Editorial

It is indeed heart warming that the first edition of ‘Back to Africa Festival’, a festival organised by a Diaspora Africans with a view to bring home Africans in the Diaspora to connect to their roots and culture is being staged in The Gambia. We applaud the organisers for a job well done and hope that the festival would progress to become an annual event.

The significance of bringing Africans abroad  back to Africa, a scheme which had long been going on and which our dear leader President Jammeh greatly adores and is very much part of, as demonstrated by the Kanilai International Cultural Festival, cannot be overemphasised.  The conspiracy of events against our continent has made it an open secret that our culture is ridiculed by those who dominated us for centuries because they want to keep us floating in the sea of ignorance.

This reality explains why there is much pessimism about Africa and the African people. The image of Africa, which prevails in the world, is an image of hungry and dying children and mothers withering away in desolate lands because of hunger and poverty; child soldiers roaming about avenging the death of their parents who are lying in unmarked graves with amputated hands and legs and sliced throats.

This is the picture one gets; a picture of an Africa without a history, without a past, without a present and without a future. Until our Africans in Diaspora trapped in this imperial conspiracy against our continent are brought home to understand the way of life of their people, and accepting their people by integrating with them, Africa’s greatness and the wealth of her culture would remain suspended.

After all, Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation.  All attempts and opportunities must be explored to bring the sons and daughters of the continent together to feel and share the spirit of fraternity. The sustainability and expansion of the scope of the festival would doubtless go a long way in complementing the efforts of the leadership in the achievement of the Pan African objectives.

Participants at the festival would indeed as the tourism minister stated, find The Gambia a true smiling coast of Africa. They can enjoy our unity in diversity and serve as inspiration for many more other Africans in the Diaspora to come back to the motherland to explore the African identity.  Once again we say kudos to the organisers for choosing The Gambia as the launching ground for the festival.