Dawda Jawara

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Dawda Jawara (1979)

Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara GCMG , from 1955 to 1965 David Kwesi Jawara (born May 16, 1924 in Barajally , MacCarthy Island Division , † August 27, 2019 in Bakau - Fajara ) was a Gambian politician and statesman. He was the last Prime Minister under Elizabeth II from 1962 to 1970 and the first President of the Gambia from 1970 until his fall in 1994.

Jawara first attended a Muslim elementary school and then a Methodist boys' school in Bathurst (now Banjul). After working as a nurse for two years, he went to college in Achimota near Accra , Ghana . He studied veterinary medicine in Great Britain with the help of a scholarship . On his return to Gambia, he became a senior veterinarian in the colonial administration. In 1959 he co-founded the People's Progressive Party (PPP). He ran successfully for the House of Representatives in the 1960 parliamentary elections and was briefly Minister of Education. In 1962 he succeeded Chief Minister Pierre Sarr N'Jie as the first Prime Minister of British Gambia.

Jawara led the Gambia into independence in 1965 , initially as Prime Minister of a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of the Gambia , as head of state. In 1970, after a referendum, Gambia became a presidential republic with Jawara as president. The biggest crisis of his term in office was a bloody coup attempt on July 30, 1981, which could only be put down with the support of Senegalese soldiers called in for help and which claimed 400 to 800 lives. As a result of the coup attempt and at Jawara's suggestion, the Gambia and Senegal formed the Senegambia Confederation in 1982 under its President Abdou Diouf . Jawara remained in the office of President of Gambia and became Vice President of the Confederation, which existed until 1989.

The presidential Jawaras was a coup of 1994 lieutenant of the Military Police Yahya Jammeh ended. Jawara went into exile in London , but was able to return in 2002 and last lived in seclusion in Gambia.

Jawara enjoyed a high international reputation and was active in international politics during and after his tenure. The African Charter of Human Rights and the Rights of the Peoples (Banjul Charter) and the ECOWAS Monitoring Group emerged from the initiatives he supported .

Life

Youth and education

Dawda Jawara was born on May 16, 1924 to Almammi Jawara and Mamma Fatty in the village of Barajally Tenda in the MacCarthy Island Division of The Gambia, about 150 miles from the capital Bathurst . His father was a wealthy farmer and trader belonging to the low tanner caste . The Jawara family belonged to the Mandinka people and came from the Diawara or Jawara clan, which was part of the military part of the Gbara of the Mali Empire .

First Dawda attended the Mohammedan Primary School, a Muslim elementary school in Bathurst (today Banjul ), where the Muslim politician Ibrahima Momodou Garba-Jahumpa was one of his teachers. After graduation, Dawda received a scholarship to the Methodist Boys' High School , also in Bathurst, where he was taught in all subjects, but showed a special gift for mathematics and science.

After graduating from high school in 1945, Jawara worked as a nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Bathurst. In 1947 he received a scholarship to study science at Prince of Wales College and School in Achimota , near Accra , in the British Crown Colony of Gold Coast . After studying in Achimota for two semesters, Jawara received a scholarship to study at the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine . At the time, the educational goal for Africans in the colonies was primarily to qualify for subordinate activities in colonial administration. It was rare for Africans to receive a scholarship to study science. Jawara completed his training as a veterinarian in 1953. In 1957 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a diploma in tropical veterinary medicine . As a vet, Jawara was the first Mandinka in Gambia to graduate from college.

Professional and political advancement

In January 1954 Jawara returned to the Protectorate of Gambia, whose citizens, unlike those of the colony of British Gambia, were only under the protection of the British Crown and were not subjects of the Queen. At the time, the Gambia Colony and Protectorate was split in two by the British colonial power. Adults in the colony, to which the region around the capital Bathurst and Kombo belonged, had the right to vote, could exert political influence and were represented on the Legislative Council. The inhabitants of the protectorate had no comparable opportunity to exert political influence.

Jawara was appointed senior veterinarian and in 1958 senior veterinarian of British Gambia. As an official veterinarian, Jawara traveled all over the Gambia to vaccinate the cattle. He was able to make valuable contacts to the relatively well-off and influential cattle farmers in the British Protectorate. Later, these contacts with regional and local leaders formed the basis of his political advancement. Despite his social origins from the lower caste of tanners , he enjoyed the highest reputation among the population dependent on livestock farming because of his work as a veterinarian, as "the cattle doctor".

Constituency combo
General election be right Voting share
1960 unanimously 100.00%

In 1959, Jawara was elected party leader of the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which had been founded a few months earlier . At that time he was one of only two Mandinka college graduates in the country. In the 1960 parliamentary elections , Jawara ran for the PPP unopposed in the Kombo constituency. He received 100% of the vote, thus winning one of the 19 eligible seats in the House of Representatives, and was appointed Minister of Education by Governor Edward Henry Windley . Already in March 1961, Jawara resigned from this office after Windley had passed him over when filling the new office of Chief Minister in favor of the defeated Pierre Sarr N'Jie of the United Party (UP).

Eastern Combo constituency
General election be right Voting share
1962 000000000004073.00000000004,073 84.96%
1966 000000000004515.00000000004,515 88.46%

In the parliamentary elections of 1962 32 of 40 seats in the House of Representatives were to be filled. Jawara prevailed in the constituency of Eastern Kombo with 85% of the votes against the candidate of the UP, the PPP won an absolute majority of the seats. Jawara succeeded Chief Minister N'Jie as Prime Minister on June 12, 1962. During his tenure there were negotiations with the British Governor John Warburton Paul and the Colonial Office , the granting of full internal self-government on October 4, 1963, and the independence of Gambia as a constitutional monarchy in the Commonwealth of Nations on February 18, 1965 In 1970 Jawara was Prime Minister, the head of state was Elizabeth II as Queen of The Gambia .

Prime Minister Dawda Jawara with David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan during a visit to Israel , 1962
Jawara with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands , 1978

In November 1965, Jawara suffered a serious political defeat in the referendum on the constitution . A key aspect of the new constitution was the transformation of the constitutional monarchy into a presidential republic; the desired change required a two-thirds majority of the votes cast. This was narrowly missed with an approval rate of 65.85 percent. By the parliamentary elections of 1966 , Jawara and the PPP were able to recover, the PPP won 24 of 32 seats.

A second attempt to abolish the constitutional monarchy took place with the referendum , which was successful on April 24, 1970 with an approval of 70.45 percent. With the determination of the voting result, Jawara became the first President of the Republic of Gambia. At the same time, the office of Prime Minister was dropped and Jawara resigned from the House of Representatives. In the following parliamentary elections in 1972 and 1977, the PPP won an absolute majority of the seats, the president was elected by the MPs.

Jawara's economic policy was initially shaped by his efforts to promote the area of ​​the Protectorate, which had long been neglected by the British colonial power. This also happened against the background that the rural regions were his power base while the urban population was more attached to the opposition. In the late 1970s, Jawara came under increasing pressure, on the one hand because of the consequences of the economic crisis, which was partly due to external factors such as the oil crisis, the recession of the world economy and exceptional climatic conditions, and on the other hand because of the increasing corruption in the country.

Attempted coup in 1981

The greatest crisis in the Dawda Jawara presidency was an attempted coup on July 30, 1981, led by the Marxist politician Kukoi Samba Sanyang . Sanyang blamed Jawara for the current economic crisis and accused him and other Gambian leaders of corruption. The attempted coup was carried out by the National Revolutionary Council made up of representatives from Sanyang's Marxist Socialist and Revolutionary Labor Party (SRLP) and parts of the paramilitary Gambian Field Force . Jawara was in London at the time of the coup as a guest at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana Spencer . He immediately flew to Dakar and asked Senegalese President Abdou Diouf for military assistance. Senegal immediately dispatched armed forces, 2,700 soldiers within a week, and defeated the coup plotters. 500 to 800 people died as a result of the coup and subsequent clashes.

The attempted coup showed that at least part of the population and their allies in the Field Force were seeking change and that society and the ruling PPP were weakened. The economic recession hit especially the youth in the cities. Jawara was aware of the situation; in his New Year's speech in 1981, a few months before the coup attempt, he said:

“We live in a world saddled with massive economic problems. The economic situation has generally been characterized by rampant inflation, periods of excessive monetary instability and credit squeeze ... soaring oil prices and commodity speculation. These worldwide problems have imposed extreme limitations on the economies like the Gambia. "

“We live in a world that is burdened with massive economic problems. The economic situation is characterized by galloping inflation, phases of excessive instability in the money markets and credit burdens (...) rising oil prices and property speculation. These global problems put an extreme strain on the economies of countries like Gambia. "

- Dawda Jawara

The most surprising consequence of the failed coup was the military intervention of Senegal, which was based on a defense pact between the two states from 1965. Although Jawara's presidency was saved by the intervention of Senegal, Gambia lost the sovereignty that Jawara had vigorously defended. In addition, the presence of Senegalese troops in Banjul was a testimony to Jawara's dependence on Senegal and reduced its popular support.

Confederation of Senegambia

Three weeks after the failed coup attempt, the presidents of Senegal and Gambia, Abdou Diouf and Dawda Jawara, announced their intention to found the Senegambia Confederation at a joint press conference . In December 1981 the corresponding contracts were signed. In the Confederation, Diouf took over the office of President, Jawara became Vice-President. A parliament, the Confederation Assembly, with forty Senegalese and twenty Gambian deputies appointed by the national parliaments and a nine-member cabinet with four Gambian ministers were among the constitutional organs of the Confederation. In addition, an army of the Gambia was set up for the first time as part of the armed forces of the Confederation.

Jawara responded to the attempted coup not with massive retaliation, but with conciliatory gestures. Those involved in the coup were swiftly indicted and subjected to fair trials, and the leaders were tried by independent judges brought in from other Commonwealth countries . More than 800 prisoners have been released without trial, due to minor guilt or lack of evidence, and death sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment. The last prisoners to be arrested for the attempted coup were given amnesty by Jawara on Independence Day on February 18, 1991. The administration of Jawara immediately brought him great international recognition and within a short time a process of economic and political recovery of the state began.

In 1982 the President of the Gambia was directly elected for the first time. In the presidential election , Jawara competed against his challenger Sheriff Dibba of the National Convention Party and was confirmed in office with 72.5 percent of the vote. Also in the presidential election in 1987 Jawara obtained an absolute majority of the votes. Jawara's PPP was also successful in the parliamentary elections that took place at the same time and achieved absolute majorities.

1994 coup

In December 1991, Jawara announced his intention not to run in the upcoming presidential elections in Gambia in 1992 and to retire after 30 years at the helm of state and party. However, some members of his government were able to convince him to run again. Jawara also won the 1992 elections by absolute majorities, 58.5 percent of the vote in the presidential election and 54.2 percent for its PPP in the general election.

In the aftermath of the elections won, the ruling PPP plunged into a deep crisis. The previous Vice President, Bakary Dabo , had to surrender his post to Saihou S. Sabally after the election and as a result of internal party wing battles . The population got the impression that this should pave the way for Sabally to become president. In addition, the Gambia was shaken by a corruption scandal involving the Gambia Cooperative Union (GCU), in which Sabally was implicated. In addition to the extensive media coverage of this scandal, there was an investigative report by the prominent Gambian journalist Sanna Manneh , publisher of The Torch newspaper , who discussed the amount of expenses for Jawara's numerous trips abroad.

A group of senior officials and influential businessmen known as the Banjul Mafia were believed to be responsible for corruption in the public sector . In their greed for profit, many members of the political elite had abused their power for personal gain. Corruption was a major problem in the Gambia, particularly during the last two years of Jawara's presidency.

On July 22, 1994 a group of Gambian army officers under the leadership of the 29-year-old military police lieutenant Yahya Jammeh declared themselves to be the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC). The constitution was repealed and the disempowered President Dawda Jawara, his family and some high-ranking government officials were barely able to flee on the US warship USS La Moure County , which happened to be in the port of Banjul . They were brought to Senegal and given political asylum, later Jawara went into exile in London.

In March 1996, an arrest warrant was issued against Jawara for misappropriating funds and his property was also confiscated. In 1997, Jawara was found guilty of corruption by the Public Assets and Properties Recovery Commission . In March 2001, the new President Yahya Jammeh expelled him from all political offices for a period of 20 years. As early as December 21, 2001, during his speech on the occasion of his swearing-in after winning the presidential elections, Jawara's “pardon” and the return of his confiscated property were announced. In return, Jawara returned to The Gambia in June 2002 and took on the role of elder statesman . Jawara lives in seclusion with his family in Fajara near Bakau and has rarely returned to the public since his return from exile. In February 2007, for example, he led an ECOWAS observer mission to examine preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria in the same year. In August 2008, he was a guest at the Democratic National Convention in Denver , where Barack Obama was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for the 2008 presidential election .

Historical classification

Jawara was considered a moderate leader on the national and international stage. The Gambia was split into the Protectorate and the British Crown Colony when he took office as Prime Minister. He was able to overcome this split, which was accompanied by a hostile attitude, through a clever policy. Within the party, he survived several attempts to overthrow the party and two splits when the People's Progressive Alliance split off in 1968 and the National Convention Party in 1975 . Compared to other leaders of young African states, Jawara renounced massive state repression and acted as a democratic politician, he respected human rights and he was a supporter of the free market economy .

At the time of Jawara's disempowerment, the Gambia was in a poor socio-economic situation and the country was one of the poorest in the world. The economic reforms carried out under Jawara since the mid-1980s did not improve the situation of the population. There were only two hospitals and a few non-governmental health centers. During the 30 years under Jawara, not a single new secondary school had been built despite the population growth. There was no university in the country. With a child mortality rate of 14 percent, the average life expectancy was 45 years. 60 percent of the population did not have safe access to clean drinking water and 75 percent lived below the poverty line.

In the field of foreign policy, Jawara was considered a skilful mediator in disputes between African or Islamic states. In the Organization for African Unity, he contributed significantly to the adoption of the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights (the Banjul Charter ) and was Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States from 1989 to 1990 and 1991 to 1992 . He was involved in founding the ECOWAS Monitoring Group . His personal stance, like that of his party PPP, has been described as moderately left and pro-Western. Regardless of his ties to the West, Jawara clearly criticized states like South Africa and Israel . His frequent trips abroad and his activities on the international political stage earned Jawara great international recognition and Gambia a considerable amount of economic support. But they were also the cause of massive criticism from radical forces in their own country and at the end of the presidency reduced its popularity among the population.

family

In February 1955 Jawara married in Basse the midwife Augusta Mahoney , a daughter of John Andrew Mahoney , a prominent Aku and politician in Bathurst. The Aku are a predominantly Christian minority in Gambia, which goes back to released slaves and is linguistically and culturally closely linked to the corresponding population group in Sierra Leone . Despite their small number, they dominated social, political and economic life in British Gambia. Before the wedding, Jawara converted to the Christian faith and joined the faith community of his future wife, the Wesleyans . In this context he changed his first name to David Kwesi .

In 1965 Jawara returned to Islam and reverted to its original name. He had fallen out with Augusta for some time and divorced her in January 1967, but the divorce decree was overturned by the Court of Appeal in May 1967 . The House of Representatives then passed a special law, the Marriage Bill (Special Circumstances) Act of 1967 , which provided for automatic divorce in the event of a spouse's conversion and allowed polygamy . In 1968 Jawara married 16-year-old Chilel N'Jie , daughter of the wealthy businessman Momodou Musa N'Jie from the Wolof people . Momodou Musa N'Jie was a proven supporter of Pierre Sarr N'Jie's United Party , but supported Jawara's PPP after his daughter's wedding. Jawara was not only able to secure financial and political support through the wedding, but also to meet the demands of leading members of his party to get rid of his Christian wife and to marry a Muslim woman.

In 1970 Jawara married a third woman, 23-year-old administrative clerk Njaimeh, a sister of Lamin Bora M'Boge .

Awards

Illustrations on Gambian coins, banknotes and postage stamps

During his tenure as head of state, Jawara's portrait was a motif on the coins and banknotes of the Gambian national currency Dalasi .

Jawara was also featured on almost all of the Gambia's postage stamps issued during his tenure , for the first time on three special stamps depicting the State House , which celebrated the transition from constitutional monarchy to presidential republic on April 24, 1970.

  • Coin for 5 bututs from 1971 with the portrait of Jawara

  • Coin for 1 Dalasi from 1987

  • Banknote for 1 Dalasi from 1987

literature

  • Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816-1994 (= Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora, vol. 26) . University of Rochester Press, Rochester, NY 2006, ISBN 1-58046-230-8 ;
  • Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia. Fourth Edition (= Historical Dictionaries of Africa, No. 109) . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-5825-1 ;
  • Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa. The Gambia under AFPRC-APRC Rule, 1994-2008 . Lexington Books, Lanham et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-7391-2921-0 .

Web links

Commons : Dawda Jawara  - collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia , p. 113.
  2. ^ A b c d e f Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816–1994 , pp. 136–137.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia , p. 114.
  4. ^ Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816-1994 , pp. 148-150.
  5. ^ Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816-1994 , pp. 160-163.
  6. ↑ a b c d Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia , pp. 115-116.
  7. ↑ a b c d Tijan M. Sallah: Economics and Politics in The Gambia . In: The Journal of Modern African Studies 1990, vol. 28, pp. 621-648, doi : 10.1017 / S0022278X00054768 .
  8. ^ Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816-1994 , p. 53.
  9. ↑ a b Marianne Weiss: Gambia . In: Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Rolf Hofmeier (Hrsg.): Afrika. Yearbook 1991. Politics, economics and society in sub-Saharan Africa , Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1992, ISBN 978-3-322-92532-9 , pp. 96–98.
  10. ^ A b Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa , p. 25.
  11. ^ Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa , pp. 24-25.
  12. ^ Marianne Weiss: Gambia . In: Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Rolf Hofmeier (Hrsg.): Afrika. Yearbook 1996. Politics, economy and society in Africa south of the Sahara , Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 978-3-322-91429-3 , pp. 109–111.
  13. ^ Heinrich Bergstresser: Gambia . In: Institute for Africa customer, Rolf Hofmeier and Andreas Mehler (eds.): Africa. Yearbook 2001. Politics, economics and society in Africa south of the Sahara , Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2002, ISBN 978-3-8100-3326-0 , pp. 88–89.
  14. ^ Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa , pp. 152–153.
  15. ^ Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa , p. 1.
  16. ^ Marianne Weiss: Gambia . In: Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Rolf Hofmeier (Hrsg.): Afrika. Yearbook 1995. Politics, economy and society in sub-Saharan Africa , Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 978-3-8100-1595-2 , p. 107.
  17. ^ Abdoulaye Saine: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa , p. 151.
  18. ^ Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: A political history of The Gambia, 1816-1994 , pp. 169-170.
  19. ↑ James E. Kloetzel et al. (Ed.): Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalog . Volume 3, GI. Scott Publishing Co., Sidney, OH 2008, pp. 32-48, ISBN 978-0-89487-419-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Jawara, Dawda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jawara, Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba (full name); Jawara, David Kwesi (Christianized name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gambian politician, President of Gambia
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Barajally , MacCarthy Island Division , The Gambia
DATE OF DEATH 27th August 2019
Place of death Bakau - Fajara