By Assan Bah
Momodou Dem, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ‘Roots of Kunta Kinteh’, a non-profitable association, has called for the setting aside of a day in the Gambian calendar to honour‘Kunta Kinteh’ in the country.
The association, whose motto is “No To Racism”,is said to have been founded to educate the next generation about ‘Kunta Kinteh’, his love for his homeland and how inspirational he was to young people.
‘‘Our goal is to impart Kunta Kinteh’s knowledge on the younger generation because he was a Gambian who was forcefully taken to America and despite all that he went through, he did not change his identity.
“Alex Haley has already played his role by telling us who Kunta Kinteh was through his movie. It is now left for us [Gambians] to play ours because Kunta was there for us especially the young ones.We know others have our aims and ambitions but could not fulfil it because the mainstream media was not strong as it is now in this part of the world,” he explained.
For this reason, Dem suggests that July 5th be added to the list of national holidays in the Gambia.
“History says he was taken prisoner on July 5th, and both the Government and people of the Gambia should commemorate this important and historic day, by adding it to the list of Gambia’s national holidays. We want the day to be recognized as a public holiday across the Gambia, making it one of the nation’s significant days,’’ Dem said.
He went on to say that despite being a slave at the time, Kunta Kinteh was a fantastic advocate for the Gambia.
“Even though he was a slave at the time, he was an ambassador for the country and we should pay homage to him not only by naming ferries in his name, but to mark every ‘July Fifth’ as a national public holiday in his his honour,” Dem said.
He, however, bemoaned his association’s lack of funds saying this has prevented them from reaching their objectives. He urges the government, corporations and donors, to give them support.
“We have had a great deal of difficulties since our founding and as of right now, we have no sponsors. In the event that we secure sponsors, we intend to begin recording [writing books] about Kunta’s legacy, to impart this on the next generation, and we also want to conduct national tours to inform people of our goals and aspirations for the nation and for Africa,’’ Dem concludes.
