By Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC)
On 29 July 2025, following Mr Essa Mbye Faal’s appearance on “Coffee Time with Peter Gomez”, SFLRAC published “A Lease Does Not Ownership Make – A Reaction to Essa Faal”. We argued categorically that “The TDA Lease Expired in 2020 – Full Stop”, basing this conclusion on testimony from community elders and the Gambia Tourism Board’s own 2018 statement claiming the original lease ran for 51 years.
Our publication produced an extraordinary result: a reader provided the means for us to access copies of the actual lease documents: Lease No P.14/1970 (Kombo South) and Lease No P.18/1970 (Kombo North), both issued to the then minister responsible for the administration of Lands and Provinces, Yaya Ceesay in 1970 by the Seyfou-in-Councils being the District Authorities for the Kombo South and North Districts in the Western Region (now West Coast Region), respectively. We now possess the CERTIFIED TRUE COPIES of the definitive legal instruments that have eluded public scrutiny for decades.
Honest Correction Required
The lease documents establish that the agreements run for 99 years, from 1969 to 2068, NOT the 50 years we claimed. As a research organisation committed to evidence-based advocacy, we acknowledge this error completely.
However, this raises a disturbing possibility: the government may have told Kombo communities they agreed to 50-year arrangements whilst secretly documenting 99-year leases. Both community memory and official GTB statements contradict the documented terms.
The Real Victory: Transparency
For years, perhaps since 1995 or thereabout, the Government told researchers, the Janneh Commission, and the public they could not locate these leases. This was on the basis that the said Leases were submitted to the Bamfo Commission of Inquiry and same got lost after the conclusion of the said Commission. This was false – the documents existed in Ministry of Justice archives throughout. The citizens who provided these documents have performed an invaluable public service, exposing how citizen action achieved what official channels failed to deliver.
The Enduring Legal Reality
While the lease extends to 2068, not 2020, our fundamental legal position remains unchanged: a lease confers use rights, not ownership. The Kombo landowning clans retain ultimate title to their ancestral lands regardless of any administrative arrangements.
No lease, regardless of duration, can extinguish ancestral title or transform temporary administrative control into permanent ownership.
Our Commitment
This correction demonstrates SFLRAC’s commitment to intellectual honesty over rhetorical advantage. We correct errors immediately when presented with superior evidence, because credible advocacy requires unimpeachable research standards.
Our mission continues: securing justice for Kombo’s landowning communities through rigorous research and evidence-based argument. We now proceed with complete documentary evidence rather than partial information.
Truth serves justice. Justice requires truth. Both demand intellectual courage.
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Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) operates as an independent research institute committed to evidence-based land rights advocacy in The Gambia. We apply academic research standards to policy analysis and maintain institutional independence whilst advocating for transparent governance and ancestral land rights.
