Home : General : Gambia News : Mourides in Gambia volunteer to harvest President’s farms
Gambia News : Mourides in Gambia volunteer to harvest President’s farms
Hundreds of volunteers from the Muridiyya brotherhood, a Senegal-rooted Muslim grouping, will on Saturday help harvest the rice, groundnuts and millet farms of the Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh.
converge on the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s place of to birth Kanilai (the President’s place of birth) and The leader of the Mourides in Banjul, Mr. Pap Demba Jobe, a local business magnate had broadcast on radio and television, an order (Ndigal) of the Khalifa for all able bodied Mourides to go to the President’s farms to harvest crops which are in danger of being lost due to failure to harvest them in time.
Demba Jobe doubles as the official Gambian representative of the Mouride brotherhood Khalifa, Serigne Lamine Barra Falilou Mbacke of Touba in Senegal- grandson of the late venerable Ahmadu Bamba Mbacke- and founder of the brotherhood.
Jammeh himself has broadcast several personal messages while visiting the farms located in his native village of Kinalai and in various other areas throughout the country, imploring volunteers to go to the farms and help with the harvest.
His appeals did not fail to reach the Khaliffa in Touba who, in an unusual show of solidarity , issued his ndigal, which amounts to a command for his followers, comprising Senegalese and Gambians.
Therefore, from designated pickup points Mourides will on Saturday join specially arranged transports, leaving as early as 6.30 am, to go to pre-designated farms to harvest the crops. All concerned will later converge at Kanilai for a night’s sojourn before continuing the task on hand on Sunday.
These developments are all as a result of Jammeh’s back to the land call in promotion of his government’s agriculture policy. In support of the policy, he set a personal example by engaging in farming, and has in fact been spending his annual holiday on his farms in Kanilai.
The President’s effort has over the years attracted a lot of volunteers ranging from party stalwarts, to women’s groups, youths, civil servants in government departments and ministries, personnel of the armed forces, the security services and diplomats.
The whole effort is coordinated by regional governors who make the necessary transport arrangements with the managers of the farms.
The proceeds from the farms provide funds for the Jammeh Foundation, the President’s Empowerment of Girls Edication Project, and other schemes designed to finance the needy particularly in the areas of ill health, education, and the education of girls in particular, up to university level her and abroad, and for similar services.
The back to the land scheme has now become a big business undertaking registerd under the name of Kanilai Farms, and providng a bakery, butcheries and the sale of commodities like rice and sugar, in an effort to keep down prices of basic commodities.
As in previous years, the usual call for volunteers had gone out with the onset of the rains earlier this year.
The real danger now is that the bulk of the harvest could be lost due to delay to remove the crops from the fields. The intervention of the Mourides this weekend may however prove crucial in averting such a disaster.
3298 times read
- Is very unfortunate that our political differences is making us condem anything the president does good. Lets remember that it's we the Gambians directly and indirectly benefiting from the harvest. So you still see this as slavery? May God Help.
(Posted on December 1, 2009, 9:45 PM Lamin)
- Yes, this is either slavery or severe butt kissing, on the behalf of the Moride Brotherhood. WHAT are they after?
(Posted on November 20, 2009, 10:19 PM David Allan Riddington)
- Yes, lamin jallow.you knows exactly what going on in africa.please ,try and inform your relatives friends ,....and so on, to vote for the right party int he next election or after the election,we the warrior kings will match from koina to katon war
(Posted on November 19, 2009, 10:35 AM jammeh)
- 21th century slavery. We don't need white people anymore to suppress ourselves. We vote for somebody to do it.
(Posted on November 14, 2009, 2:15 AM Lamin Jallow)
|
|
|
Rate this Gambia Article
 (total 39 votes)
|
Gambia News
Gambia Archive
Newsletter
Poll: 2011- Gambia General Election
Comment on This Gambia News (4 posted)
Syndication
