We the descendent of enslaved Africans are returning home. And as children taken from our land through slavery we are requesting to be recognized as citizens without a waiting period, and to be given land to build homes and settle with our people. Land for settlement in Gambia is at a premium and becoming prohibitively expensive. Low lying land that is prone to flooding is being settled on by new settlers from rural districts of other nations. Urban infrastructure is increasingly being shown to be incapable to cope with the growing demand. The saddest part is that even traditional landowners in different communities are being dispossessed of land inherited from generation of their ancestry. Reserved land for agricultural and collective use in many parts of Gambia is being transformed into privately commercial ownership for profits. If things were to stay the same a lot of families will become homeless here in the Gambia. The trend and pattern of Land grabbing matters since July 1994 get worse by the year due to Yaya Jammeh’s 22-year rule and the ordinary people have been paying for it dearly ever since including us who now have come home.

Psalms 147:2-The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcast of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:17-There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your generations shall come back to their own land.

We the undersigned people are former citizens of Africa; we urge our leaders to act now to see our plight as descendants of formerly enslaved Africans and reinstate our birthright that was taken from us by force and not by choice. The time to act is now! 

Jeremiah 7:7- Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
Jeremiah 33:7- I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild as they were at first.
Amos 9:15- I will plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them.
Says the Lord your God.