Dawda Faye’s letter said it all, but provided no answers for there is no answer to the question asked and nor can there ever be unless the people themselves have a voice in their future.
The one thing that can be said for the current crop of African leaders is that they learned one thing and one thing only from the days of their colonial past and that is that the one holding the biggest gun has the power.
Look around you.   Where have the days of slavery gone ?
You still have them but now they are in the name of independence.
People are still starving to death and this aspect is reported quite heavily in Europe and the West and yet you still rely on Western aid to get you out of the mess that your own leaders have brought upon you.
But why ?
You have a whole continent that is probably richer in mineral wealth than the whole of Europe so who is letting you down ?
I am English but my family is African, Gambian to be precise and so I am quite aware of some of the problems faced by Gambians on a daily basis.
Let us take the price of a bag of rice as an example.
These are currently being sold at 1000 dalasi and yet President Jammeh himself has decreed that they should be sold at no more than 800 and that anybody overcharging will be prosecuted.
If you try to buy one then you are told that the cost is 1000 and you can take it or leave it ?  
So where are the prosecutions ?
If you make a complaint then the merchant is taken to the local police station and interviewed but within a couple of days is charging 1000 again.
So I repeat the question.  Where are the prosecutions ?
Somebody is getting richer on the differential and it isn’t my family and neither is it yours, so the question must be asked who is ?
 
This brings us to Demba Ali Jawo’s question in the same edition, why has aid from the U.K. to The Gambia been stopped ?
I have read many articles recently in many newspapers trying to answer that selfsame question.
The U.K. is still supporting aid to Nigeria, which is certainly the richest country on the African continent and yet it is probably also the most corrupt in terms of officialdom, and also Zimbabwe, which probably has the most brutal regime ?
Why would they do that ?
That is a question I cannot currently answer, but I have my suspicions ?
They are also supporting aid to India which is one of the richest countries in Asia, so the question must be asked as to why The Gambia who are one of the poorer nations were singled out as to receive no more aid ?
The official line from the UK’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell is as follows: 
‘We have decided to focus UK aid more tightly on the countries where the UK is well placed to have a significant long-term impact on poverty…’
And if you believe that, then quite honestly you will believe the moon is made of cheese…
 I wrote the following words in 2002 from the perspective of somebody in the UK who was being asked to contribute to yet another African aid appeal, and have been performing it on stage ever since, and yes, it has even been performed in The Gambia.
 
HEARTS OF DARKNESS
 
I’m bored with bloody Africa and the same pictures on the screen
Those images flashed around the world are pictures we’ve all seen
It seems all their politicians, whoever they may be
Are claiming yet more aid to avoid the pain of a global tragedy
 I’m bored with bloody Africa and their wars that never cease
The killing, crying, raping, dying of a people on their knees
And all their murderous warlords whoever they may be
Who claim the right to kill to cure the ill of those who’d choose democracy
I’m bored with bloody Africa and the aids virus rampant there
Whose governments won’t endorse contraception to look out for their people’s welfare
And all those politicians who stay silent and who allow this insanity
Must live in shame and must take the blame for a generation born with H.I.V.
 I’m bored with bloody Africa and their despots who live like kings
Who plunder aid given for their people’s plight, which they spend on other things
But all their blood-spattered dictatorships wherever they might be
Will be found guilty of more than genocide when judged by humanity
I’m bored with bloody Africa, the show went on far too long
A whole continent still in bondage which fate their governments still prolong
And you might almost call it slavery should you be of the mind
It seems so strange some things don’t change, this world can be so unkind…
 
But then last week, whilst in The Gambia I wrote the following words.
They have not yet been performed live but they most certainly will be…
 
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
 
We send them bags from charities
Full of Western cast-off clothes
While dogs and cats and goats and rats
Scavenge upon the road
 
A world that goes un-noticed
A world the West don’t share
A world their politicians don’t talk about
In a world where they don’t care
 
Where poverty’s all pervading
And the tourists do not see
Outside their hotel swimming pools
And their glasses of iced tea
 
Where children dress in hand-me-downs
And walk miles to get to school
That’s if their parents can afford the fees
To send them there at all ?
 
As we drive to mall’s and supermarkets
To salve our conscience with ‘Fair Trade’
Governments make deals behind people’s backs
Cutting off much needed aid
 
So we send them bags from charities
Full of Western cast-off clothes
After their charity workers have plundered them
So no designer labels go
 
But all that goes un-noticed
In this world the West don’t share
For their politicians have never walked these streets
And is that not reason to despair ?
 
Which I humbly dedicate to my family and my friends who try so hard to put rice and fish in front of their families…
I don’t have the answers to any of the questions, but I wish I did…
A friend of mine who worked for an aid organisation in The Congo said that the problems of Africa can only be solved by the African people, and he is right.
The future is in your hands.
Please use it wisely.
 
 
 
Chris Ripple
Poet
Performer
Promotor. Arcadeclectic Stage, Rhythms of The World Music Festival.