He was in the same generation of accomplished Gambian newspapermen like Pierre Sock (1940-1989); Jongkunda Daffeh (disappeared 2021); Sanna Tix Manneh (1943-2009) who combined good writing with perceptive of ideology. What their presses lacked in basic resources, they made up for adequately in the panache to fix an unyielding gaze on the PPP regime which they covered for three decades and more. Thanks to their dogged coverage of the regime without harassment, Jawara won world wide respect for respect for media freedom.
Born on 12 October 1942, in Banjul, to the known Thomas family of Banjul. He cut his journalistic teeth in the erratically published party presses of Bathurst such as The Spark of The Gambia Decmoratic Alliance of Jahumpa edited by the fearless Pierre Sock, and the African Unity of the United Party edited by Alhaj Burang John. These party newspapers were to the early Bathurst political parties what social media accounts are to the present day political parties: inherently hostile, vituperative, and adept at using arcane language to mock, and rile up anger in the opposing camp.
Following a brief stint in progressive London Pan-African newspapers, Mr. Thomas returned home to Bathurst and established his newspaper called Simply The Gambian in 1974. The masthead carried the slogan: No Justice, No Peace.
The Gambian brought a new style into the Bathurst Press which had gone since the 1950s with the Gambia Echo, The Vanguard etc: broadsheet format which allowed for more space for long and interpretive articles. The other existed papers at the time such as The Nation, The Gambia Onward, The Gambia Outlook were in miniature A-4size cyclostyle, and therefore quite astringent with space. He wrote and edited the paper, except for the occasional contributions by mostly anon writers.
The Gambian was adept at punching below the waistline of Gambian officialdom. When on Tobaski Day 1977, disgruntled Gambia Utilities Corporation staff poured beach sand into The Gambia sole power generator and put our nation into darkness which we still struggle to light up today, The Gambian’s front page screamed INFAMY! The newspaper followed and assiduously reported on the corruption of the flesh and the fanciful that started to besmirch our country from the early 1970s.
Mr. Thomas was an ardent disciple of Edward Francis Small, the crusading Gambian editor, who believed in Senegal-The Gambia collaboration to help offset the artificial mental and physical colonial boundaries. Accordingly, he worked with various Senegal editors like the lamented and highly respected Mame Less Dia, editor and founder of the satirical weekly Le Politicien, published in Dakar throughout the 1980s. When The Gambia Government Printer refused to print The Gambian, Mr. Thomas would travel weekly to Dakar with his galleys to print at Mame Less Dia’s press, and brought the copies to Banjul. On more than one occasion, Jawara’s secret police seized copies of The Gambian at Keur Ayib or Amdallaye border posts when they got wind that the banner headline was scandalous towards powerful PPP guys. To obviate such ambushes, Mr. Thomas had on two occasion, the temerity to print the paper in London, UK, and have them smuggled into Banjul. Such was his earnestness in getting the news out to The Gambia.
He, Pap Saine, Baboucarr Gaye were among the handful of private local pressmen to attend Jawara’s maiden news conference upon his return from Dakar in the aftermath of the 1981 Kukoi coup. It was August 6th 1981. Banjul was in total darkness, and ridden with rotten corpses of the hundreds killed in the insurrection. Following a brief introduction by Director of Information, Mr. Thomas was given the honour to ask the first question to President Jawara, now sweating profusely in the heat of the TV lights trained on him:
Ngaing: Your Excellency, the recent unfortunate incident will certainly discourage tourists from visiting our country. What does your Government intend to do to restore tourism? As Jawara started to answer, Mr. Thomas butted in: ‘Also, how does your Government intend to arrest the disturbing increase in corruption, especially white collar crimes in this country? Jawara looked up at him, smiled a bit, and then frowned as he gave a timid answer to the corruption question saying: ‘We will continue to do what we can do to fight corruption….’. In later years, I asked Mr. Thomas if by calling the Kukoi coup, replete with its brutality, loss of Gambian lives, rape and looting, ‘unfortunate incident’ he was not doing the understatement of the century, Mr. Thomas told me that by saying ‘We will continue to do what we can to fight corruption’; Jawara too was doing the bathos of the century, as Kukoi himself singled out corruption as one reason for his bloody adventure.
At the Daily Observer Features Office which I shared with him in the late 1990s, and where he was briefly Editorial Adviser, leaving in time before the paper lost its editorial independence following its takeover in 1999, he was full of humour.
Mr. Thomas had a fecund mind. Like newspapermen of his time, he was well read. In the Daily Observer office, he, the late Cherno Michael Baldeh, myself and Sheriff Bojang would in the low evening hours, when the office was quieter, engage in long intellectually stimulating banter on any topic under the sun of the late 1990s: Timor Leste, Syria and Assad, Palestine. For each topic, he would know enough to be able to guide my editorial for the next day.
In 1994, he folded up The Gambian and brought a glorious end to a generation of good journalism. He seemed to have foresight that the junta that seized power from the PPP would not be as media tolerant as Jawara and his regime, and therefore saw it a wise step to lay down his pen. He told the media historian Nana Grey Johnson: ‘Prudence dictated me to withdraw in honour than to struggle on and withdraw in disgrace’. Such was his wisdom.
In his latter years, he occasionally came to see me to see how I was doing, and to reminiscence of our days we had at the Daily Observer.
Mr. Thomas was a gentleman. He epitomized the enduring spirit of dedication to truthful accountability that press men of his day and ilk stood for, foregoing the perks and pensions dangled before them by officialdom. He had no anger in him against anyone. All he wished
for as a crusading journalist, was to build a good The Gambia where people enjoyed the fruits of Independence without fear.
To his family and friend, I convey sincere condolences and pray that his soul respect in perfect peace.
(Alhaji Ngaing Demba Thomas, Gambian journalist and editor, born 1942, died 20th October, 2024)
Hassoum Ceesay
