Africa-Press – Gambia. In the Gambia, a flourishing comedy scene is used to convey serious messagesA new Irish Times series, Young Africans Rising, begins today with this report by Sally Hayden.
When he was still in control of the Gambia, Africa’s smallest mainland country, Yahya Jammeh presided over a macabre kind of graduation. The eccentric dictator, who claimed he had discovered the cure for Aids, would bring infected people for treatment at his state house, smearing green paste on them, forcing them to drink herbal mixtures and banning them from taking their usual anti-retroviral drugs, before releasing them in televised ceremonies as he declared them cured.
Sometimes, there was a foursome of young performers in attendance. Their job was to praise a man who they knew could have them, and everyone they knew, disappeared or killed.
“He gave us money,” says Assan Jobe, now 26. “We were very young. We were not thinking about criticising him at that point.”
Jammeh was ousted in 2016 after 22 years in power. He has not faced justice and lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea. Many of the Gambia’s banknotes still bear his face. We have so much police brutality. We came out and said the police should be respectful to everyone and we all deserve democracy and justice
This sliver of land in West Africa is known as the “smiling coast” because of its shape and positioning on maps. You can get an idea how small the Gambia is from the telephone numbers, which are just seven digits long. It has a population of roughly 2.4 million people, almost three-quarters of whom are under the age of 35. Over the past five years, they have adjusted to their newfound democracy and freedom of speech with the involvement of one key group of influencers: comedians.
Bright Stars Entertainment is made up of four members, now in their mid- to late 20s. The young men, who met while they were volunteering with the Red Cross, say they no longer want to reflect on the past or what it was like growing up in a dictatorship.Speaking days before the Gambia’s December 4th election – the first since Jammeh left power – they say their focus is on whoever will be the new president, and they would be front and centre, protesting, before the country turned towards authoritarianism again.
Assan says comedy is a useful tool in a dictatorship because “you can address issues without insulting [the leadership]”. But when Jammeh was in power, they had to “censor the content very well”.
No-go zones included “the government itself; the work of the government. Ridiculing them. Some of the things they were not doing.” Now, he says, “we believe we have the right to say anything” while making sure their jokes are based on “facts” and “respect”.“We don’t want to talk about Jammeh now, he has no influence over the country, we don’t even think about him . . . It was like we were sleeping. Never again,” says 27-year-old Pa Modou Yaffa. “Do you believe in oxygen? It’s so sweet. We enjoy breathing the oxygen of democracy.”
One of the issues they have spoken out about is police brutality. “We have so much police brutality. We came out and said the police should be respectful to everyone and we all deserve democracy and justice,” says Assan. They create songs, using them to talk about corruption. “In one of the songs, we said follow the Covid-19 money. We want to know where the [donations] are going,” he says. Sporadic
In another, they make fun of the sporadic electricity supply citizens were dealing with, which served less than half of the population. “It went viral,” says Yaffa. Shortly afterwards, a government deal with Turkish company Karpower was announced.Still, they feel they walk a difficult line between challenging power and encouraging stability. “We are not enemies. We work with the government; just sometimes we pinpoint issues that are affecting the society. We are neutral, we are not into any [politician]. All we want is national development,” says Assan.
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