Election season is upon us in The Gambia, and with it, a familiar, foul smell. Listen to the audios on WhatsApp. Watch the live videos on Facebook and TikTok. Sit in a taxi rank in Brikama or a bantaba in Kuntaur. Or listen to some politicians at rallies like the president and his coalition members at Farafenni over the weekend.
They are no longer debating the price of rice, the blackouts at Nawec, the youth boats to Europe, or the hospitals with no medicine. They are counting tribes.
Mandinka this, Fula that. Wolof this, Jola that. Serahulè this, Lebanese that. It is poison. And it is deliberate.
As we approach the presidential election in December 2026, some politicians — in both the ruling camp and the opposition — have decided that the easiest path to State House is not through ideas, but through division. They cannot explain their manifesto, so they explain your tribe. They cannot defend their record, so they attack another ethnic group’s dignity. We must condemn it, in the strongest terms, and we must reject it completely.
We are not some naïve, tree hugging liberals. We know tribal identity exists. To be Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Jola, Serahulè, Serere, Manjago, Balanta, Aku, Moroccan, Lebanese — that is a source of culture, language, history, and pride. It should be celebrated. The Gambia’s diversity is its beauty. What we condemn is tribalism — the weaponisation of that identity to claim superiority, to spread fear, to win votes by making your neighbour your enemy.
Politicians should be careful. We have seen where that road can end for them. Yahya Jammeh and his APRC’s rule ended when he unleashed a diatribe against Mandinkas at his June 2016 meeting in Tallinding. We have seen over the years how politicians have mastered tribal manipulation, playing groups against each other to stay in power. We sat through the TRRC, where victims told us how soldiers were told “these people are enemies of your tribe,” and then they tortured and killed Gambians. We saw how close we came in 2016 to a dangerous precipice.
The Gambia is 2.4 million people. In Serekunda market, a Fula woman sells milk to a Mandinka mother who buys fish from a Jola fisherman whose boat was built by a Wolof carpenter. Our blood is mixed. Our families are intermarried. Our children share the same classrooms and the same desperate need for jobs. There is nothing like a pure Mandinka person or village or a pure Fula region left — and that is our strength. A politician who tells you that your tribe is under threat is not trying to protect your tribe. He is trying to use you.
He will not bring you a job because you are Wolof. He will not lower fertiliser because you are Serahule. Tribalism does not build clinics, it does not fix roads, it does not end blackouts. It only builds the politician’s house while the houses of ordinary people burn. Political leaders should campaign based on their records and plans. If you must attack, attack corruption, incompetence and drug trafficking — not ethnic groups. The IEC must enforce Section 62 of the Elections Act. Hate speech and tribal incitement are electoral offences, not “political strategy”. Disqualify the rhetoric early. And we in the media must stop giving microphones to tribal bigots.
In December 2026, we will elect a president of The Republic of The Gambia, not a president of an ethnic group. There will be no Mandinka Gambia, no Fula Gambia, no Wolof Gambia, no Jola Gambia. There is only one Gambia. Let us choose unity.