A Lost Blueprint for Africa: Reflecting on the Dawda Jawara Era and the Continent’s Betrayal of Its Own Promise
In a deeply reflective and mournful essay published by Standard.gm, the author takes readers on a personal and political journey back to The Gambia under the leadership of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, the nation’s first president. What begins as a nostalgic recollection of a specific time and place quickly evolves into a searing indictment of contemporary African governance. The central thesis is hauntingly simple: the Africa that could have been—peaceful, democratic, and dignified—was not stolen by colonialism or neocolonialism alone, but actively betrayed by its own post-independence leaders and citizens.
The author describes encountering an Africa that stands in stark contrast to today’s headlines of coups, corruption, and chaos. Under Jawara (who led from 1970 to 1994), The Gambia was a small but functioning beacon. The piece highlights several key pillars of that era:
-Despite its limitations, the Jawara government maintained a multi-party system, regular elections, and a surprising degree of press freedom for its time. There was a predictable rule of law, however imperfect.
-In a region often fractured along these lines, Jawara—a Muslim—presided over a secular state where Christian communities, animist traditions, and diverse ethnic groups coexisted without state-sponsored violence. The author paints this not as a miracle, but as a conscious political choice.
-Unlike the megalomaniacal strongmen who would follow across the continent, Jawara’s style was quiet, even modest. The « Africa » the author encountered was not one of lavish presidential palaces or militaristic parades, but of functioning local markets, working postal services, and a civic sense that the state existed to serve, not plunder.
However, the essay is not a simple hagiography of Jawara. Instead, it uses his Gambia as a ghostly mirror to ask a painful question: Why did we throw this away?
“In that old Gambia, I saw no treasure of gold or oil. I saw something far rarer: the ordinary, unspectacular machinery of a country that believed it belonged to its people. That is the Africa we did not lose to foreigners. It is the Africa we set on fire ourselves.”
The « betrayal » the author speaks of is multifaceted:
–The 1994 Coup as a Symbol: The article implicitly points to Yahya Jammeh’s coup that toppled Jawara not as an exception, but as the logical endpoint of a continent-wide turn toward authoritarian « big men » politics. Jammeh’s 22-year reign of terror—marked by witch hunts, torture, and economic ruin—is presented as the direct opposite of the Jawara era, yet also its successor.
–The Silence of the Intellectuals and Citizens: The most painful betrayal, the author suggests, is internal. Africans themselves, tired of slow democratic progress and seduced by the promise of strongman efficiency or ethnic purity, often applauded their own shackles. The article mourns how quickly the memory of a functional, peaceful state was erased in favor of the adrenaline of dictatorship.
–The West’s Complicity: While focusing on internal failures, the piece does not let external actors off the hook. It notes that the same Western powers that now lecture Africa on democracy were often happy to do business with the Jammehs and their equivalents across the continent, ignoring coups and human rights abuses as long as strategic interests were served.
Ultimately, the essay is a warning against historical amnesia. The author argues that the « Africa we keep betraying » is not a mythical utopia but a proven reality: a place where a doctor (Jawara was a veterinarian) could lead with humility, where a peaceful transfer of ideas was possible, and where national identity was not forged in blood.
Conclusion
The post serves as both an epitaph for a bygone era and a reluctant manifesto. It asks readers, especially young Africans, to look back not with nostalgia for a single leader, but with anger at the political laziness that allowed Jawara’s quiet achievements to be swept away. The « betrayal » is ongoing, the author warns, every time a citizen cheers a military junta, excuses a corrupt official, or forgets that a functional Africa is not a dream—it was already here, if only for a moment, in the small, stable country of Dawda Jawara.
Par Abida Mohamed Buzeid
Source: Standard.gm
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