*Ebrima Solo Sandeng’s life Shaped the Gambia. But in his death, he changed the country.*
Finally, the funeral and burial ceremonies of Ebrima Solo Sandeng are slated for Tuesday, 10th January 2023.
Solo’s remains had been in state custody, serving as evidence to the National Intelligence Agency “NIA” 9 trial, which ended in July 2022.
Mr Sandeng, tragically, died in the hands of the operatives of NIA on April 15. A day before his death, Mr Sandeng got arrested with over a dozen others for holding a peaceful protest demanding proper Electoral Reforms in the Gambia.
The dictator Yahya Jammeh admitted his death in custody, but refused to release his body, which his murder trial would confirm, was at a training school of the NIA in the coastal town of Tanjeh, an hour’s drive from Banjul.
Solo was the National Organising Secretary of the main opposition – the United Democratic Party “UDP”.
His death stunned the country. From the shocking arrest, torture, death, and the refusal to release his body, the tumultuous end of Mr Sandeng rocked the Gambia. And he produced grief like never seen in the history of the Gambia.
The mutterings of anger were swiftly picked up by the online Gambia media and blended through other sources. The gasps and tears from Gambians across the globe progressed into rancour for dictatorship in the Gambia. The killing of Solo and the torturing of his colleagues spelt the beginning of the end of dictator Yahya Jammeh’s government.
The day when the country basked in early April sunshine, mourning Solo few had ever met or known but whose loss suddenly pained them, causing raging at dictator Jammeh’s government seemed icily unmoved at the time.
Ebrima Solo Sandeng touches the lives of many in the Gambia. He is the people’s Solo Sandeng for being the pillar that triggered the voting out of dictatorship in the Gambia. His arrest and eventual death for demanding electoral reforms in the Gambia rallied the Gambian people to slough off their fears and confront the dictatorship head-on.
Unfortunately, Solo is slipping from public consciousness so swiftly, floating away so quickly because of the deliberate refusal of Barrow’s government to ensconce the memories of Solo and what that stands for, alas.
Once, after Solo’s death and the uprooting of Dictator Jammeh, the Electoral Reforms mantra was selfishly jettisoned by President Barrow.
In multiple ways, then that hot-headed day looks like it amounts to nothing. But that’s not quite right. For one thing, what happened in those days, headed by Solo, was out of the ordinary and changed the country forever.
For all the vows that he would remain “king of people’s hearts” for his role as the change maker that allowed president Barrow to be at the helm, subsequent anniversaries of Solo’s death came and went, with scant attention, especially from the government. Outside of his family, political party, and beyond online media fringe, he got rarely mentioned.
The challenge he had once posed to the dictatorship faded, too. Rarely had dictator Jammeh been challenged than when he clashed with Solo. Nonetheless, Mr Sandeng has left a mark, and the impact goes wide.
April 16th suggested another country was emerging in the Gambia, one that was more open, plural, and socially liberal than the dictatorship.
Hence, in the death of Solo, the Gambia revealed that if the moment is right, they are quite willing to defy expectations to wave aside the so-called impossible and listen to their instincts.
They are more ready to put their divisions aside and be guided by hearts and guts for the common good.
I contend that Solo’s coffin should be draped in the Gambian flag and be given a befitting farewell by the state of the Gambia. He is the Gambia’s Ebrima Solo Sandeng, and history will embalm him in great honour.
Ebrima Solo Sandeng, we are grateful for your sacrifices in the services of your nation.
FAREWELL AND REST IN PEACE HERO
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Article contributed by EBRIMA SCATTRE EB UK @05/01/2023
