In the Island Town of Janjanbureh (otherwise spelt Jangjangbureh; also called Georgetown or MacCarthy) on the MacCarthy Island, in South of Central River Region, lives one Lamin Sidibeh of Owen Street.
The ‘Islander’ has settled for welding as a ‘professional career’; but it’s not a bed of roses for him, as he indicated to Mansa Banko Online, via WhatsApp interview with our reporter.
“My achievements are just few; I have no side jobs to do apart from welding. [I have] no savings in the bank even though I tried to open an account. My elders got me married [a wife] very early since I am the first [born] son. So when I get money, I think of buying food and clothing that didn’t allow me to save money,” divulged Sidibeh of Owen Street in Janjanbureh town–an old settlement which was once used as a slave post for the colonial invaders during the days of enslavement.
He said he even had to learn the skills in his own native town since 2009, and thought over it before joining the welding profession. According to him, he almost completed his twelfth grade in 2000 at Armitage Senior Secondary School in his region–one of the oldest high schools in the Gambia; but he had ‘some problems’ with the administrators of his school after the (April 10-11) 2000 students’ demonstrations. He later joined Banjul Academy Senior Secondary School in 2001 to complete his secondary school education; and later he was engaged in operating a rice milling machine. Being a seasonal job, he decided to go into welding, as he indicated.
Further recounting his journey, Manneh said some time in 2003, he was into fire wood collection and selling, and he also worked as a laborer in 2004. He served as petty trader in 2006, despite having skills in carpentry and had practiced it for one year in 2005.
“To be precise, these were my chains of struggle. Then in 2007 and 2008, I went back to rice milling, and 2009 [in] welding to date,” he pointed out.
However, Sidibeh said he was able to save D3000 in 2012 which he used to purchase a portable welding machine and other small tools; then one of his uncles sent him a grinding-machine and other small tools and table vice to perform his welding profession better.
“My dad gave me one drilling machine, bolts and knots making tools and heavy-duty welder. So when I started the same uncle send me a 7.6kv diesel engine standby generator,” he acknowledged.
He said two separate groups of people visited his town in 2014 who claimed to be from the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) and Youth Empowerment Project, respectively saying they took all his details such as his difficulties and needs. But he decried that was their last encounter with him because they never returned with any support.
“The dream I have is, one day, seeing myself building ship-vessels, cars and even airplanes and sky-scrapers. If life still continues,” the determined Janjanbureh welder echoed, even though he admitted the market is poor in his town and region. Sometimes, he works not that he gains a lot of money from it, but because he has to feed the family, he asserted.
On customers, he said: “They want good services and pay small. Government would bypass us to give contracts to others from elsewhere and later come back when [they are] out of options. That’s why we open accounts and leave them empty. Because others would give you work and run [away] with your balance.”
Sidibeh also lamented the impact of Covid-19 on his business when he was asked not to operate during the Covid-19 restrictions. He said his business is less than 100 meters from the market but whenever he charges for anything, clients would say ‘there’s Covid-19, no enough money’.
His message to the Gambia Government is to ‘invest wisely’ on youth who have had already proven themselves by establishing start-ups, rather than giving funds to people who ‘are not interested in anything meaningful’. He maintained it’s easier to help a person who has interest to work than non-planners.
