By Mustapha Jallow
As Tabital Pulaagu the Gambia set to observe its annual international cultural festival, the executive members of the association on Friday, 13th January, 2022, called for peace and unity among all tribes in the country.
“We respect and honour all tribes in the country. Our aim is simply to engender greater understanding among Fulas and other tribes and promote our culture and language and help each other,” said Kebba Dem, the Secretary General of Tabital Pulaagu.
Mr Dem was speaking to the press at Pipeline about their upcoming event, which is scheduled for January 20th-21st 2023. He said the association aims to see the revival of the culture, promote peace, unity and harmony among tribes. In the absence of culture, he added discipline will also deter.
“So, as we can see the generation today, and what it used to be is different. So, we are here to inform the general public about the reasons (s) why we are converging on 20th-21st January,2023 for the cultural revival-day,’’ he explained.
He described the event-nights as very important for them, whereby all artists in the region and across will be invited to come and surcease cultural event. He said this will help citizens who have forgotten the culture to remember.
According to him, Tabital Pulaagu is a national-association but it is an international association also throughout Africa. Almost each country, he added has a chapter of Tabital Pulaagu and they also have an international president, who is overseeing all the Tabitals. He said the president and other high-power dignitaries across Africa will be coming to grace the occasion.
Secretary General Dem further indicated that there is nothing tribal about Tabital and their mission is to educate the masses how culture could be used to promote peace and tranquillity in the country.
“It is just important for each individual to understand who you are. If you understand who you are, you will also know how to respect others because you need to respect yourself first before you can respect others. So, what we are preaching is togetherness, no matter where you come from or what tribe you are, you are all invited to witness the event,’’ he said.
He added: “We want to strengthen social tie. So, that’s why our invitations are extended to all. We did not look whether you are a Fula or Mandinka, Jola, Wollof and so on, all are invited. We have written so many letters and they are not discriminatory.’’
“We are not also advocating that we are Fulas and we are better than others, no. We are not better than any other individual but we just want to understand who we are. We want to strengthen that culture, and then we also ready to march with any other group, who had similar associations, we can always have MoU. The moment, we have this (MoU) we can contribute a lot towards peace-building and national development,’’ he stated.
