Opinion: Barrow must grant citizenship to immigrants in Gambia!!!
Published: 7/Jul/2021
Source: The Point (Banjul)
[Culled from Fatou Jaw Manneh Facebook]
Africans’ daal. Let me just start with the Gambia. Remember when US President Joe Biden announced he was going to give 11 million immigrants legal status and a path to citizenship? Gambians especially were elated, because nothing frustrates Gambians in the US or in Europe more than the nightmare of immigration processing, being accepted legally to work leading to citizenship.
But here we are, Gambians with the audacity to follow their fellow citizens, harassing, enquiring and bullying about their citizenship at registration centers. How arrogant, daring, myopic and classless! How can you even tell if someone is Gambian or not? Today a Manneh, Mbye, Sonko, Jeng and Cham, are very American and British just as Trump, Biden and Obama or Johnson. So how can a Manneh, Touray, Mbye and Cham not be considered Gambian? Any Gambian I know including myself have relatives or are origins of these countries. We just did not sprout out of the ground and name it The Gambia. Our ancestors met here and some came along. If America was so selfish, would we all jubilate the African in Obama?
Some Gambians even putting out audios /videos asking for the youth to compare their votes to AK47s. Unbelievable!! Gambians, especially in America dread anything to do with immigration. I have accompanied many frightened or spoke on behalf of many Gambians at US immigration centers. For some, just to calm their nerves as the thought of being rejected and asked to leave the country looms. Scared to death. Imagine the duas, sadas and marabout affairs all so their sons, daughters or husbands can be accepted in the US, live their dreams, be accepted to live decently. Some detest President Trump solely on his stance on immigration. But the same people are denying their fellow Africans in the Gambia that chance.
Some Gambians on the ground and some sitting comfortably in the west are sending chilling warnings to their fellow Africans, for trying to register to vote. I have known folks from Guinea Bissau living in our communities, one family even named their daughter after me some 20 something years ago. Here they are, still struggling with their papers and legality in the Gambia. They still scared of Immigration police or police in general. We are calling for African Unity but we hate to see these Africans from Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Bissau, Nigeria etc. be granted citizenship.
Read further: https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/opinion/opinion-barrow-must-grant-citizenship-to-immigrants-in-gambia