Weaponizing Tribe

By Dr Alieu SK Manjang

The collective memory of the tribalized politics that shaped the 2016 presidential elections in The Gambia should have prompted urgent educational reforms. Specifically, it warranted the introduction of a new national curriculum that prioritizes citizenship education, with an explicit emphasis on nurturing a shared national identity. Such a curriculum would aim to instill a sense of civic duty, foster unity, and cultivate pride in being Gambian, irrespective of ethno-linguistic background.

Regrettably, post-regime change political leadership failed to seize this opportunity. Instead, those in charge of policy and law-making have continued to weaponize identity through a calculated use of ethnic divisions, refining the colonial legacy of divide and rule to entrench their power. This has not only undermined national cohesion but has also eroded the already fragile social fabric.

What we are witnessing in various domains, public discourse, political appointments, is the normalization, and in some cases the celebration, of these divisive tendencies at the official level. The absence of a coherent national strategy to counteract this trend through civic education or inclusive nation-building policies is both telling and dangerous.

However, our call for the development of a new curriculum that prioritizes citizenship education, with a clear emphasis on nurturing a shared national identity, must not come at the expense of historical truth. Any attempt to promote civic duty or national unity by suppressing or sanitizing The Gambia’s precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial histories is not only misguided, but amounts to an assault on critical thinking itself.

True citizenship education cannot be built on social amnesia. Instead, it must begin by acknowledging that Gambian society is historically constituted, shaped by complex layers of power, resistance, identity, and transformation. A curriculum that omits this reality risks producing shallow patriotism rather than meaningful civic consciousness. Therefore, any genuine effort to instill civic responsibility must be rooted in an honest engagement with our historical trajectories, however uncomfortable they may be.