Gambia: Tribal and Religious Divide - Potential Threat to National Security

Throughout the history of mankind, tribal and religious divide have become synonymous with violence, instigating the most brutal of atrocities the world has ever witnessed. Too much blood have been spilt and so many innocent lives lost as a result of senseless and unprovoked attacks to certain groups in society whose only crimes are either their religious beliefs or the tribe they happen to belong.

Ethnic tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis sparked the unfortunate Rwandan genocide. On April 6th 1994, as Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana returned from a round of talks in neighboring Tanzania, he was killed when his plane was shot down outside of the country’s capital, Kigali. The president’s death provided a spark for an organised campaign of violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians across the country. In just a matter of hours, Hutu rebels surrounded the capital and took over the streets of Kigali. Within a day, the Hutus had successfully eliminated Rwanda’s moderate leadership. As the weeks progressed, Tutsis and anyone suspected of having any ties to a Tutsi, were killed (endgenocide).

Within 100 days, about 800,000 people senselessly lost their lives, about 500,000 women reportedly raped and an estimated 100,000 children orphaned.

And most recently in in 2013, a brutal religious tension broke out in the Central African Republic when the Seleka group - a rebel movement representing Muslims, from the northeast of the country launched a major military offensive and topple the government of President Francois Bozize. The anti-Balaka Christian group put up a resistance and start attacking Muslim civilians which prompted the Seleka group to retaliate and also started killing non-Muslims, targeting mainly the ‘Gbaya ethnic group’.

The end result again; mass atrocities, homes and livelihoods reduced to ashes, as well as thousands of displaced people.

Photo source: betanews

These two unfortunate episodes among other violent troubles pretty much darkens African history. Therefore, they should be observed as a wake up call to all African countries, especially the Gambia where religious and ethnic divide is slowly starting to brew. Two recent declarations made the country's President are clear indications that if care is not taken, peace-loving Gambians might be heading to a very bleak future indeed.

Firstly, the Gambia was declared an Islamic State by the President to the bewilderment of many including myself. The Gambia has forever been a secular state even though the country’s population is about 90% Muslim. So it goes without saying that Christians and people of other faiths in the country will be feeling somehow marginalised by such proclamation. And this could only lead to resentment by such minority groups who have nothing but enjoyed the most harmonious of relationships with Muslims throughout the history of the Gambia.

Secondly, the President, at his recent meet-the-people's tour accused the biggest ethnic group in the country of tribalism and also labelled them as foreigners. This, in my opinion will go down as one of the most miscalculated and misguided statement he has ever made. If the Mandinkas who inhabited the Gambia for centuries are ineligible to be classified as Gambians, then I for one have no clue who a Gambian really is. The President's remarks understandably grabbed the headlines once more, inundated the social media outlets, and even prompted a condemnation from the UN Secretary General's adviser on the prevention of genocide.

So Gambia, lest we forget! we ought to be very careful. We must never be divided into 'us' versus 'them'. Tribalism and Religious conflicts must never visit our beloved country. At the end of the day, be it Mandinka or Wolof, Christian or Muslim, we are all equal in the eyes of the Almighty.