The Emperor Without Clothes: the rise of GALA and Lessons for Gambian Leadership

Author Imran Darboe © Askanwi

By Imran Darboe

When I was in Primary Three at Serekunda Primary School, the school somehow got a small library, and that space was my first introduction to the world of books, and through them, to journeys into magical and instructive realms. I read King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But among the first stories that captured my imagination and never lost its grip was the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

The story goes that an egoistic emperor, obsessed with his clothes, is approached by two tricksters who promise to make him the most beautiful clothes anyone has ever seen. Their fabric, they claim, has a special property and is invisible to anyone who is stupid or unfit for their job.

The emperor contracts the tricksters to make him the clothes. They begin work, sewing on empty machines and making nothing at all, so when the emperor’s ministers and advisers come to inspect the fabric, they see nothing. However, none of them had the integrity to admit it, fearing that they would be seen as incompetent, so they praised the invisible cloth. The emperor himself goes to inspect the clothes but sees nothing. However, he too chooses his ego and pride over honesty. Meanwhile the news spreads, and the entire kingdom is awaiting the day the emperor will wear his new clothes at the grand march through the city.

When the day arrives, the emperor parades through the streets wearing nothing, yet the people also cheer and praise his “beautiful clothes,” each too afraid to speak the truth and preferring to go along with the pretense. It takes a single child, unbothered by fear or social pressure, to cry out… 

“But he is not wearing any clothes!” 

Only then did the people confront the reality they knew but had been avoiding.

Whenever I observe governance in the current Gambia, I am reminded of that story of the emperor’s new clothes. It is a lesson about the dangers of greed and ego in leadership, about the dangers of surrounding oneself with sycophants, and about the collective misconception that fear and social pressures to conform can create. It is also a reminder that the truth often comes from voices that the powerful dismiss as small or insignificant.

In our current Gambian reality, it is no secret that citizens are growing increasingly frustrated by the rising cost of living, the relentless and dizzying scale of corruption and public scandals, and the steady regression of democratic norms. Yet the Gambian government mostly proclaims and behaves as though all is well, continuing the performance while the country’s reality is shifting right beneath their feet.

The clearest evidence of this disconnect is the emergence of GALA (Gambians Against Looted Assets). Serious observation will show that this youth-led movement is not a passing phase by a noisy group of discontented youth. It is the visible spark of a generation that forms the majority of our population, a generation that has decided to refuse to be ignored or sidelined. Yet the government’s instinctive response was predictable… deny them a permit for a peaceful protest and arrest them if they are defiant, hoping the matter would die down there.

Instead, the refusal and arrests strengthened the movement. GALA became an organic force that triggered a chain reaction of civic engagement across the country. After years of investigative reporting exposing government mismanagement without much public reaction, journalist Mustapha Darboe’s article on the financial mischiefs surrounding the Janneh Commission became a rallying point. Young people in the shape of GALA moved from social media frustration to street protest, and when some were arrested, lawyers and civil society groups intervened, and reinforcements came from the wider youth population. The attempted suppression thus only broadened the movement.

As proven by the second GALA protest, market women, elderly men, professionals, and many more youth joined in, expressing grievances that are a mosaic of the depressing state of the nation. The youths were not happy, and they stated it loud and clear. In that moment, GALA became more than GALA. It had and has transformed into a people’s initiative. Yet the state appeared more focused on containing the movement… playing down its significance, countering it, than addressing the legitimate grievances that fuel its rise.

So, today, let me be that child in the crowd and shout, “The emperor is not wearing any clothes!!!

Three truths are now unavoidable in the current reality.

1. First truth: GALA is not a temporary movement. It is the spark of inevitable change from a majority and dynamic youth demographic. This young generation communicates, coordinates, and mobilises in ways that traditional authority does not fully understand, and the evidence is in the remarkable PR they mounted for the second protest. GALA is the people, and it cannot be suppressed. It can only be engaged or risk maturing into a more confrontational force, an outcome no one among us should desire, especially those living in the glass houses at the top of the hill.

2. Second truth: the youth are awakening to their civic power, and the old assumption that young people will not vote or sustain civic engagement no longer holds true. I had the pleasure of officiating the voting process during the National Youth Parliament elections, and I can assure you, my dear fellow citizens, this generation is beginning to claim its space. More heartening is that I saw a lady advise the youth at the fore of the second GALA protest to mobilise their fellow youth to register as voters (which they acknowledged), and that is an indication of where this is heading. Before politicians get too excited, know that attempts to co-opt the youth through deceit will prove far more difficult than with past movements (ask Dr Ceesay how most of his former students take him to task for wandering off the path).

3. Third truth, the era of controlling dissent through permits is over (and I’m not saying this as incitement; it is my observed opinion— they’re so quick to charge one for sedition in this part of the world, SMH). The success of the first GALA protest despite the denial of a permit (wrong government move) signalled that the traditional levers of control are losing their effect, and while section 5 of the Public Order Act remains de jure law, the “we are informing you, not seeking your permission” attitude of the youth signals to me a de facto shift. If you engage the youth, it is clear that whether the state chooses suppression or reluctant accommodation, public mobilisation will continue.

To conclude this opinion piece, I think this is the most pivotal moment in Gambian civic life since the fall of Jammeh in 2017, and it carries both promise and risk. The current government have allowed corruption, economic mismanagement, and political complacency to deepen, and they have mostly decided to bury their heads in the sand, praise their own efforts, and try to convince us that the problems we complain about are delusions. A digitally connected, politically aware generation will not accept a future of poverty, unemployment, and exclusion while watching a select few enjoy the dividends of state power.

Our leaders must recognise this reality before it hardens into a revolution. Denial only delays the inevitable reckoning, and lessons across our continent should be clear on that. Like the emperor in the story, the government of The Gambia continues its procession, pretending all is well, while the truth becomes more visible with each step. So again, let me shout it out: “the emperor is not wearing any clothes.”