The president, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh has donated a sum of four hundred thousand dalasi to the ‘Blaque Magique Group’ as a form of reward in recognition of their efforts and activities in the country and beyond.
The Blaque Magique Group, is a culture group and they participates in Poetry, drama, music and as well take part in blood donations and raising people’s awareness on Ebola by travelling across the country talking to people about Ebola in the languages they understand.
President Jammeh earlier on met the group in Kanilai during a mega musical and cultural concert staged as part of activities marking the country’s 50th Golden Jubilee celebrations. He was impressed with their performance (the Blaque Magique Group), and as a result he decided to give them a gift in the sum of four hundred thousand dalasi. The president used that meeting to advise them to keep together as a group.
The vice president and minister of Women Affairs, Her Excellency Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy who presented the cash to the group said as a result of these combination of factors about the group is the reason why the president, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh deemed it necessary to meet them and formally recognised their programme.
She commended the group for been talented. “You are a group with a difference but I am not also surprise because you are dealing with a government and a leader with a difference. He (the president) has always said it and has always been manifesting it since 1994. What we are seeing today is as a result of the enabling environment the president has provided,” she told them.
She continued: “We must revive some of our cultures, because we have talented people and today we are seeing a group which is multi-talented in nature, there are lots of versatile people among you and you have exhibited that in your different educational programmes, songs, dramas and poems as well.”
On behalf of His Excellency, the President, she thanked them, saying this is what he (the president) always expects from the young people and he has always been advocating for it. She told them that the president has provided the enabling environment for Gambians to exhibit their talent and this is what he has been doing to encourage the young people. “His Excellency has always been behind you and he will always be behind you and give you all the support that you need,” she stated while calling on other Gambians to do the same.
Speaking earlier, the minister of Tourism and Culture, Benjamin Roberts, under whose domain the group is highly engaged in, acknowledged the group’s participation in diverse areas of the Gambian culture. The minister who was impressed with the performance of the group in Kanilai is also of the believed that they have the potential to promote the true culture of the country even beyond the shores of The Gambia.
However, the minister went on to stress the need for the group to stay and continue to work together. “The presentation of this gift to you is only intended to help you further in whatever target or goal you aspired for, because am pretty sure you have your aspirations, targets and goals. So this donation in itself is to further enhance that,” he told them.
In the forthcoming weeks and months, he said, they will hear a whole lot of things, which they will be doing at the Ministry to help, promote certain aspects of their culture.
As a group, the Tourism minister noted that this would give them the opportunity to participate in some of these things to help in the promotion of tourism. “We take our culture out there to perform for people to see and appreciate, then we create a curiosity and that curiosity now cause people to come and see how it is on the ground. This is the outlook and this is where we setting out ourselves to achieve. So be on the lookout and we will be more than willing to work with you and support you. My office is open and any ideas you have we are willing to share and listen to you,” he told them.
For her part, the minister for Basic and Secondary Education, Fatou Lamin Faye also enjoined the group to remain, work together as a team and forge ahead to showcase their talent.
“Be your brothers and sisters keepers and don’t have factions amongst yourselves, be honest to each other and stick together. So I want to encourage you to work together as a group. You demonstrated tremendous talent in Kanilai in the areas of poetry, music and drama and we were all amazed,” she told the group.
The Basic and Secondary Education implored on the group to extend their activities to schools to bring the children to the level at which they (the group) are.
The minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, Sheriff Bojang, in his profiling of the group highlighted the real rendition of what the Blaque Magique Group is and what they are doing. According to him, there is more to Blaque Magique Group than just performing Art.
“Of course we all know since the demise of Ndanaan, way back in 1980s there has been a total lack of opportunity and platform for performing and creative art. There are a lot of things to this group, they are very active in the area of advocacy, blood donations and of recent they have also done a very good work on raising awareness on Ebola and they have gone throughout the country talking to people about Ebola in the languages they understand. We must applaud them for those very good works,” the minister said of the group.
Minister Bojang stated that the members of the group comprises of young professionals, engineers and media personnel, among others coming together doing thing about their culture. “Gambia is a land where positive things are happening. I want to thank and assure you that you have the total support of His Excellency the president and all good Gambians,” he stated.
For his part, Latirr Carr, the head of the group, on behalf of the members, expressed their appreciation for meeting the executive. Like the Information minister, Carr as well briefly gave a profile of the group, saying they constitute a young group of talents.
“Together we’ve created secret groups from Fashion Weekend Gambia to Blaque Magique, to Black Lynx and they are about six groups that have constituted this group,” he revealed. He informed that they started as a small group and grew up to this number and wherever they go, they search for talent.
Sulayman Samba deputy secretary general moderated the meeting while Jama Jack a group member delivered the vote of thanks.
by Musa Ndow
Daily Observer GambiaClick here to read the article from its source
