As outgoing Gambian president Yahya Jammeh finally hands over power to his successor Adama Barrow, our chair Diane Fisher reports back on a troubled week in the country.
To my dismay, most of our work this week has been delayed due to the stalling of the outgoing president Yahya Jammeh. He was due to hand over power to incoming president, Adama Barrow, on Wednesday 18th after 22 years in power. It wasn’t until the very real threat of ECOWAS military force, plus the diplomatic skill of a number of West African presidents was applied that he finally left on Saturday 21st.
The 68 hours between were some of the longest that many Gambians had ever lived through. Due to the State of Emergency and the general atmosphere of fear, those of us who did not evacuate to Europe or flee to rural areas or neighbouring countries were advised to stay in our compounds until the situation had resolved itself. This amounted to days of house arrest and even if you went out, nothing was open – no shops, businesses, schools, offices or banks. No one was on the street. There were no children scampering in the lanes, no gaggles of young boys on the corners and not even any goats or chickens scavenging outside their compounds! The only activity was at the checkpoints manned by soldiers with big guns on all the paved roads. We had no choice but stay at home and watch CNN or Twitter to find out if he had “left yet”, or, in my case, binge read and work on my suntan on the roof!
Previously on Monday, Mala and I had decided to travel to Banjul while we could, as she had some family business to organise. It took a long time due to checkpoints and the resultant four-lane traffic jam, and when we finally arrived, the city was already a ghost town. Anyone who could leave already had, and those left were quickly packing in order to flee before the midnight deadline on the 18th. No transport was running inside the city so we had to walk everywhere and by noon I was already flagging.
We got back to Westfield by 1pm, met Mr Ceesay and collected the detailed school plans from the architect. I was overjoyed to see that he had done a fantastic, professional job for only 4500dl (about £78). We then went to officially register the land.
First we had to go to the bank and pay 5000dl (£86) Land Ownership Transfer fee and then take the receipt to Brikama, the second largest administrative headquarters after Banjul, where the offices were still open and functioning as normal. We went to the office of the Ministry for Local Government and Lands to get an official Transfer of Land Ownership Certificate.
Apparently, registering land officially is still fairly unusual as it is much more involved and expensive than the unofficial transfer procedure that we completed last week (hence all the horror stories you often hear regarding disputed ownership). It is usually only foreigners who insist on this.
Next we took our certificate and the architect’s plans to the Department of Physical Planning and Housing. Here we hit our first real snag. Apparently, the architect’s plans were fine but the location plan was not – a representative of the office would have to physically visit the plot to see it was where we said it was – translation: pay more money. Lots more of the same as he outlined this ‘tax’ that would need to be paid and that ‘development fee’. At this point it was late in the day, we were all exhausted from miles of walking in the heat and dust and I decided to call it a day, until I could check and double check what these additional fees were for and if they were legitimate, negotiable or even necessary.
Tuesday was a day of rising tension and fear, increasing or diminishing in concentration as rumours circulated and new events unfolded. We heard that president-elect Adama Barrow’s 8-year-old son had died the previous day from dog bite – everyone suspected ‘juju’ or foul play. [Steering group member] James [Scurry] updated me by text on the growing crisis and in the morning I stocked up on food and essential goods. We developed a back-up plan in the event of needing to leave the country.
In the afternoon I went to Jeshwan and went around builders’ merchants getting estimates for the prices of the school building materials. On the way home, Jammeh came on the radio and declared a State of Emergency – I admit this sent a shiver up my spine, especially when we went past the airport and I saw that soldiers and sandbags were already in place. As a lifetime student of African history, the precedents were too terrifying to dwell on.
Wednesday morning was crazy as nearly all my friends and family were texting to see if I was alright. Mala’s phone didn’t stop ringing for hours. We walked up to the main road and it was empty, no transport even if we wanted to go about our business. I bought phone credit and came back to start what would be nearly four days of kicking my heels, waiting for Jammeh to finally go, so we could get on with things – four precious days of watching time slip away.
But it was, as it turned out, a truly memorable time to be in the Gambia – a wonderful opportunity to watch this country I love so much transfer power fairly peacefully, to a democratically elected President. It was a true honour to share this historic moment with my dear friends, a joy to listen to Barrow’s inauguration speech – short, to the point, sincere, positive. I could not help but compare it to the verbose, insincere, pomposity of the American president-elect’s speech the following day. I think the Gambia is on the brink of a really exciting future of opportunity and progress. I am cheering them all the way!
It is an incredible privilege to be here now, finally in a position to build a nursery school which will give poor and orphaned Gambian children the best possible start in life. This opportunity has only been made possible thanks to all the extraordinary people in the UK and around the world who have helped us get this far – nearing the finishing line of this project. Soon we will have a modern and well-equipped nursery school, owned, managed and staffed by Gambians, both Christian and Muslim, working in peace, harmony and understanding.
Ceesay Nursery School 