching the primary language. The leaders of these countries know very well that higher learning demands English in our age, so delaying English Learning is self delaying, especially against the poor. Haiti should ditch both voodoo and French, learn from Rwanda.

It can be a gradual switch and do not wait for grants from u.s , UK, or Australia. The English speaking Africans should help any African country willing to switch. The Language does not belong to the queen or new king, and we can use it to raise their conscience. Let the African union or a billionaire take enough of my type, pay minimally until we prove our worth or work deserve big bonuses. We can certainly produce a much better English, but the task will continue on all of us. How is our character on Showlove Trinity is more important than any language? May God bless Showlove Trinity: Let's learn, let's work, let's have fun.

By Jarga Kebba Gigo

An Activist and Transformer

Optional note:

First, there are terrible Africans who are on illusions or use fractional facts to mislead the kids. For example, one Gambian singer sang a song that claims, 'the whites fooled our grandparents until some speak English, some French, etc ' The reality is Africans were much more divided on languages and Colonisation brought us closer. I am a mixed tribe, and on one side, I am arguably from the largest African tribe, the Fulani. Whereas many Americans think Swahili is the number one African Tribe, I think the Fulanis are number one. Even if we were to take the Fulani as primary African language, can we even agree we should modify it like we are planning on English? The different type of Fulanis exist, from Cameron, Nigeria, Senegal, to Guinea. Twenty years ago, there was no well known written Fulani dictionary. Knowing the top three African languages does not guarantee you communicating with 25% of Africans, but knowing just English and French can break language barriers with over 25% of Africans. A bad song like the one I mentioned builds a bad mindset on teenagers+ , they reluctantly learn and thus poorly learn. They avoid speaking English in the offices, until they become president or senior officer then the errors become intolerable. We know English people make mistakes at NewYork Times level, we make mistakes in our local languages, but we must differentiate tolerable from intolerable, efforts from enough efforts , etc.

The opportunities we dismissed is sadly hitting us. We were not the only countries colonised, but some countries refuse to repeat or worsen the crimes of the Colonisers on their own people. Learning others language is not a crime, especially if it may help you. Excuses like is not my mother tongue will be gauged against others' efforts. Even if your parents did not take you to school, it is vital to learn English from a fellow Gambian, Ghanian, etc before you think about luck in Europe. Don't learn few words and claim enough, read, speak, and write! Everyday. Pay few hundreds/thousands to your teachers or how can you claim appreciation or lover of knowledge... When I was in Montreal Canada, my room-mates were Senegalese doing Masters and PhD, but they struggle because many of their books and special papers were only in English. It is cruel for Macky Sall or xyz to know this fact, have an English teacher for his kids, but the poor Senegalese will focus on imposed French until they need highest learning... Beside Montreal, when I was in Vancouver , I saw people from Brazil and other countries paying thousands of dollars to learn English; flight, rent, and other expenses and they may or may not say 'it's not my mother tongue '. If there is one good thing about Colonisation, then language is likely it. I can write to educate Ghanians+ of multiple tribes, write for children of ex slaves to know work denial over marijuana is very wrong and contribute to gangs, and eventually prejudice against all blacks? Without English, how would you have learned from Nelson Mandela in his language?

It is no exaggeration when I claim we can have new better English that people can learn much quicker. The French people spoke five hundred years ago, Quebec French, and modern Paris French are not just different, but one is easier than the other. Similarly is English, and Spanish was modernised. I reluctantly learned French in school; gladly learned it for over a year in Quebec , Canada ; then I tried Spanish and within two weeks, I was reading Spanish better than French. The power of consistency was at play, Spanish reading is by far much more consistent than English and French. Once we develop our new English and the Chinese find it much more easier and the need to trade with Africa, others will embrace it and even English people will learn it than they learn present African languages. It is not easy to know the difficulties or problems of your own language until you are exposed to something better as contrast, so our appreciation to the English should include improving it. Get a team of multilingual African+ and let's produce the new language of the world, which will not be very far from present English or hard to switch from.

Arabic language is consistent in reading to some degree, but it focuses on beauty than functionality, and that is problematic towards non Arabs. Due to the fact that a big percentage of Africans are Muslims, it is vital to also make changes to how present Arab is written to help our fellow Africans learn Quaran quicker. The changes on this are much more minor , but the teaching methods can change drastically. Anyone with strong English should be able to read and understand the Quaran in Arabic within six months. Memorising it will also be quicker, but depends on other factors. Achieving this will put a dent on groups like bokoharam, it will literally close many abusive Koranic schools, and it will free the people through time, to learn other things. I already have the formulas to do it, but it requires time and money. You need a team who are good in both Arabic Koran and English, share the formulas or guides, work separately and then together to produce an awesome final product that will transform how we learn Quaran. OIC is coming to the Gambia, but they may not trust a marijuana guy to lead such a project. So let's work hard and invest our own money as charity on modern 'free a neck.'

Whereas the Koran claims 'Christians are lovers of knowledge' and that was not just true, but still true; the English from UK, Canada, Australia, and u.s spend significantly on research and development, partnering with them cannot be compared with partnering with France, Portugal, Spain, or Saudi Arabia that fails to respect ch.103. If we do it rightly, God will see us through. Which individual or group will take the 'lover of truth or the whole peaceful Trinity prize? Hope God will give us perfect marijuana or something better. It was largely Christians and whites who lied Marijuana has no medicinal value? Then another group of largely Christians and whites who said the laws disproportionately hurt blacks and donated to NormL than blacks... So shame on the African leaders who still criminalise cannabis, they were/are with bad Biden? When you take marijuana you know door and wind-door is oral English in the cold and functionality, but when you drink alcohol you write window...

Optional note 2:

We must not allow our young ones to carry illusions that may negatively impact their learning or working character, or sin against others. Not only do we have a problem of tribalism, we are increasingly seeing racist thoughts than actions among blacks. When barely working blacks claim Arabs and whites are not hard working , it is based on very faulty calculations. It is fairly easy to see countless lazy folks in any race or gender, but the fruits are big evidence against Africa in respect to learning and working character. You cannot tell me the 5 to 15 % of blacks built the Arab and white worlds through force or other means, but we refuse to help ourselves, especially in Africa . A big percentage of whites never owned slaves and history is not very clear how governments directly used slaves. The early part of the transatlantic slavery was labor oriented, so it is literally impossible for about 5% of a populace to build the rest through physical work. Later, they saw blacks were mentally capable and the mental contribution of few blacks actually out valued the physical contribution of slaves. For example, it was a black man who discovered the importance of crop rotation and that helped way beyond America, including whites.

Traffic lights and many other things were discovered by blacks, and many of them were hardly well compensated. When the African child is taught crop rotation in school, he may wrongly think thanks to whites or Gardening is for the poor. Blacks may be more physically fit, but not necessarily the most hard working people on earth. Similarly, blacks immensely contributed to the mental Evolution of humankind, but largely outside Africa. This simply means Africa must open doors for our young ones to research and find ways of generous compensation of our trying and great minds. Availability is crucial than affordability, and there are many simple and inexpensive things that are simply not available in many parts of Africa. We need big research-oriented stores and phone numbers to call and order if we need something that is not available. Not everyone have families in the west or Asia, who may even not be helpful enough sometimes. The time and money you spend on learning shows how much you value learning; the money you reserve to help people gain employment is about gratitude, but you must first appreciate employers without worshipping them.

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