BRASSA MADA N’SAN KEHENLLI BAM’FABA – MESSAGE #3
(He Who Knows How To Do Speaks to The Children of the Same Father – Message #3)
N’ghala N’dang Tchimna. Abeneh Binham N’yo Wule.
In my first message to Bam’Faba after my visit to Guinea Bissau, I stated:
“Balanta are more United than ever before! We are calling all Balanta descendants in America to join the Balanta B’urassa History & Genealogy Society in America.
We are calling all Balanta in the North, South, East and West of Guinea Bissau to work as Bam’Faba.
There are still more Balanta in South and Central America as well as in the Caribbean. Soon we will be calling them.
This is a historic moment in the history of Balanta people.
We have a great task to accomplish right now. We must produce a development plan for the Balanta people in Guinea Bissau.”
We agreed on the following process to ensure the development of all Balanta people in Guinea Bissau:
1. Each local Balanta community will determine its priority needs and make a full, detailed report and submit it to section coordinators.
2. Section Coordinators will collect all local reports and submit them to the Regional Coordinator.
3. The Regional Coordinator will collect all sectional reports and submit them to the Bam’Faba Coordinating Council.
In this way, for the first time ever, Balanta people in Guinea Bissau will have a national development plan.
In my second message to Bam’Faba, I stated:
During our initial meeting in Guinea Bissau, I requested two things. 1) a map of Balanta villages with some basic demographic information; and 2) a song, in K’rassa, that was easy to learn that we could use as an anthem to unite us.
Now, as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, our development efforts have been focused on sending emergency food aid relief.
We donated $500 to the food distribution efforts of Tadja Fomi.
We sent $1,000 for food distribution in Tchokman village
We sent another $1,000 for food distribution for Samodje, Sintcham and Tande in Ingoré, Bígene sector.
Following this we will proceed to Quibat in Tombali region, the east into Bafata region and back to Fanhe and Encheia in Oio region.
In this way we will begin to help all Balanta communities in north, south, east, west and central Guinea Bissau.
After conversations with Camais Blinque Nafanda, José Nafafé and Iemna N’fade, we realized
IT IS NOW TIME TO DEVELOP THE GLOBAL BAM’FABA COUNCIL
One organizational structure of Binham B’rassa to take responsibility for the development of all Balanta People Worldwide
The Global Bam’Faba Council will be structured as follows:
1. Bam’Faba Coordinating Council – consists of Bam’Faba Central (Guinea Bissau) and Bam’Faba Global
2. Bam’Faba Central (Guinea Bissau) – consists of 9 Administrative Regional Coordinators, 39 Sector coordinators, and as many Village Coordinators as necessary.
3. Bam’Faba Global – consists of Coordinators for North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Under each Continental Coordinator will be a Country Coordinator, and under each Country Coordinator will be City Coordinators.
Our single objective is to develop a Balanta National Development Plan for Guinea Bissau, finance it and complete its projects. The Global Bam’Faba Council is not a political organization, it is a development organization.
In order for The Bam’Faba Coordinating Council to function effectively, information needs to be shared with every Balanta person in the world. This is the reason for the structure of the communications network.
Messages will be sent to and from Bam’Faba Coordinating Council through the Bam’Faba Central (Guinea Bissau) and Bam’Faba Global Continental Coordinators, who will then send the messages to the Country Coordinators, who will then send the messages to the City Coordinators and Village Coordinators. Likewise, information from Balanta communities throughout the world, including the most rural villages, will be sent through the Village Coordinators to the City Coordinators to the Country Coordinators to the Continental Coordinators to the Bam’Faba Coordinating Council. In this way, every Balanta is part of Bam’Faba.
What needs to be done now?
1. Balanta people in each city around the world need to organize and centralize themselves by conducting a census and select or recognize someone as their City Coordinator. Do not make this a complicated or contentious process. Anyone who takes initiative, who has good organization and communication skills and regular access to internet, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp, who can respond to timely messages, is eligible to serve as a City Coordinator. Anyone who wants to be a City Coordinator must be able to conduct a Balanta City Census to identify how many Balanta there are in the city and communicate with most of them. When this is done, when a City Coordinator, has conducted a reasonable account of the Balanta population in that city and submits it to Bam’Faba Coordinating Council, that city and the Coordinator will be listed on the Bam’Faba Global list.
2. We need to complete the Bam’Faba Central Map. Anyone who can contribute by listing Balanta villages and their location to the nearest cities should do so.
The Global Bam’Faba Council will use its connections to identify Village Coordinators in Guinea Bissau who will communicate the priority needs and make a full, detailed report and submit it to the section coordinators. When all communities have done this and all reports have been submitted up the network to the Bam’Faba Central, we will then submit this Balanta National Development Plan to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for US $1 million in development funding.
This is the work that the government of Guinea Bissau is supposed to do. But Balanta people will not wait for them; Balanta people will do it themselves. In so doing, Balanta people will set an example for all people in Guinea Bissau and throughout Africa.
Consider now why this is so important. As stated in my first message to Bam’Faba:
1. According to Toby Green (Guinea Bissau: ‘Micro-State’ to “Narco-State’) total external investment in Guinea Bissau reached a high of US $46 million in 2014 but fell to just US$12 million by September of 2015. How much of that reached rural Balanta communities?
2. USAID, the greatest source of foreign investment in the world, has no office in Guinea Bissau, and there is no direct assistance program from the economic superpower to Guinea Bissau.
3. In 2001 the total from the Economic Support Fund and the Special Self-Help Fund to Guinea Bissau was $250,000. In 2002 it was just $20,000.
4. The United States lacks a permanent diplomatic presence in Guinea Bissau. They have only a small Bissau Liaison Office with 14 local staff (including seven security guards and two drivers). USAID, CDC, DoD, DOS, USCG and USDA each manage programs in Guinea Bissau from Dakar.
5. On September 13, 2018, The U.S. Department of State issued its Integrated Country Strategy report for Guinea Bissau to help “integrate Guinea Bissau into the greater regional and global economy and promote institutional governance and the rule of law within its borders” and “develop a mature diplomatic and economic partnership with Guinea Bissau.”
6. Specifically, Objective 3.2 of the Report details its goal to improve the Health of the Population of Guinea Bissau. Objective 3.3 details its goal to improve Education, Training, and Leadership for Bissau-Guinean Children and Youth.
7. The report states that the US State Department seeks “Broad USG engagement . . . with public . . . and Private (e.g. NGO’s, the media) stakeholders at the national and sub-national level . . . .”
8. Since 1970, Africare has been the most experienced and largest African American led non-profit international development organizations and leaders in development assistance to Africa. Since their founding in 1970, Africare has delivered more than $1 billion in assistance to tens of millions of men, women and children across the African continent.
9. While on an official mission to the U.S. in the spring of 1988, the late President of Guine-Bissau, Joao Bernardo Vieria, visited Africare headquarters in Washington D.C. and asked the organization to support the people of Guinea-Bissau in its development efforts. A grant from USAID allowed Africare to quickly respond to President Viera’s request and implement a pilot PL 480, Title II program to promote the development of the local communities.
10. In September of 1988, the Guinea-Bissau government approved the juridical position of Africare as a non-government international development organization. Since then Africare expanded its interventions nation-wide, having marked a strong and respectful presence in the country by implementing development and humanitarian programs. Assistance provided included agricultural production and food security, communities’ managerial skills training, literacy, nutritional education, health and HIV & AIDS, development of infrastructure (roads, foot bridges, community health posts, wells, rural marketplaces and village schools), legalization, organizational capacity building, and credit. Special emphasis was placed on women and youth participation and agricultural product diversity as two important activities for providing employment and skills enhancement for income-generation. While many regions in Guinea-Bissau benefitted from Africare assistance, this assistance was impeded by the status of insecurity that prevailed in the country, rendering it difficult for development activities and forcing Africare to phase-out of Guinea-Bissau in 2003.
11. In February 2010, Africare responded to a Requested for Application (RFA) posted by UNHCR and was subsequently selected to receive funding to assist the Senegalese refugees hosted in Guinea-Bissau since 1992. After providing 45,000 Senegalese refugees with assistance in farming, microenterprise development, health and primary education, Africare phased out of Guinea-Bissau once again in December in 2010.
12. Thus, is the status of previous development initiatives by USAID and African Americans.
13. On January 22, I receive the following message from E. Rose Custis, Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy of the United States of America for Senegal and Guinea Bissau:
14. With the recent recognition of the Balanta B’urassa History & Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA) by the United States Government as a 501c3 non-profit organization eligible to work with USAID, as well as with the recent success of the BBHAGSIA President’s Mission to Guinea Bissau and the Goodwill shown by the Balanta communities, the people of Guinea Bissau, the media in Guinea Bissau, and especially the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Tourism, along with the National Research Institute, Amilcar Cabral University, and Lusofona University, and the Mayor of Cacheu, the BBHAGSIA is now in position to become the premiere development channel between the United States and Guinea Bissau.
15. Unlike the previous initiatives which were not initiated by the communities themselves, the Bam’Faba Development Plan represents the first ever national development plan conceived by the local communities themselves. This plan will serve as an example to the other ethnic groups.
16. Should the other ethnic groups follow the example of the Bam’Faba Development Plan, the people themselves will have provided the government of Guinea Bissau with both the national development plans and the foreign development aid from USAID and other such donor institutuions in America. This, then is a new model for development planning in Africa and Guinea Bissau can serve as an example for all of Africa.
17. It is for this reason, then, the most important objective of Balanta people right now in Guinea Bissau is to conduct and complete the local development assessment reports with all due speed and thoroughness.
18. With such a plan and with all Balanta united, we will not need to depend on donor funding to complete small projects step-by-step. Donor funding is useful, but we, the Balanta people must achieve our development goals with or without it.
Listen now to the words of His Imperial Majesty, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I on Development Planning:
“Our concern is with the many and not the few.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966
“The ownership of a plot of land must be brought within the capacity of everyone who so desires.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966
“It is Our task and responsibility, as it is of Our Government, to transform these objectives into coherent, acceptable and realistic legislative and financial programmes and to see to their accomplishment. If this is done, the duty owed to the Ethiopian nation and people will be discharged. To succeed will require the single-minded, tenacious, and unselfish dedication of each one of us.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966.
“In this noble task each one of Our people, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, able and disabled, has a role to play and We are sure Our Empire will march ahead towards prosperity and progress through united efforts of all Our citizens.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, July 7, 1964
“Even assuming, however, that the will and the desire exist, there remains the immensely difficult and complex task of organizing the nation’s energies and resources and directing them in a well-conceived and fully integrated fashion to the achieving of carefully studied and clearly defined ends.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“In Ethiopia, increased emphasis is currently being given to the concept and function of planning.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“Planning ensures a simultaneous accomplishment of developmental projects with a view to achieving accelerated progress, thus avoiding wastage of financial resources, labour and time.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966.
“As has already been manifested by your endeavours the people themselves must come to realize their own difficulties in the development of their community and try to solve them by collective participation following an order of priority and taking their potentiality into account.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 12, 1963
“When people express their felt needs, these have to be formulated into plans.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 7, 1964
“ . . . Any plan which does not have the proper personnel to execute it will remain a mere plan on paper.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
“We prepare development plans for our country with the understanding that our people will take an active and substantial part in carrying out the plans to successful conclusions.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967
“Every Ethiopian has a social obligation to contribute as much as possible in financial, material or physical aid for road construction and other projects which add to the progress of the country.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967
“Self-help thus is the quintessence of community development programmes. It is, therefore, essential that initiative and desire for improvement should emanate from the people and not be superimposed from outside. It is of course the primary task of community development workers to motivate and stimulate the people to cross barriers of apathy and helplessness.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie, July 7, 1964
“The key to the attainment of any goal lies in one’s ability to learn to direct one’s objectives towards clearly defined ends and to pursue them in an orderly, rational and coordinated fashion. The means which modern economic philosophy have devised for the attainment of such goals is the preparation of long-term projects and plans and their execution to the extent possible.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1968
“Our utmost interest now is focused upon economic development. It is quite necessary for those of you who have studied economics to be masters of your art in using both in private life as well as in the service of the government which you are serving.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, December 20, 1963
“Let us not, however, be misled. The preparation of an economic plan is only half the task, and perhaps not even that. The real test comes in the implementation, and here even the best of plans can be subverted and destroyed. Once an overall economic plan is adopted, the nation’s budget must be tailored to the implementation of the plan. Individual development projects must be fitted into the priorities established in the plan. Haphazard and ill-coordinated economic activity must be avoided at all costs. Investment must be controlled and directed as the plan dictates. And, most important, all of this must be accomplished in a coordinated and efficient fashion. The responsibility of the plan does not rest upon any single ministry or department; it is a collective responsibility, shared by all development ministries concerned with economic and social development, indeed by all departments and officials.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967.
“If Our aims and objectives are to be realized, each one of us must labour and assume his share of responsibility for the progress and prosperity of the nation. If We do so, We are satisfied that acceptable results will follow.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966
“This is the new attitude which must be encouraged: the communal as opposed to the individual approach, the spirit of working together that all may benefit.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“What Our country needs now is an increase in the supply of trained and skilled manpower, men, of professional integrity.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 16, 1969
“We need well-qualified people who are proud of being Ethiopians; people who are proud of being Africans; people who are prepared to execute the plans that have already been envisioned.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
If this is true for the Ethiopian, who defeated the Italian invaders, this is also true of the Balanta, who defeated the Portuguese colonizers.
Finally, these are the words of Amilcar Cabral:
“THE STRUGGLE UNITES, BUT IT ALSO SORTS OUT PERSONS, the struggle shows who is to be valued and who is worthless. Every comrade must be vigilant about himself, for the struggle is a SELECTIVE PROCESS; the struggle shows us to everyone, and show who we are. . . . .We are making an effort for the unworthy to improve, but we know who is worthy and who is not worthy; we even know who may tell a lie. . . . There are others of whom some are afraid, because they know that their only merit is the power they wield. . . . Whether we like it or not, the struggle operates a selection. Little by little, some pass through the sieve, others remain. . . . Only those will go forward who really want to struggle, those who in fact understand that the struggle constantly makes more demands and gives more responsibilities and who are therefore ready to give everything and demand nothing, except respect, dignity, and the opportunity to serve our people correctly. . . But for a struggle really to go forward, it must be organized and it can only really be organized by a vanguard leadership. . . . Leadership must go to the most aware men and women, whatever their origin, and wherever they come from: that is, to those who have the clearest concept of our reality and of the reality that our Party wants to create. We are not going to look to see where they come from, who they are and who their parents are. We are looking only at the following: do they know who we are, do they know what our land is, do they know what our Party wants to do in our land? Do they really want to do this, under the banner of our Party? So they should come to the fore and lead. Whoever is most aware of this should lead. We might be deceived today, or deceived tomorrow, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, it is practical experience which shows who is worthy and who is not. . . . Our struggle demands enlightened leadership and we have said that the best sons and daughters of our land must lead. . . .So far as we are able to think of our common problem, the problems of our people, of our own folk, putting in their right place our personal problems, and, if necessary, sacrificing our personal interests, we can achieve miracles. . . . It is not enough to say ‘I am African’ for us to say that person is our ally: these are mere phrases. We must ask him frankly: ‘Do you in fact want the independence of your people? Do you want to work for them? Do you really want our independence? Are you really opposed to Portuguese (American) colonialism? Do you help us? If the answers are yes, then you are our ally. . . . We can only genuinely achieve what we want in our land if we form a group of men and women who are strong, able not to cheat their comrades and not to lie, able to look their comrades straight in the eye . . . .”
The struggle now is for the development of the people of Guinea Bissau and Balanta must take responsibility for the well-being of Balanta people and set an example for the rest of the people of Guinea Bissau.