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Before The State - Part Five: Who Holds the Seat? By Dave Manneh, Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) 26 October 2026 Clan heads in the Western Region have been selling lineage land without telling their families. The World Bank's 2013 land governance assessment called it "a major concern". Some clans split their land among families to stop the sales. The sales went on. Part Four turned the colonial seat of 1894 to face the kabilo, as the Community

By Dave Manneh, Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) 15 October 2026 In June 2025 I wrote twice about the draft National Land Policy (NLP) 2026 to 2035. I wrote that 'The Ministry listened!', and I counted 'pathways for restitution' among the gains. I measured those gains against the May 2025 Validation Copy, the text that went to national validation at Bijilo on 10 June 2025, where SFLRAC had a representative in the room. This postscript sets that copy

Public debt and fiscal management emerge as the leading issues in online political discourse, while persistent electricity challenges and calls for faster transitional justice add to pressure on the incumbent government. Public debt, persistent electricity supply challenges and demands for faster transitional justice have emerged as major themes in The Gambia’s online political discourse, according to a new analysis by Narrative Control covering the seven days ending October

By Dave Manneh, Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) The Ministry of Lands has written a new rulebook for the day the state comes for your land: the Draft National Resettlement Policy 2027 to 2036, the country's first. Resettlement is the polite word for the state moving you off your land to make way for a road, a scheme, or an investor. The draft says it ‘gives effect to the National Land Policy’, so the land policy sets the principle and this draft su

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒇𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒇𝒂𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒅. By Ian Urbina In September 2024, Cheikhou Omar sat on a beach in S

The relay still signs. Part Two found it in the state's own record: the seyfo and the alkalo administer the land the state claims ownership of, and no transfer of it moves without their mark. The office that endorsed the Kombo Coastal Belt leases in 1970 endorses transfers today. It never stopped. Part One asked by what right the state claims the land. This essay asks the narrower question, the one that falls on the men whose mark moves the land. By what authority was their

By Dave Manneh, Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) August 10, 2026 On 22 and 23 July, at the DPPH hall on Marina Parade in Banjul, the Ministry of Lands convened a workshop on the legal review of The Gambia's land tenure and land administration laws. The consultant leading the review set out its purpose from the front of the room. The task, the slides said, is to 'harmonise and modernise' the statutes that govern land in The Gambia. Fragmentation acro

People often ask me where I'm from. The answer is simple—I was born in the UK to British parents. But the place that truly made me who I am is The Gambia. When I was very young, my family moved to The Gambia. I grew up in Sukuta, the home of the Mandinka language. At first, I couldn't speak a word of Mandinka, but I was determined to fit in. Every time my friends said something I didn't understand, I'd ask what it meant. Little by little, word by word, I learnt the language u

Here is the uncomfortable truth about coalitions: they are rarely built on friendship. They are built on arithmetic. UDP is not my political home. I do not support the party, and I am unlikely to support it in the future. That is precisely why I think this deserves to be said without partisan emotion. If UDP has walked away from the coalition talks because it refuses to surrender leadership, I think the party may have made the right calculation. Consider what we often miss wh

Legal Notice 2 of 1994, made under section 5(1) of the State Lands Act, carries two operative sentences and a schedule of boundaries. The second designates Kombo North, Kombo South and Kombo Central as State lands with effect from the first day of March 1994. It recites no purchase, no conquest, no inheritance and no consent. One page in the Gazette, and three districts changed landlords on paper. Part One set down the premise and its proof: the state asserted title to the la

Supporters of Mr. Edi M.O. Faal keep producing academic and professional credentials. We hear about degrees, bars admitted, 44 years of practice, ICSID filings, and international consulting. Those credentials are not the issue. Since this nomination surfaced, not one supporter has brought forward his judicial philosophy. Not one has cited his books. Not one has produced his articles in major legal and judiciary journals. A résumé is not jurisprudence. The Supreme Court does n

For the sake of GALA’s cause not the man — Omar Saibo Camara must resign ASAP

In The Gambia, outrage is dead. Accountability is buried. Who benefits while workers starve? President Adama Barrow can run for reelection one million times if he wants. The constitution today places no hard limit on his ambition. But the Gambian political environment teaches a different lesson. In Kerewan, a worker’s monthly wage dies by day ten. In Fajara, what many describe as the “mother of all residential estates” rises from the ground, built by a man who once lived in a

I recently came across the song Suu Kiang on TikTok, performed by Jali Sunkari. A chorus of the song goes: Ntolu yaa be suu le, Kiang Fa niŋ diyaa Suu be ñaadii Kiang Fa niŋ diyaa Ntolu be kaŋ kiliŋ ne Fa niŋ diyaa Maŋ moo bo moo to Fa niŋ diyaa It is one of the most beautiful Mandinka cultural songs I have heard in recent months. More than a melody, it is an affirmation of belonging — a celebration of Kiang not merely as a geographical place but as 𝐒𝐮𝐮 : home, heritage, m

With due respect to Mayor Talib, I disagree with the assertion that the selection of a coalition flagbearer should completely disregard the size and strength of the constituent political parties. UMC Leader Talib Bensouda Any coalition built on mutual respect, fairness, and political reality cannot ignore the support base that each party brings to the table. It would be difficult to justify asking a party with over 200,000 supporters and a nationwide structure to join a coali

The recent assertion that the APRC government under former President Yahya Jammeh merely “faked” development projects to attract votes is not only unfortunate, but also deeply insulting to the intelligence and lived experiences of Gambians. No well-meaning citizen can simply ignore such reckless statements. It appears the President is either desperately struggling to communicate a convincing message to the Gambian people or deliberately attempting to mislead and manipulate th

The PASTEF Rupture and a Nation in Peril By Musa Bassadi Jawara I. PREAMBLE — ON VINDICATION Before the March 2024 elections, I wrote a sober, measured piece. One line only said Amadou Ba had the institutional edge. For that single sentence, PASTEF’s digital militia descended. I was called a liar, a relic, a mercenary of the old order. They mocked, doxxed, and damned. My inboxes overflowed with venom. My analysis, built on 30 years of watching Dakar politics, was dismissed as

Sometime back, after finishing the poem “Journey to the Hereafter,” I shared it with a number of friends before publishing it on Facebook. The responses I received were telling: “Are you leaving for eternity?”, “No, don’t bring this kind of poem to me. Please, let us know if you are ready to go!”, “. . . And stop writing these types of writings 😢. Write about money—that’s what I want to see 😂”. Others joked that the poem sounded like I was “giving warning shots” before depa

The National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) has officially launched its self-service mobile application, marking a significant step in its digital transformation drive aimed at improving service delivery and customer convenience across The Gambia. The NAWEC self service app Introduced in April 2026, the mobile app allows customers to purchase Cash Power, pay water bills, and manage their utility accounts directly from their smartphones. In a major boost to its function

The recent engagement between the Association of Gambian Influencers (AGI) and the Online Media Association of The Gambia (GOMA) comes at a critical moment in the country’s media evolution. As discussions intensify around the proposed Broadcasting and Online Content Regulations 2026, one issue stands clearly at the center of national debate: how The Gambia can balance regulation, freedom, and economic opportunity in a rapidly digitising world. This conversation is not happeni