The Civic Scribe: Articles & Poems

the-gambia

  • The Gambia’s Democratic Gamble Is Entering Its Most Critical Phase

    When Gambians swept Adama Barrow into office in 2016, ending Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year authoritarian rule, the country became an unexpected symbol of democratic possibility in West Africa. The world applauded the peaceful transition, the courage of voters, and the insistence – by regional bodies and Gambian civil society alike – that the will of the

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  • The Gambia’s Reckoning: How a Former Dictator Could Slip Back In

    The Gambia stands at a precipice. Last month, in a WhatsApp audio message played to supporters in his home village, former dictator Yahya Jammeh proclaimed he would return this November after nearly nine years in exile. “Nobody can prevent me from coming in,” he declared, invoking a purported agreement that initially facilitated his departure. In

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  • The Gambia’s Agonizing Wait: A Nation Braces for a Tyrant’s Return

    The Gambia stands at a political precipice, caught between a painful past and an uncertain future. The source of this crisis is a surreal, modern-day proclamation: a WhatsApp audio recording from exiled former dictator Yahya Jammeh, broadcast to a crowd in his home village of Kanilai, in which he declared his intention to return this

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  • The Gambia’s Democratic Reckoning: As Jammeh Looms, a Nation’s Future Hangs in the Balance

    Exiled autocrat’s promised return tests a fragile democracy In a move that has sent political shockwaves through West Africa, former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh has announced from his exile in Equatorial Guinea that he intends to return to the country he ruled with an iron fist for 22 years. His declaration last month was ominously

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  • The Gambia’s Democratic Experiment Is Failing. The World Must Not Look Away.

    Eight years ago, The Gambia celebrated what seemed to be a democratic miracle. After more than two decades of dictatorship under Yahya Jammeh, citizens voted him out and ushered in President Adama Barrow on promises of reform and renewal. Today, that miracle is in peril, undermined by the very leader who embodied it. The Gambia’s

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  • The Gambia’s Democracy Is Being Tested. It Must Not Fail.

    In the heart of West Africa, a quiet democracy that has endured much is now facing a critical test of its institutional integrity. The Gambia, which transitioned from a 22-year dictatorship to democracy less than a decade ago, now finds itself at a constitutional crossroads following the forcible removal of Auditor General Momodou Ceesay by

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  • Waiting for Reparations: The Agonizing Limbo of Jammeh’s Victims in The Gambia

    Baba Hydara’s eyes hold a grief that time hasn’t softened. His father, the outspoken journalist Deyda Hydara, was gunned down in cold blood nearly two decades ago, a brazen assassination widely attributed to the regime of then-dictator Yahya Jammeh. Baba testified before Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Repatriations Commission (TRRC), baring his family’s wound to the

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  • Drowning in Tribalism, Anchored by Nationalism: The Gambia’s Choice

    In a world increasingly fractured by identity politics, small nations like The Gambia face a stark choice: cling to the divisive politics of ethnicity or forge a unifying nationalism that transcends tribal lines. Here, where the Gambia River stitches together a tapestry of Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Manjago, Serahuli, Aku, Jola, Serer and other communities, the

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