“Dida Halake Has Failed Miserably,”says The Watchman

BANJUL LETTER: DIDA HALAKE SHOULD STOP PATRONIZING GAMBIANS

BY THE WATCHMAN

Roots Rock Reggae legends Bob Marley and Peter Tosh advocated African cohesion in their songs "Africa Unite" and "African" respectively. Marcus Mosiah Garvey is an international icon famous for his pan-African tenets and "Back to Africa" movement through organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Leopold Sedar Senghore, venerated Senegalese statesman, stirred the imagination with his concept of Negritude during the quest for solidarity in Francophone Africa and beyond. The concept of African unity has been an ongoing, albeit unsuccessful, quest as evidenced by the impotence of the now defunct OAU and the continuing ineffectiveness of the AU. This however has not deterred  NGOs, politicians, mercenaries and other unsavory characters from cynically exploiting the matter for their own shady ulterior motives. During his tumultuous stay in The Gambia, Dida Halake in his capacity as a "journalist" managed to fool many and infuriate multitudes by dint of his views on matters political and sometimes trivial. The raw reactions, pro and con, that he generates among Gambians is testament to the ability of citizens in that small but proud nation to detect a fraud when they see one. His recent lazy, self-promoting, cut and paste article "ALL of Africa must be home to ALL of us Africans" is the latest illustration of his oppturnistic dabbling.

Now this is not another xenophobic, jingoistic focus on Mr. Halake. Insults and epithets had been unfairly hurled at him based on the sole merit that he had taken the initiative to comment on Gambian matters as a journalist of "foreign" origin. These dirty assaults decapitate any objectivity that his critics could have salvaged in the first place. What's more, attitudes like this are not helpful among Senegambians as evidenced by the ethnic riots that flared between Senegal and Mauritania 20 years ago in April 1989 during which hundreds perished on both sides. There is also a stinging double standard among Mr. Halake's detractors. They totally disparage their own fellow African in the person of Dida Halake but proceed to give the benefit of the doubt to even more "alien" and international journalists from outfits such as the BBC and Associated Press (AP). As morally bankrupt as his tenure at The Daily Observer was, he added a modicum of vivacity to that APRC mouthpiece through his sometimes agile intellect. One has to also grudgingly admire the wry sense of humor that Dida Halake has frequently employed in deflecting some of the withering ad hominem broadsides that come his way like intercontinental ballistic missiles. This characteristic is worthy of emulation by some prickly Gambian journalists who lick perceived wounds of the ego for days and go AWOL on matters of pressing national importance. His material aspirations are nobody's business in the sense that most of those offering this type of complaint are themselves located in opulent Western countries where they are applying their industry and ability to accumulate similar materials benefits for their families.

The crux of the problem with Mr. Halake's stance, as it is with many other Africans of dubious intent, is character. Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist, once said "Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think." There have been countless individuals of intellect who have been co-opted into terrible regimes as ambassadors of felonious policies and envoys of homicidal missions. History is replete with men of immense ability serving mediocre masters until they end up being unceremoniously disposed of themselves, a fate Mr. Halake can expertly give witness to. What has prevented them from breaking free of these guilty bonds has been the absence of character. During the darkest days of South African Apartheid, Steve Biko, master of a fantastic mind and brave resistance leader, came to be feared greatly by the security apparatus because of his unyielding dedication to exposing the atrocities of a racist system. His character, his role during that era was no less different than that of a dedicated journalist seeking the truth, in the same vein as Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein whose exploits led to the Watergate breakthrough. Through his Black Conscious movement, Steve Biko was able to cultivate and sustain a growing group of equal rights activists who not only utilized intellect as a tool in fighting their oppressors but developed characters immune to brutal coercion methods usually employed by their persecutors. In 1977, while in the custody of bloodthirsty operatives, Mr. Biko was murdered, resisting to the end. Hitting even closer to home, the assassination of Deyda Hydara by agents of the Gambian government in 2004 shocked many but nothing is beneath Banjul's killer twins Yahya Jammeh and Isatou Njie Saidy. In addition to his immense gifts as a journalist, Mr. Hydara possessed grace, gravitas and character that his enemies lacked and feared. Anyone can have or masquerade to be an intellect. It is when combined with character that it becomes a potent force beneficial to fellow citizens. This is the Achilles Heel of Mr. Halake's pretensions to journalistic respectability.

Another trick that Mr. Halake has employed in castigating his critics as mere nativist chauvinists has been to claim that he is as Gambian as any of these opponents by dint of his long sojourn among us and love for all things Gambian. This was the typical colonialist stance before the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 when European powers convened to divide and exploit the "Dark Continent" after pretending to be mere friendly traders while assessing the riches they could aggressively benefit from after subduing and economically exploiting the locals; a scheme Mr. Halake had carried out in The Gambia and is probably hatching in that center of international capitalism and finance itself, London. Some Africans who preach unity like Mr. Halake attempted in his weak effort of an "article", should be sometimes viewed suspiciously. The likes of Robert Mugabe who was an African hero upon Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 are now international pariahs scorned for running their nations into the ground while accusing rivals as "imperialists" and "racists." This is an insult to suffering Zimbabweans just like Dida Halake's function as a die-hard APRC ideologue injures and further extends the pain of silent Gambians who keep mum out of fear for their lives and out of a need for largesse in the form of food and other social amenities that only an authoritarian junta can deliver in contrast to the empty promises and dysfunction of Gambian opposition parties. Claims of globalization aside, what Mr. Halake does not contemplate or refuse to understand is that his acts of collaboration with a despised leader are akin to desecrating the sovereign will of the muzzled Gambian populace which is more legitimate and of a higher moral standard than the sovereignty that can and has been claimed by Yahya Jammeh in his deranged claim as "Developer-in-Chief". If and when Gambians finally rid their nation of the APRC scourge and embark on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Mr. Halake shouldn’t bother to show up. We know he won't speak the truth and it's a fact we won't reconcile with a mercenary that kowtows only to the highest bidder.

Perhaps all of this is futile. Maybe Mr. Halake is suffering from an ailment that will make it very hard for him to admit to a dereliction of occupational duty and lack of self respect: Stockholm Syndrome. This affliction is commonly found among kidnapping victims who after a prolonged period in captivity come to empathize and even side with their abductors as the famous Patty Hearst case shows. Captured in the 70s by the Symbionese Liberation Army, she got so brainwashed by the criminals who held her that she even participated in bank robberies and other inequities carried out by the group. Dida Halake's Stockholm Syndrome is manifested by his denial of any personal responsibility by Yahya Jammeh during his disgraceful fall from prominence last year and his continued Griot-like description of The Gambia as virtually West Africa's Eden. He, Halake, is convinced that Yahya Jammeh is good for us Gambians in spite of his shortcomings. He, Halake, is also convinced that he has done nothing wrong as an enabler of thugs and thieves while at The Daily Observer. It is these convictions that make Mr. Halake a formidable and slipperly foe because even Nietzsche recognized that "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." Gambians as divided and unruly as we can be a times, resent the unnecessary dictates of outsiders. That's why we told Abdou Joof to take a hike in 1989 when the Senegambian Confederacy threatened to be an unequal partnership. Gambians as appreciative as we are of some of the infrastructural developments in our nation, thrown to us a crumbs by the Jammeh administration, crave more for our souls in the form of liberty. Jesus retorted "man does not live by bread alone" when he was taunted by the Devil during his 40 days and nights of fasting. The Holy Quran preaches against Dhulm al-insaani li ghairihi (for a person to oppress) among the slaves of Allah and His creation. This is for a Muslim to unjustly take the property of another or harm and oppress them with violence, insults, other forms of aggression and taking advantage of another's weakness. Most oppression falls on the weak and defenseless such as orphans, children or citizens who do not possess the horrible weapons and invasive intelligence apparatus of their oppressors. One hopes that Mr. Halake is neither Christian or Muslim because he has conveniently ignored principles and values, a transgression that would keep the average believer awake and shivering for many nights. Judging by his feats in the past, he'd probably say this is none of my affair as God himself has "sanctioned' his "heroic deeds". I agree.

All of this is not to say the Gambian psyche is hermetic and wary of outsiders. We are receptive our fellow Africans and other visitors who have the genuine interest of our welfare on their minds. We are friendly to a fault and famous for our hospitality to deserving strangers. We are eager for the tools of development. We crave knowledge, health and wealth. We love God and cherish the sanctity of life. We are also astute observers of character and it is our collective conclusion that in this department, Dida Halake has failed miserably. I am sure he won't take this personally. This is child's play compared to the dreadful punishment his former master, Yahya Jammeh, could have dished out to him.

Gambiaswatchman@gmail.com