A savage African despot, who considers P.G. County Executive Jack Johnson as “brother,” “friend”, and business partner, was recently condemned by Amnesty International for hiring witch doctors to terrorize the tiny West African nation of Gambia.
The UK Guardian and the New York Times have recently reported that up to 1,000 Gambians were kidnapped by witch doctors hired by Gambian President Alhaji Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh and forced to drink hallucinogenic potions concocted from poisonous herbs at secret government detention centers. Several victims died and hundreds of people fled in terror to neighboring Senegal.Police, army officers and members of Jammeh's presidential guard, known as the "Green Boys", accompanied the witch hunters from village to village in this backward West African nation, previously known best as the colonial-era slave entrepot where Kunta Kinte of Roots was kidnapped and sold to into bondage.
Reports indicate the alleged witches, many of them elderly, were abducted for up to five days. Made to drink unknown hallucinogenic substances, they were then forced to confess to witchcraft. Some were also severely beaten. “I experienced and witnessed such abuse and humiliation. I cannot believe that this type of treatment is taking place in Gambia. It is from the dark ages,” one victim told Amnesty International.
The witch hunters are reported to have arrived in Gambia from Guinea follow- ing the death of Jammeh's aunt. Jammeh is said to believe that witch craft was used to kill her.
Belief in witchcraft is not uncommon in parts of rural Africa, and other heads of state such as Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu of Zaire, and “Emperor” Bokassa of the Central African Republic have been accused of employing or fearing the dark arts. In this hemisphere, Haitian President for Life “Papa Doc” Duvalier gave voodoo, a witchcraft-based religion indigenous to the slave-exporting regions of West Africa, a prominent role in his repressive and ruinous regime.
Jammeh's crackdown is consistent with his prior misrule of the tiny West African state since a military coup in 1994. In 2007, the 43-year-old president announced that he had found separate herbal cures for HIV, asthma and high blood pressure, and personally administered his treatment to patients. The UNDP representative was expelled from Gambia in 2008 after she expressed doubts about the superstitious claims. That year, the Muslim leader also gave an interview to Hezbollah TV in which he endorsed Iran’s nuclear weapons program. After the witch hunt was over, he imprisoned opposition leader Halifa Sallah on spying charges, for visiting villages where witch hunting had occurred.
Jammeh’s ties to Prince George’s County came about thanks to the naive prejudices of County Executive Johnson. Johnson lead a Prince George’s County trade mission to Gambia in February 2005, and Gambian “officials” returned the visit in June 2005 and December 2006. Kwasi Holman, Johnson’s appointee as head of the Prince George’s economic development agency, emphasized that the County’s ties to the Jammeh regime were “a direct result of a trade relationship cultivated through the county executive's outreach to the African continent.” Jammeh has previously been appointed Honorary Admiral of the Alabama State Navy by the Governor of that state, and awarded the Grand Order of Bravery by Libyan dictator Gadaffi.
Johnson then hosted a “State Dinner” for President Jammeh in College Park. “Our people are your people and the waters have not divided us,”Johnson gushed during the VIP reception. Jammeh responded, “We are your brothers, sisters, and your friend.” At the celebration, it was reported that both men expressed their love for small towns. “I'm uncomfortable in the city. I'm a village man,” declared Jammeh. Johnson said, “I go to a little island in South Carolina” to contemplate “the future of the world's wealthiest majority-Black county.” Uh oh…
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