A moral imperative is a principle originating inside a person’s mind that compels that person to act. It is similar to categorical imperative as expounded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant who took the imperative to be a diktat of pure reason, in its practical aspect. Not following the moral, Kant postulated is self-defeating and thus contrary to reason.

In this context, we take the announcement by the President of Gambia at the UN General Assembly as someone acting on the basis of moral imperatives: “The government has withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided that Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism”. He added, “Present day Africans cannot be hoodwinked anymore and we are determined to defend our independence and dignity, and take control of our natural resources at any cost and by any means necessary”.

Gambia: victim of transatlantic slave trade

Gambia has every right to feel wronged by western colonial countries. Since the mid-fifteenth century, the Portuguese, French, and British empires competed for colonial supremacy there. It is estimated that well over three million people from the Gambia area were sold into slavery during the transatlantic slave trade. Most were sold by other Africans to Europeans; others were prisoners of inter-tribal wars; some were victims sold because of unpaid debts; and others were simply victims of kidnapping. River Gambia is the most navigable river in West Africa. The British bought River Gambia from the French to transport slaves along the river during colonization.

Gambia is in Western Africa, enveloped on all sides by Senegal. Present Gambian boundaries were formed in 1889 as the area became a British Crown Colony known as British Gambia. Gambia formed its own executive and legislative councils in 1901, and on February 18, 1965, gained independence as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

The book titled Roots: The Saga of An American Family (Doubleday: 1976) written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Alex Haley is roughly based on his family’s oral history starting with the capture of his slave ancestor, Kunta Kinte, in the village Juffureh (Juffure) in Gambia, in 1767.

In 1977 the book was adapted into a television mini-series ‘Roots: The Next Generation’. The film exposed the brutality of the slave trade that millions were yet unaware of or would even imagine the horrific aspect of their country’s and the British government’s close involvement in the transatlantic slave trade – human smuggling today is just a newer version of the old! The majority of slaves were sold through African middlemen; the Juffure example shows the ordeals, humiliation, dehumanizing injustices suffered by hundreds of thousands of black Africans under European Christian colonial domination.

Under international law, Anglo-American conduct in the black African slave trade was tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity. These White colonial crimes are yet to be heard or punished.

Admirable stand of Gambia

Given this historical context, the news of Gambia walking out of the Commonwealth becomes important. Gambia is in no economic condition to be taking such a stand. On every UN and world index it is right at the bottom of the scale, but the principled stand Gambia’s President has taken speaks volumes of what other world leaders of the Third World should also be doing.

Gambia has been quite outspoken about its status quo. It has not bowed down for any of the West’s accusations on human rights, media freedom, corruption etc. In 2012, the Gambian President warned foreign diplomats that his country would not be ‘bribed’ with aid to accept homosexuality. “If you are to give us aid for men and men or for women and women to marry, leave it. We don’t need your aid because as far as I am the President of the Gambia, you will never see that happen in this country”.  

Sri Lanka must applaud the courage of President Yahya Jammeh and his stand on behalf of his people. The western accusations of abuse of “human rights, media rights, and corruption” can well apply to the British government or any other government for that matter, depending on the reporting media’s perspective. It is time for all former European colonies to stand on their own feet and oppose Western economic oppression and free themselves from the yoke of colonialism (and neo – colonialism) that continues to this day. Our national conscience, self-respect and moral imperatives tell us to refuse to integrate with our colonial masters at least until they are prepared to apologise for their repressive conduct and pay reparations.

Western colonialism has created much of the mess found to this day in third world countries, as can easily be ascertained by example after example. A close look at Canada, United States of America and Australia show how the indigenous people i.e. Native Americans and Australian Aborigines have suffered and now become alcoholics and drug addicts. The British and other Empires stripped and robbed every country they forcibly invaded, no different to the Right-to-Protect military-humanitarian interventions of our time.

There should be restitution of all wealth plundered by France, Britain, Holland, Portugal Spain to the third world countries. It is time the decolonized countries dictate the terms of agreement and restore the plundered wealth to the vaults of our treasuries. The term ‘Commonwealth’ is a misnomer. The ‘wealth’ was never shared for it to be ‘common’ - the concept was a ruse to loot other people’s natural resources.

Time line of Commonwealth of Nations

Burma upon independence in January 1948 never joined the Commonwealth, displaying how much it valued its sovereignty and total freedom without links to its former colonial master. Éire left the Commonwealth on April 18, 1948 upon becoming a Republic, after the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into effect. India became a Republic on January 26, 1950 nearly two and a half years after grant of independence, thus becoming the first non-Commonwealth realm member of the Commonwealth.

It took Sri Lanka well over 24 years after independence to decide to become a Republic in 1972, and this translates to mean the reluctance on the part of our immediate post-independence rulers to shed the colonial legacy.

The Third World today is what it is because a handful of nations plundered lands, destroyed native vegetation, murdered and slaughtered millions, enslaved them and transported them to all corners of the world, destroyed their ancient cultures and humiliated their lifestyles, created divisions and demarcated lands and territories so that people would remain forever in turmoil. This lasted 500 years and the legacies of this treacherous rule exists still because the education system, the conversion of natives, and the manner that the colonials brainwashed the mindsets of the natives that chose to betray their native culture and nation still lingers on.

These cloned natives continue to administer on behalf of the former colonial masters their formula for continued dissent and divide and it is not difficult for us to pinpoint who these locals are. The manner they dress, their actions, their behaviors speak volumes of who they are, their agendas, and what they have been outsourced to do.

The Asian mentality had succumbed far more than the African, for the warrior in the African still remains to challenge the status quo. Sadly, leaders like Aung San (Myanmar), Subhash Chandra Bose (India), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) and General Vo Nguyen Giap (Vietnam) are no more. The rest of the present day ‘card board heroes’ are simply copy cat versions of the colonial masters attempting to think and behave like the white man and not carving out their own niche.

It is such imitative, unreflective and unimaginative conduct on the part of Asian leaders that has led to the publication of books like, Can Asians Think? by Kishore Mahbubani. The thesis of this book is that the world’s largest continent stretches from Japan and Indonesia across central Asia to the Arab world.  It is the spiritual focus of such great religions as Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism and home to nearly 60 percent of the earth’s population. Asia’s economies are poised to surpass those of Europe and North America within the next fifty years, and yet Westerners have done little to adjust their attitudes in light of present-day realities. Can Asians think? Is Western civilisation universal? Does the West promote human rights for altruistic reasons? These are some questions that Kishore Mahbubani has addressed in this book. 

The moral imperative is to be on the right side of history

We owe to posterity and our future generations to engage in principled conduct internationally and to be on the right side of history. Posterity will remember Gambia for the stand it has taken and place Gambia’s President in the pantheon of African heroes like Patrice Lumumba, first Prime Minister of independent Congo, who was killed by a well planned US- UK-Belgian combined operation.

At this juncture we need to remind ourselves that independence to Asia came primarily because Britain and other western countries e.g. France, Netherlands could not afford to maintain forces in the light of military defeats sustained at the hands of the Japanese in the Second World War and thereafter the wars of liberation launched by Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) and Sukarno (Indonesia).   

Gambia has become the child who pointed at the Emperor walking naked – showcasing the hypocrisies of Britain accusing nations of human rights violations when it has yet to apologize for its heinous crimes or compensate for hundreds of years of mass criminal offences and these crimes are far graver than what the UK is accusing other countries of.

Gambia has created history when other member countries in the Commonwealth have chosen the docile way of celebrating being enslaved or behaving like the proverbial ostrich, burying its head in the sand and not wanting to see the true reality. Gambia is to be admired for doing what no other nation in the last 60 years has had the pluck to do; it deserves the applause of all former colonies and their people for giving utterance to our common cry for justice, apology and reparations.