Kafumba S. Kromah, Acting Secretary, UNION OF MANDINGOES IN MINNESOTA (UOMIM)
July 9th, 2007

On behalf of The “Union of Mandingoes in Minnesota” (UOMIM), I would like to thank the organizers of the recent Mandingo conference in Philadelphia. Like many others who have offered thoughts on this important subject of our life time, we in UOMIM believe that our brothers and sisters who worked so hard to make this just ended Mandingo conference a partial success ought to be thanked for their gallantry and leadership.

In spite of the many shortcoming of the conference, we believe that the need for such dialogue among Mandingoes around the globe was long overdue. It is this regard that we warmly salute you for taking the initiative to assemble a fraction of the Mandingo community for the first time in such numbers and for such purpose.

History will no doubt record your efforts and achievements; it will record that you started what we (Mandingoes) ought to up hold and continue for the betterment of our community and our faith. By the same token, history will also record your inexcusable mistakes-intentional, or unintentional; it will record your deceptive politics and self-indulgence out which you served selective Mandingo organizations an early invitations while serving others a different kind.

History will unfavorably hold you accountable for breaching an old Mandingo tradition of age disparity. As the oldest Mandingo organization in the diaspora, LIMANY deserves not only the right to be an active participant in such effort, but also the privilege to preside over the entire preparation process if need be. History will once again record that you conscientiously chose to sideline a noble and the oldest Mandingo organization that has withstood the test of time and advocated Mandingo unity long before many of you so called organizers came to this country. The geographical proximate between your organization/conference venue and that of (LIMANY) suggests a well calculated effort on your part to exclude the institution from the onset only to served them an insulting invitation.

You will be remembered and introduced to Mandingo generation unborn for your own narrow view of community reconciliation; whereby, you invite only those who agree with your concept of unity and ignore your closest neighbors who differ. Your inability to bring the most famous Mandingo organization to your conference table truly speaks to your character and leadership style; your actions have raised more questions than answers about the prospect of true reconciliation among our people. Reconciliation should be about settling our differences with those who differ and not those already on board. Reconciliation, as we understand begins by resolving your differences with your family, neighbors, friends, community and your nation. Your reconciliatory meetings without your neighbors, therefore, suggest problems not solution; it indicates weakness on the part of our community not strength, and it sends a strong message of disunity to our adversaries all across the globe.

Like any other history lesson, we can only hope that future organizers of same or similar Mandingo conference will learn from your errors; they will learn to invite communities and not just organizations; many such local Mandingo organizations including The Minnesota Mandingo Association that once enjoyed a unanimous support among us no longer represent, or speak for the entire community. Had the conference organizers done their home work, perhaps required their local participating organization leaders to present their preceding meeting attendance list, they would have understood that the handful of people that stormed the conference in the name of their various states were actually lower than they presented themselves.

Finally, your conference has put us in a sad predicament. We either get on board with you or lend our support to LIMANY. In the interim, we are inclined to join our sister organization in Wisconsin (WIMAM) in support of LIMANY’S decision to boycott the conference.

Kafumba S. Kromah (Acting Secretary)
UNION OF MANDINGOES IN MINNESOTA (UOMIM)
Contact: kafumba2000@yahoo.com/ 612-203-38