Tower and Town, October 2020

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Sainey Darboe

Sainey Darboe is a renowned journalist from Gunjur who worked for all the major newspapers in the Gambia but encountered considerable difficulties under the dictatorship of President Yayha Jammeh and now lives in the US.

Growing up in the sprawling coastal town of Gunjur, the sight of white people from Marlborough staying with local families became a familiar occurrence.

Living in the family compound with my grandmother, Matida Manjang who was the head of women, I had an early encounter with these people.

As I grew older and learnt to speak English, news of the arrival of yet another group would fill me with excitement. I would go to Momodou Bojang’s shop in the Market Square where I would meet visitors from Marlborough.

On their walks to visit the leaders of the town, the Imam, the Seyfo (Chief), the Nyansimba (Women’s leader) Alikali (Mayor) to pay their respects and give the traditional kola nuts as a peace offering, I would follow them, asking questions about their lives, education and religion among other things. They also were not without questions. They would ask me questions about my family, my faith (Islam) and education with genuine interest.

For a young person with no experience of life anywhere outside of my immediate environs, the Gunjur-Marlborough link gave me my first encounter with difference. That people could live their lives differently from what I was accustomed to in my community, was a substantial shock to me. I was surprised to meet people who worshipped a different God, or believed in no religion at all. I was shocked to hear of men and women living together and having kids without getting married….. and drinking alcohol, and eating pork all of which was taboo in my community.

I was as scandalized and shocked as they would be when I would tell them my father had multiple wives and dozens of kids all of whom lived amicably on the same compound.

My encounters and experiences with people from Marlborough nurtured in me a high threshold of tolerance, even a love of difference. When I left Gunjur for high school, university and work, I was able to effortlessly build personal and professional relationships with people of different backgrounds.

When I moved to the United States from the majority Muslim country of The Gambia in 2015 at a time of immense change, even for the US with legalization of gay marriages, amid a coarsening of political culture, I didn’t have any problems with culture shock. I have been able to build relationships, hammered on the anvil of experience I had with our friends from Marlborough, with all people regardless of their politics, religion, race or sexual orientation.

Culture shock and struggles with integration, more often than not, pepper the stories of many immigrants in the United States, but thanks to Gunjur-Marlborough link I was prepared for life and living in a country and among people different from my own. It has nurtured in me an acceptance of difference and today I can say of my neighbours, friends and work colleagues of different backgrounds ‘in this place and with  these people I feel safe’.

Being able to achieve integration in the United States has opened economic opportunities for me that support development back home. I remit substantial funds to The Gambia to pay school fees, hospital bills and food for family members. I have invested about $200,000 over a period of five years in buying and building property in Gunjur which has benefited the local economy by creating jobs for the local population.

And this is thanks, in no small way, to the Gunjur-Marlborough link.

Sainey Darboe