14/06/2026
*Musa Bassadi Jawara Examines Gambia Tribal Politics: When Power Maps Onto Tribe*
By Musa Bassadi Jawara, Economist & Author
For the past two decades I have worked in every region of Africa and have had experiences that very few are fortunate to have. Tribe and ethnicity, albeit very similar with infinitesimal asymmetry, are a powder keg for conflict and disaster in societies and human settlements; anathema to human advancement and development. Given this premise, I have undertaken this onerous and solemn duty to examine the issue of tribe and ethnicity with particular reference to occurrences in The Gambia.
This article was originally slated to be released July 1, but who can predict the future? This piece is a medicament for social and national healing, meant for generations unborn to inherit congenial and amicable living homes anchored in truth, serenity, and fundamental decency. This cannot be put on hold and must be released without further ado.
This is the task, purpose, and objective that necessitated this article. It is intended for leisure reading on social media, more importantly for scholars in academia, and for historical record.
There are voices that fade with time, and there are voices that become the conscience of a nation. On Hilltop Radio on June 11, 2026, the broadcast carried a story that named a wound we all know but rarely name aloud. It was a story of tribalism. Of hate speech. Of a season where words cut deeper than knives. And in that moment, my mind went back, not forward, but back, to the man who taught us how a Gambian should lead.
I remember the Republic that President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara built. A Republic that was, above all else, tribal-blind. Kairaba Jawara did not see Wolof when a Mandinka spoke. He did not see Jola when a Fula stood. He saw Gambian. He was the architect of human and people’s rights in this land, not because he read it in books abroad, but because he believed, in his bones, that dignity has no ethnicity. He was a true democrat not in slogan, but in practice: patient, restrained, convinced that freedom was worth more than control.
When he left power, something shifted. The intervening administrations left much to be desired when it comes to tribe issues. Lines were drawn where none existed. Constituencies were carved along ancestral footprints. “Us” and “them” entered our politics not as whispers, but as strategy. We watched tribal identity move from the comfort of culture into the danger of division. The Republic Kairaba Jawara imagined, one people, one destiny, began to fray at the edges.
But nations are not defined by their worst seasons. They are defined by how they remember their best. Kairaba Jawara gave us a standard. Not a perfect one, but a human one. He proved that a Gambian president could govern without a tribal compass. That a leader could be strong without being divisive. That order could be kept without fear.
So as Minister Sanyang takes up this burden today, let him hear that echo. Let the pronouncements reported on Hilltop Radio be more than warnings. Let them be a return. A return to the Jawara standard: tribal-blind justice, democratic restraint, and the stubborn belief that The Gambia is bigger than any tribe.
This is not nostalgia. This is direction. If Kairaba could do it with the tools of 1965, then we, with our Constitution, our courts, our free press, our youth, can do it again in 2026. The cancer of tribalism is not new. But neither is the cure. The cure is memory. The cure is example. The cure is choosing, again and again, to be Gambian first.
That is the spirit in which we respond. Not with anger. Not with condemnation. But with persuasion. Because the Gambia Kairaba Jawara built is still possible. And it is worth fighting for.
Politics in Africa is based on tribe and ethnicity. Period. That is not theory. That is record. From the gerrymandered districts of Kenya to the winner-takes-all censuses of Nigeria, from the ethnic vetoes of South Sudan to the bloodlines drawn across ballot boxes in Côte d’Ivoire, the continent’s central political currency has too often been ancestry. The Gambia is not an exception. We are a case study.
Two facts now stand in public view. First, for over two months, the issue of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Seedy Njie, a very close confidant of President Barrow who also doubles as the deputy spokesperson of the ruling NPP, has been in the public domain. He was found on recorded tape bragging about rescinding and revoking the nomination of a director general from a Mandinka tribe and party affiliation in the opposition UDP. The veracity or authenticity of the leaked audio is not in doubt. Mr. Njie confirmed it. Second, the Interior Minister, Hon. Abdoulie Sanyang, told the National Assembly on June 10 that the government will not tolerate actions that threaten national unity and peace, and that security agencies will intensify monitoring of political activities to prevent ethnic tensions. Hilltop Radio broadcast the story of the Minister’s pronouncements.
Put those two facts side by side. One is a senior legislator and party spokesperson admitting, on tape, that tribe and party dictated a senior public appointment. The other is a cabinet minister warning the nation that tribalism will not be tolerated. Both cannot be true in practice. Either the state punishes ethnic exclusion at the top, or the state preaches unity while practicing division. Gambians hear the contradiction.
To understand how we arrived here, look at Foni. The extension of Foni District National Assembly representation to 5 seats was not an accident of demography. The numbers were inflated based on tribe. During the 22-year administration of former President Yahya Jammeh, a son of Foni, the political map of the West Coast Region was redrawn. Foni, home to the largest concentration of Jola communities in The Gambia, was carved into 5 National Assembly constituencies. The boundaries tracked ethnic settlement patterns more than population or administrative logic. The result was simple: when constituencies map onto tribe, elections stop being about policy and become headcounts. Voters learn to defend “our seat” against “their seat.” Representation becomes inheritance. Opposition becomes betrayal.
That is the architecture Seedy Njie inherited and now operates within. He was one of the surrogates and ardent supporters of the deposed dictator Yahya Jammeh. Today he sits as Deputy Speaker and serves as deputy spokesperson for the ruling NPP, a confidant of President Barrow. The leaked audio confirms what many Gambians feared: that the same logic of ethnic calculation that drew Foni’s five seats now governs appointments in Banjul. A director general was not judged on competence. He was judged on tribe and UDP membership. That is not patronage. That is political tribalism enforced from the chair of the National Assembly by a man who also speaks for the ruling party.
This is how tribalism becomes one of the sources of conflict and civil wars in Africa. It starts with maps. Foni gets 5 seats because it is Jola. Then it moves to jobs. A Mandinka from UDP loses a nomination because he is Mandinka from UDP. Then it becomes law enforcement. Security agencies monitor “ethnic tensions” while the architects of ethnic exclusion sit in Parliament and in party leadership. The state speaks against hate speech. The state practices hate appointment. The gap between sermon and policy is where trust dies.
Hon. Minister Sanyang said: “The government remains steadfast in its determination to ensure that no individual or group is allowed to undermine the peace and stability of our dear nation by promoting ethnic or tribal hatred.” We agree. Yet we also know that liberty and order are not enemies. American jurisprudence protects free speech and it is sacrosanct in the U.S. Constitution which begins with the words “We the People.” That covenant is a universal standard that protects humanity and humankind, because only law, not impulse, can bind a diverse people together. And, Minister Sanyang, whatever action you take must not be born from impulse, as acerbic and corrosive as the issue of tribalism and hate speech is. Stay within the boundaries of law and apply it without fear or favor. As Dr. King warned, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and “the time is always right to do what is right.”
We agree. Start with the tape. Start with Foni. If the government is serious, then no individual is above that standard, not even the Deputy Speaker and deputy party spokesperson. If the government is serious, then constituencies drawn on ethnic lines must be reviewed by the Independent Electoral Commission and the National Assembly itself. You cannot preach national unity from a Parliament and a party leadership engineered on tribal arithmetic.
The Gambia is Mandinka/Jahanka, 34.4%; Fula/Tukulor/Lorobo, 24.1%; Wolof, 14.8%; Jola, 10.5%; Sarahule, 8.2%; Serere, 3.1%; Manjago, 1.9%; Bambara, 1.3%; Krio/Aku, 0.5%; with others constituting the balance, according to the 2013 national census. The 2023 census records similar proportions: Mandinka 34.4%, Fula 25.0%, Wolof 15.4%, Jola 9.5%, Sarahule 8.2%. Every percentage is a people. Every people is a Gambian. No group holds a majority. That plurality is our national insurance policy. It is the reason no tribe can rule alone, and the reason no tribe should be ruled out.
Representation drawn on tribe turns that insurance policy into a time bomb. Foni, home to the largest Jola concentration, was granted 5 National Assembly seats under Yahya Jammeh. Jola citizens are 10.5% of The Gambia by the 2013 count, 9.5% by 2023. Five seats is 8.6% of the 58 elected members. On paper it appears proportional. In practice it was engineered. The boundaries followed ethnic settlement, not population density or administrative necessity. That is how a region of roughly 100,000 people carried the same parliamentary weight as districts nearly twice its size. That is how a dictator taught the country that ancestry is a constituency. And that is why, two decades later, a Deputy Speaker can still believe tribe is a credential for public office. The map taught him that. The law must unteach it.
Politics in Africa is based on tribe and ethnicity because institutions allow it. Because leaders profit from it. Because voters are taught to fear losing “their turn.” The 2026 elections will test whether The Gambia breaks that cycle. The cure is not another statement. The cure is example. The cure is equal law applied to the powerful first. Investigate the tape. Sanction the act. Audit the map. Restore the principle that a Gambian can serve anywhere, regardless of tribe, regardless of party.
Tribalism is a cancerous tumor and a cankerworm in the fabric of our society. It corrodes trust, poisons politics, and reduces citizens to ethnic arithmetic. From Rwanda to South Sudan, from Liberia to Ethiopia, we have paid for it in blood. The Gambia, small in size at 11,300 km² or ∼4,400 square miles yet not small in vulnerability, cannot afford that tuition.
I have traveled the length and breadth of the African continent on missions that were extraordinarily diverse, significant in the security, economic, political, and social evolution of Africa. I have stood in villages where neighbors became enemies overnight because a ballot box became a census. I have sat with mothers who buried sons over the lie that tribe is destiny. I had a personal account and testimony of the dangers of ethnic conflict and I pray and hope it will never occur, not only on Gambian soil but in the West Africa region as a whole.
As I reflect on my journey, I am reminded of the wisdom of Winston Churchill, who once said, “The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.” This paradox resonates deeply with my own experiences. I have found inspiration in the words of Albert Einstein, who cautioned, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” In the pursuit of justice and equality, I have also drawn strength from the powerful message of Martin Luther King Jr., who declared, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” These voices have shaped my perspective and fueled my passion for creating positive change. As I look to the future, I am guided by the conviction that our collective efforts can forge a brighter world, one that balances strength with justice and simplicity with wisdom. This witness is well documented in my book _From Village Life in The Gambia to Global Views in Washington, D.C., And Beyond_.
The ball is not in your court alone, Minister Sanyang, though history has now placed it squarely at your feet. You did not create this wound, but you have been entrusted with the scalpel. The easy path is another press release. The legacy path is a precedent. Investigate the tape with the full weight of your office. Sanction the act, not the tribe. Audit the maps that turned ancestry into advantage. Show a generation of Gambians that the law bends for no man, no seat, no party, no bloodline. Sir Dawda governed a poorer Gambia with a richer principle. You govern a louder Gambia that is desperate for that same quiet courage. Be bold, because timidity in the face of tribalism is complicity with it. Let 2026 be the year we stop inheriting fear and start bequeathing trust.
Yet no minister, no president, no parliament can legislate a nation’s soul. That work is incumbent on every citizen of this land, from Bintou’s Point to Basse, from Barra to Kartong. Harmony is not the absence of difference. It is the refusal to weaponize it. An amiable and congenial atmosphere is not a gift from the State. It is a duty we owe each other at the market, in the mosque, at the bantaba, on the airwaves, and at the ballot box. We must police our own tongues before we ask the State to police our neighbors. We must teach our children that a Gambian name is never an insult and a Gambian ambition is never confined by ethnicity. The Gambia of Jawara was built by citizens who chose country over clan when it mattered. The Gambia of tomorrow will be built the same way. Start with the tape. Start with Foni. Start with yourself. Start now.
Bintou’s Point, Kerewan
Publication Date: June 14, 2026
