The Gambian Civilization

A product of Europen civilization is now confused for Gambian civilization. When we point at glass buildings, or cannot work in factories because machines take man's position, when we yearn for excellence in a colonial language rather than study our local histories we are deemed civilized. Western civilization goes far beyond the readings provided for us today in the Gambian schools. It has even corrupted our own history. We now are friends and enemies of the west at the same pace without any significant boundary. We tend to run a marathon that we can never win- the western way of living. This is not because we are southerners, probably it is because we are ignorant of what we want to achieve and to what extend it will benefit us. When the westerners arrived to our homes, they first try to disstablize our very strongly rooted cultures and traditions to break our social relations that they were jealous of. When they successfully do that through verious means possible, we are still learning from them and consider them the holy architects of our own reconstruction and plight. We still continue to make grave mistakes of abandoning our good cherish cultures of education, morals, religions and rituals that make up our own civilization. This self-extinction for a foreign unknown culture leads us to a destination yet unknown. 

If I understand that I am not civilized, I am acknowledging that I am inferior to someone I perceive civilized. This very perception of Gambian people considering themselves as uncivilized has aided those outside their borders to claim authority over them. This same paradigm of differences that exist between Gambians and other people is now transparent within Gambians themselves from the farm to the hugest and highest political office. We are now not a whole as history will account but instead independent pats of a whole. This cultural phenomena is now lying heavily across all sectors and bridging Gambian sociopolitical progress. Our integration is flatly fading out more than ever before and we are disunited to collectively work on reconstructing our social bonds to institute our perfect unified cultural heritage. We are claiming for what we do not know or own. We considered other people's cultures as valid and standard and ours as a student. Our gods are less beautiful and stronger. 

Our cosmos is no more. Our spirits and knowledge of seeing our progress is also fragile and we are now struggling in our own wildernesses independently. Our wisdoms are not locally valid, our profound aspirations are cracking and our linage as a people is not even sang or written anywhere. Our ways are not in any way confined to our history from schools to the parliament, from homes to the farms, as individuals and as groups, as a community and as a country. In spite of knowledge of this distractions from our cultures, our institutions are still more blind than are expected. They have now lost their own rhythms while dancing to others foreign tunes. Though the music is unpleasant but we are still dancing to it. Though we can't understand it yet we claim to do. This transcendental nonsense has superseded our minds and hearts and through this vain we will continue to fail woefully and our successors will never forgive us just as I will never my ancestors.

Knowledge and observation should exist to guide and strengthen our society but since the knowledge we intend to seek doesn't depict the reality on the ground, we will always fail within that pattern. Our local wisdoms which convey our cosmos are death and the few who struggle for survival are disregarded and trashed out. Probably we should take examples from Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, Japan and so on where tradition still dictate development. I will never welcome bad cultures but I will not abandon my own culture. We might integrate but not that which will disintegrate us. Gambians should be proud of themselves-their own culture.