As state repression has become a marker of life in the Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh’s ballooning authority has been duly noted and criticised by Africa-wide justice mechanisms. The days when the Organisation of African Unity tolerated self-appointed African leaders, regardless of how cruelly they wielded power, are past. In the era of the African Union, human rights are at the centre of the continent's program for progress and development. Though protection of human rights is now part of every country’s rhetoric, the consequences for leaders who abuse state power are as murky as ever. In the 21st century, enforcing human rights norms continues to be a challenge throughout the continent.

When the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) court called for the Gambian government to release a disappeared journalist in 2008, the regional court system's lack of enforcement mechanisms was on display. The journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh was allegedly detained for writing an article critical of the government. Almost a year after the ECOWAS ruling, Manneh has not been released and recent rumours suggest that he has already been killed. The Gambian government's position has moved from silence to a cynical recalcitrance. Claiming to have no knowledge of Manneh’s whereabouts, Jammeh’s government has announced its intention to appeal the ECOWAS court’s ruling.

Meanwhile, the trial of news editor Pap Saine continues. The government’s claim that Saine is Senegalese and subject to deportation is a thinly-veiled attempt to rid the country of one of its most critical voices. President Jammeh’s intolerance of personal criticism seems to know no bounds. Even a Dutch national's comment that the President has greedily increased taxi fares for white people has spurred a sedition trial.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which, ironically, has its permanent headquarters in Banjul, has not been silent in the face of the Gambia’s deteriorating politics. This past November, the ACHPR urged the Gambian government to heed the ECOWAS ruling, release Manneh, and investigate all allegations of torture and extrajudicial execution. Six months after this resolution, the Gambian government has not given the slightest indication of changing course. In fact, as President Jammeh has eased into impunity, his rule of terror seems to have reached new heights. with the introduction of witch-hunts.

In March, Amnesty International reported that approximately 1000 Gambians were detained and tortured in state-sanctioned witch-hunts. In an unholy marriage of state power and dehumanising superstition, witch-hunters, flanked by government security agents, combed the Gambian countryside, detaining and torturing ‘witches’. Supposedly, the death of President Jammeh’s aunt was the catalyst for these political exhibitions of raw state power. Though the witch-hunts were halted and the prisoners were released in the face of international disapproval, the Jammeh government has yet to apologise for or denounce these activities.

However, these witch-hunts did not only terrorise the Gambian people, they also set the stage for popular criticism of the Gambian government. No longer are journalists and human rights activists the only ones questioning the government’s authority. In early April, a local newspaper, Foroyaa, printed an article about an elderly man who died shortly after his witch hunt ordeal. The relatives of this ‘very dignified, respectable, gentle and considerate old man’ shared their disappointment with the government’s silence and demanded an investigation of this atrocity.

Throughout March and April, the Gambian newspapers have been full of the horrific testimonies of individuals and families who suffered during the witch-hunts. Village imams were forced to drink poisonous concoctions; the elderly were abused by persons young enough to be their children or grandchildren. The brutality and arbitrariness of the witch-hunts has broken through the Jammeh government's censure of dissent; and individuals at the most local levels of Gambian society are speaking out. One Foroyaa reader boldly questioned the government. ‘Are we living in the olden days? Are we in the Jahiliya period? Are we living in a Holocaust camp? Are we living in a lawless society? What about modern civilisation which empowers us with democracy, equality, freedom of speech and assembly, protection of our rights?’ In the aftermath of the witch-hunts, the small fissures in Jammeh’s suppression of public dissent have begun to widen. Popular criticism of the witch-hunts has created a new opportunity for human rights enforcement in the Gambia.

On 13 May 2009, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) will hold its 45th ordinary session in Banjul, the Gambia. During this meeting, Africa’s human rights leaders should join Gambian citizens in demanding a full explanation and apology for the witch-hunts. Fanning the flames of popular dissent is perhaps the most effective means of highlighting the limits of the Jammeh regime’s power. Where judicial rulings and commission resolutions have failed, perhaps the righteous anger of the Gambian people, supported by African governance institutions, will succeed.

* Abena Ampofoa Asare is a PhD candidate in History and a freelance writer based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.