Gambians have reached the bottom. They don't have work, they don't have money, and they dream of leaving this sliver of a nation hugging the banks of the River Gambia in West Africa. The tragedy of the country was personified in the drowning of one of its most promising sporting stars, young wrestler Ali Mbengu, 22, who was trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Gambia's sporting community and the entire nation mourned Mbengu, and there are thousands of others in Gambia who feel an acute sense of abandonment. It is against this grim backdrop that Gambia's former president Yahya Jammeh has left the country in the wake of elections that ousted him after 22 years in power. He boarded a plane to neighbouring Guinea, and from there he travelled on to exile in Equatorial Guinea. As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press, it was not confirmed by the authorities in Equatorial Guinea that Jammeh had actually landed safe and sound. Jammeh's impertinence was astounding. He waved to his supporters, promising to return, and left Gambia in billowing white robes as if he was enjoying a moment of fame. Jammeh has many followers, and many of them bid him farewell at the airport as he flew out carrying stacks of dollars in his luggage. Jammeh was accompanied onto the plane by Guinean President Alpha Conde, who mediated the terms of his exit with his Mauritanian counterpart Mohamed Ould Abdel-Aziz and other leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional grouping. A separate plane was scheduled to take out Jammeh's family and close aides. Gambia's Atlantic Ocean beaches make it a choice holiday destination for Europeans, boosted by its relative proximity to Europe. Tourism, peanut production and overseas remittances are crucial to the economy of this country of 1.8 million. Adama Barrow, the opposition politician who conclusively won the December 2016 elections, was sworn in at a low-key ceremony in the Gambian embassy in Dakar, the neighbouring Senegalese capital. Barrow is currently residing in Dakar until the political situation is stabilised in Gambia. Jammeh, who had initially accepted his defeat at the polls, later reversed his decision and was only forced to leave the country after troops from Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Uganda under the auspices of ECOWAS were deployed in Gambia. Nigeria, the wealthiest and most powerful nation militarily in the region, had threateningly positioned an aircraft carrier just off the port of Gambia's capital Banjul. In the past, a Senegambia Confederation was established between Gambia and neighbouring Senegal, which engulfs Gambia as it is almost completely surrounded by the country. The two overwhelmingly Muslim nations have an almost identical ethnic composition and share common cultural values. Senegambia came to an abrupt end in August 1989. Senegal, selected by ECOWAS to lead the mission to remove Jammeh, moved its troops into Gambia last week. Jammeh, a dictator who had ruled the country with an iron grip since 1994, had earlier derisively dismissed the Gambian opposition as “opportunistic people supported by the West”. In 2008, he vowed he would “cut off the head” of any gay or lesbian person discovered in the country. Yet, he turned a blind eye to elderly European men and women sexually exploiting young Gambian men and women. Jammeh has also apparently emptied the country's coffers, it being estimated that he pilfered some $11.4 million while in office, no small sum for a nearly bankrupt state. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Gambia Wrestling Federation, Matarr Saine, spoke of the grief of the whole wrestling community at Mbengu's death. Wrestling is hugely popular in Gambia and neighbouring Senegal, but political wrestling is the exclusive domain of Gambia, a country that has grappled with political instability, coup d'états and dictatorship since its independence from Britain in 1965. Senegal, in contrast, has been a model of political stability since it gained independence from France in 1960. Tourism and remittances from abroad are the only means to put the Gambian economy on a sustainable footing. Peanut farming, long a mainstay, is an industry in decline, and so are the once lucrative fishing canoes crewed by handfuls of local Gambian fishermen which now take in pitifully few fish. European, Chinese and Russian industrial trawlers are over-fishing and depleting the once rich fish reserves off the coast of Gambia and other West African nations. The resulting ecological collapse of what was once one of the world's most abundant fishing grounds is an imminent danger. Jammeh was defeated in December's election by Barrow, but went on to garner support from influential Muslim clerics and the Gambian army and Presidential Guard. Nevertheless, “the rule of fear has been banished from Gambia for good,” Barrow told a crowd at a Dakar hotel last Friday, once it had become clear that a deal had been struck for Jammeh to relinquish power. Jammeh's security forces offered no resistance to soldiers from the military wing of ECOWAS, called ECOMOG. Around 4,000 troops are now stationed in Gambia, and some will remain to ensure security, said Marcel de Souza, head of the ECOWAS commission. From 2006 to 2012, the Gambian economy grew annually at a pace of five to six per cent of GDP. The country's economy is expected to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2017 after a projected contraction of four per cent last year, according to World Bank estimates. However, Gambia has few employment opportunities, particularly for young people. The coffers of Gambia's Central Bank are empty, plundered by Jammeh, his lackeys and hangers-on. Barrow's twin priorities now are the provision of security and the launch of an economic rescue package to deal with a depleted revenue base. The effects of economic hardship are being felt as never before across the country, and the situation has been worsened by the rising expectations of Gambia's youth. Unemployment stood at 29.8 per cent in 2013, an all-time high. Gambia's civil service is beset by insecurity of tenure, a lackadaisical attitude, absence of innovation and little professionalism. Perhaps, the triumvirate of the right skills, capital and markets will now come to the rescue. The pressure is increasing for change, and the backlash among disillusioned voters is rising. The coalition of opposition parties that came together to oust Jammeh in elections that were pronounced by local and international observers as free and fair will now have to show that it can deliver.
