Down a quiet sandy road in Kanifing, an area close to The Gambia’s capital, Banjul, a colourful building holds the first memorial centre for victims of the country’s most recent dictator.
Rooms are filled with glass cases holding mementos of the dead and disappeared, surrounded by photographs of grieving relatives taken at the moment they recounted their tragic stories.
Two months after it opened its doors, the Memory House has been visited by few of The Gambia’s 2.4 million citizens, but its founders are hoping it can provide a base to educate young people and make sure the atrocities of the past never happen again.
Many young women, in particular, have been taking up leadership positions since the end of the dictatorship, recognising that they can play a key role in the fight against human rights violations
Its rooms include hats, ID cards, clothing and educational certificates that belonged to some of the hundreds of people who disappeared under the leadership of Yahya Jammeh, who led The Gambia from 1994 to 2017.
There is a press card bearing the name of journalist Deyda Hydara, who was murdered in 2004, and a stripy red and green tie owned by Haruna Jammeh, a cousin of the former president , who disappeared the following year.
Beside portraits of family members are their memories of those who were killed and what happened to them: the sister of former finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, who died in June 1995, is pictured along with text recounting his love of mangos; another piece of text describes Njaga Jagne, a retired US army captain who was killed during an attempted coup on December 30th, 2014, and the subsequent exhumation of his body, which was broadcast on TV without his family's consent.
Women-led organisation
The museum was set up by the African Network against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances (Aneked), a women-led organisation founded in 2019 by 37-year-old Nana-Jo Ndow, whose father Saul Ndow, was disappeared and allegedly killed while Jammeh was in power.
Jammeh, now 56, was ousted in 2017, 22 years after he used a military coup to take control of The Gambia, a small West African country almost surrounded by Senegal.
Lisa Camara, Aneked's 36-year-old human rights and advocacy manager, has a background in campaigning against female genital mutilation. She said a key part of the organisation's work is educating young people in an effort to avoid the same kind of crimes happening again.
“This is an education centre and we’re very particular about young people learning,” she said. They teach “what transitional justice is, what human rights violations are, and how young people, especially students, can contribute to the fight against some of these atrocities, both in The Gambia and in other parts of the world”. That includes telling young people about the importance of speaking out when they see wrongdoing, she said.
Many young women, in particular, have been taking up leadership positions since the end of the dictatorship, recognising that they can play a key role in the fight against human rights violations, Camara said. The Memory House developed from what was initially a temporary exhibition put together two years ago, titled “The Duty to Remember”. Its guides include university students doing internships.
Recognising that many of the country's young people are unlikely to be able to travel there, despite entry being free, the Memory House also has a virtual exhibition online, and it has developed a scaled-down, transportable version that can be brought to schools around the country, Camara says.
This is one of a series of efforts by Gambians trying to come to terms with the legacy of decades under Jammeh, an eccentric man who claimed he could cure infertility, HIV and Aids, and who presided over literal witch hunts, which saw the elderly rounded up at gunpoint and forced to drink a liquid that made them hallucinate.
Jammeh is accused of ordering rapes and torture, and being involved in the disappearance and murder of as many as 250 people.
Reconciliation
In early 2019, the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) began televised hearings, where hundreds of Jammeh's victims and their relatives spoke about what they experienced or witnessed. The TRRC's final report was submitted to Gambian president Adama Barrow at the end of November but its findings and recommendations have yet to be made public.
While the TRRC was necessary, Camara says, it was also traumatising for people who took part. They risked condemnation and scorn from neighbours and friends, while being reminded of past incidents they had been forced not to speak about for years or decades.
Now, Camara says, victims are concerned that the TRRC’s final recommendations won’t be acted upon, but they also recognise that creating change and achieving justice is a long game. In the future, she adds, some of the young people that come in contact with the Memory House may be in positions of power, and can make sure a justice and reconciliation process is seen all the way through.
This call for justice is not just about Jammeh, who now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea, "it's for Jammeh and every accomplice that worked with Jammeh during that period", Camara says. Some of those who worked closely with the former president still serve in public office or have roles in international organisations, she notes. "Whoever is involved should definitely pay the price."
Camara says Jammeh himself will never come back to The Gambia, but there is the risk that someone like him could take charge. “But a lot of Gambians are more awake and more aware now ... People openly talk about what had happened. Now people say let’s be careful not to bring another dictator. Online and offline.”
