By Alieu Manneh
BANJUL, Gambia (AA) – In her three decades of work as a women rights activist, a career in politics had never crossed her mind.
Least of all, joining the race for the presidency against Gambia’s strongman President Yahya Jammeh.
But less than a week ago, Isatou Touray became the first woman to launch a campaign for a presidential election in the small west African nation.
“I have traversed the length and breadth of Gambia as a development expert and a human rights activist looking at the political and development landscape which are interlinked,” she told Anadolu Agency.
“I saw abuses, economic failures and the general disenchantment of the whole public… As a person with principles, with all the ability and capacity, do I have to sit in a corner and feel comfortable? So even if I never wanted to run for the presidency, my conscience leaves me no other choice.”
The 61-year-old’s candidacy breaks a lot of new ground for Gambia, encompassing several historical firsts.
For example, Touray was born in Banjul, the country’s island capital, 10 years before independence in 1965, making her the first native of the city to vie for the presidency after independence as well.
Her father, Sunkaru Jarra was a cook in a colonial passenger boat called Lady Wright while her mother, Haddy Konteh, was a vegetable gardener and a trader who sold foodstuffs in the capital.
Touray attended a local school in the city, after which she obtained a teacher’s training certificate at The Gambia College in 1974.
She then graduated with a BA honors degree in education and English from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, in Sokoto, Nigeria, and a master’s degree in gender and development at the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague in the Netherlands.
She also holds a doctorate degree in development studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, U.K.
All these diplomas make her the most highly educated Gambian to run for presidential office in the nation’s history.
– Links to opposition
Touray is also a founder of the gender unit of the Management Development Institute, a professional educational college in Gambia where she introduced a course in gender and development, which she has coordinated for more than 15 years.
A national and international leader in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM), Touray founded the Gambia Committee against Harmful Traditional Practices, an institution known for fighting child marriage and FGM in her country.
The scope of her role expanded between 2009-2014 when she served as secretary general of the Inter African Committee (IAC) — a pan-African network of 28 countries that aims to eliminate “harmful traditional practices”.
Touray’s campaign to end FGM received a boost when Jammeh declared a ban on the practice a few months ago, though she told Anadolu Agency the president’s move was “politically motivated”, meant to gain political capital for “defending women”.
Politics in Gambia is a male-dominated affair but Touray is seen by many as tough enough to bring the fight to Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 military coup.
Her husband, Malang Touray — a native of the Kartong coastal village in southwestern Gambia with whom she had four children — has described her as someone with the right mindset to deal with the challenges she faces.
“Isatou’s persistence and consistency in pursuit of her goals even in the face of adversity is unparalleled,” he told a crowd at the launch of her campaign. “She is like a bag of tea in water — the hotter it is, the stronger it gets.”
Although Touray has previously denied having political ambitions she has always been viewed as a potential candidate, largely because of her popularity and association with the leadership of the country’s main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).
In 2010, Touary and her longtime companion, who is currently her press secretary, Amie Bojang, faced corruption charges brought against them by the state.
They were accused of stealing 30,000 euros ($33,675) from their own NGO, though the case was considered by many as politically motivated. Both were acquitted.
Despite social and political challenges to her advocacy activities, Touray has had a colorful career that saw her win a U.S. State Department award for empowering Gambian communities in 2008.
– Coaltion
Baboucarr Ceesay, a Gambian journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting on women’s rights issues in the country, said Touray boasted qualities that made her a perfect fit for the job.
“Isatou Touray has qualities that will make her a good head of state,” he told Anadolu Agency. “She is an erudite activist prepared to contest for the Dec. 1, 2016, presidential election in the kind of political atmosphere that prevails in The Gambia.
“Her love for serving humanity is profound and she hates to see rights being trampled by might.”
However, Gambia is a conservative society, in which the role of women is still largely domestic.
Essa Njie, a Gambian political analyst, said that although Touray was a “very strong candidate… the religious and cultural beliefs of the people here have confined women to specific roles which are often social.”
But Touray told Anadolu Agency that her “three decades of activism had changed the mindset of the people with regards to female leadership”.
She added: “Gambians are really ready for a woman’s leadership… People are also exposed to what is happening in the outside world and they have seen [President] Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and others.”
Many Gambian political analysts have argued that the country’s opposition parties are too weak and disunited to defeat Jammeh without forming a coalition.
The opposition has not formed an alliance against the incumbent since 1996, when Jammeh won his first election, due to disputes over leadership.
Touray said that was why she valued her independence so that she might be that “neutral person they can all trust to support”.
The UDP has published its manifesto, in which it expressed its readiness to back an independent candidate to unite the opposition.
If she gets the support of the UDP, Touray might receive the backing of other opposition parties, although the new Gambia Democratic Party has emphasized that their condition for a coalition is that their leader Mamma Kandeh leads.
