Prince Ebrahim Sanyang, Kiang Batelling’s Sibi Karang Mansa (crown custodian) and great grandson of Mansa Koto (late King Of Kiang), has caution anyone against politicisation and political interference into Kiang West National Park, citing any such move by anyone in The Gambia will be counterproductive and doom for failure.
Batelling’s Sibi Karang Mansa whose given traditional mandate includes the protection, preservation and promotions of their sacred sites, which includes the ‘Kiti Soto’ and ‘Jabindoor’ (widely sang in Lalo Kebba Drammeh’s Nteer song), as well as 12 other sacred, cultural and heritage sites dating back to 1000s of years and can be found in and around Batellings portion of the land within Kiang West National.
According to the Prince, these sites will never be managed or owned by outsiders. He cautioned that all past political leaders or establishment neither threaded very cautiously nor interferes into Batelling’s century old traditional Soninke realm’s land affairs. The ones that tried always failed very miserable.
He therefore reminded the establishment that, he made commitment in developing Kiang West National Park into a world class destination, whilst protecting his traditional heritages and sacred sites that lies within the park. He however revealed that his efforts in developing his ancestral land were sabotaged by politically motivated false unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations peddled by former minister of Justice, Ba Tambedou.
The allegations although delayed Prince Sanyang’s move to develop his native land among others, were later found to be false by a Commission of Inquiry. He said even in the face of his vindication, a certain faction of Banjul political class is still trying to frustrate Prince’s effort to develop his land. But, he assured that they will all fail.
Prince further cautions that any outsiders who try to involve and dictate Kiang’s land matters will be defeated, even if they are backed by the President. He said “our 1000 years sacred culture and heritage is being governed by our people alone, we will not entertain any outsiders to come and dictate to us on our land. We are capable of developing our own lands”.
He said his people do not need outsiders to develop Kiang West National Park, since he has the financial resources and international credibility to do so which is free from politics. Thus, he won’t allow Kiang people to be fooled by anyone.
He emphasized that “these outsiders and their Banjul clique tried every possible way to either frustrate or delay my investments into Kiang, but forgotten that Kiang is my ancestral land. I cautioned Ministry of Justice for 4 years that their attempts to frustrate my investments, especially into Kiang West Park will fail. They didn’t listen, and today if this people think that President Barrow will give them my ancestral land on a silver plate, then they are mistaken. The only Kings of our land is our own people not the political establishment”.
Prince Sanyang assured his native Kiang to be patient and remain faithful in Allah. He assured Kiang of his personal and unprecedented earmarked investments that even the Banjul based political government cannot match.
