Shared on Fri, Oct 20, 3:29 PM
Dr Ebrima Ceesay, UK
Senior Research Fellow
International Development Department
University of Birmingham
Greetings Hassan (Retired Ambassador Gibril),
It is amazing how great minds think alike. I have also, in the past, discussed (on this forum) the importance of civic education in facilitating the participation of citizens in the democratic and development processes. Indeed, the importance of civic education cannot be overstated, as it would empower Gambians to be well-informed and become active citizens with a strong sense of responsibility, able to change the world around them.
I am re-sending (see below) the piece I wrote here in May 2022.
Let me now deviate from the main topic of discussion. Following our recent WhatsApp exchanges, I have been looking at old documents belonging to the University of Birmingham’s School of Education relating to the history of French Language Teaching and Learning in the Gambia, and the evidence seems to suggest that the first batch of French language Gambian graduates before independence in 1965 (during the pre-independence period) went to study French at African Universities, particularly Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone. Of course, a few more Gambians went to study French in Nigeria at Ibadan University around 1964, just before the Gambia obtained independence in 1965. The first batch of French language graduates in the Gambia during the pre-independence period included Omadi Diarra (1932 – 1995) and Musa Fatty, former Chief Education Officer at the Gambia’s Ministry of Education, as it was then called. Melville Auber (M.L. Auber), whose date of birth is given as 1936, is also listed as someone who obtained a B.A. degree in French at Fourah Bay College during this period.
However, fast forward to the post-independence period, when the relevance of the French Language in the Gambia’s relations with Francophone West Africa, particularly its immediate neighbour Senegal, began to gain momentum as a mastery of the French language was seen by Sir Dawda Jawara and his advisers to be of diplomatic and strategic importance to the Gambia, as the country is surrounded by French speaking countries.
Consequently, Gambian students then began to pursue undergraduate studies in Universities in France, of course, after first spending a foundational year, mainly in Dakar, although in your own case, Hassan, you first went to Lovanium University in Zaire before proceeding to the University of Nice in France in the early 70s. The geographical reality of the Gambia made the French language important, in the view of Sir Dawda Jawara and his advisers at the time. Before Independence in 1965, there were three fluent French speakers in Prime Minister Jawara’s office in Banjul. These three men were British colonial expatriate Kenneth John Winton Lane (1917 – 2017), who served in a dual role as Secretary to the Cabinet and also Secretary General (in the Prime Minister’s office); Omadi Diarra and Eric Christensen. Kenneth John Winton Lane was a French language specialist.
Based on old Gambia-related documents I have reviewed, and what follows next is an attempt at reconstruction on my part, I would say that the first batch of Gambian students in France in the post-independence period went to study in France in 1966. The Gambian students who were in France in 1966 included the late Gambian writer Ebou Dibba, who moved to Toulon (France) in 1966 after obtaining his BA degree from Cardiff University, Wales; Baba Jagne moved to France from Legon University; late O.A.U. French-English interpreter Ebou Khan moved to France from Dakar University; Solomon Bruce-Oliver (now called Galandou Goree Ndiaye) moved to France from Dakar University; likewise, James Monty Grey-Johnson moved to France from Dakar University.
Momodou Lamin Sedat Jobe is listed as having graduated with a first degree in France in 1969. So, logically speaking, and assuming that it was either a 3-year or a 4-year degree programme, Sedat Jobe must have also been one of the first batch of Gambian undergraduate students in France, in the post-independence period. Sedat Jobe obtained his PhD in France in 1976 and in fact, this is the full title of Sedat Jobe’s PhD thesis: L’Expérience Africaine d’André Gide (1925-1926). Grenoble, Thèse IIIe cycle, 1976.
Albert Khan, Matarr Njagga Ceesay, and Anna Jarra also studied in France during this period – between 1966 and 1970. The bulk of the first batch of Gambian students in France studied in Besancon (France), obtaining their first degree between 1969 and 1970.
I think, when time and opportunity permit you in the near future, you should reflect on this topic, in the form of a think-piece: The French Higher Education System and the Making of a New Generation of Post-independence Gambian technocrats, of which you were a part.
The teaching of French in the Gambia has undergone various transformations since its first introduction into the Gambia’s national education system. For example, I think some of the Postgraduate research students at the University of the Gambia (UTG) should consider exploring, among other things, the changing trends of French language education in the country, especially after the establishment of the French section of Gambia College in 1990 and since the establishment of Alliance Française de Banjul in 1948.
It would also be good to get some of the Gambians who studied in France to share their testimonies, experiences, and challenges during their academic studies in France. In particular, it would be of value to speak with someone like Gambian-born French linguist Dr Rudolph Sock, who is a full Professor in General and Experimental Phonetics, and Phonology at the Phonetics Institute of Strasbourg (IPS), in the University of Strasbourg. For a non-French person, being a Class A or a full professor, the highest rank in the faculty path of French academia, is a remarkable achievement - not easy to realise. Professor Rudolph Sock is also Director of the Linguistics, Languages and Speech Laboratory, LiLPa, University of Strasbourg.
I was recently listening to a GRTS programme – “Banjul Demb” and Ebou Ndure, former chief of protocol under Jawara and an ex-Gambia High Commissioner to Senegal, was the guest. Ebou Ndure recalled on the GRTS programme, when he (Ebou Ndure), Baboucarr Blaise Jagne, Samuel George, Mrs Julia Joiner, and Rodolph Sock went to Dakar university in 1975, and from Dakar University, all of them, except Ebou Ndure himself, proceeded to Grenoble, France, in 1976. Ebou said he stayed in Dakar for an additional year when he (Ebou Ndure), Alagie Ceesay, formerly of the African Development Bank, Kawsu Ceesay, Momodou Leigh, and Fatou Jaye Jallow, wife of the current Chief Justice of the Gambia, all went together to Besancon (France) in 1977.
These are all possible dissertation or thesis titles to be considered by UTG students:
The Impact of Dakar, Nice Sophia Antipolis, Grenoble, Besancon, and Limoges Universities on French Language Education in The Gambia: 1965 - 2023
Fifty-Eight Years of French Language Education in the Gambia (1965 - 2023): Pioneers and their Contributions
French Universities’ Role in Educating Gambians: Case Studies from Dakar, Limoges, Nice Sophia Antipolis, Grenoble, and Franche-Comté Besancon: 1965 – 2023
The Impact of Dakar, Limoges, Nice Sophia Antipolis, Grenoble, and Besançon Universities on the teaching of French in the Gambia: 1965 – 2023.
Shared Sat, Oct 28, 3:57 PM
Greetings All,
A subscriber sent me a private email, just the other day, suggesting that the late Alieu Jallow (1942 - 2018), one of the Gambian pioneers in the field of translation and simultaneous language interpretation must have also been among the first batch of Gambian students that went to study in France in the immediate aftermath of the Gambia’s independence in 1965.
Before his retirement in the early 2000s, Alieu Jallow worked for several years as principal translator and interpreter at the ECOWAS Fund in Togo as it was then called, where Mustapha A. B. Kah, a pioneer post-independence Gambia government official in the field of Accounting and Auditing, had served at the time as Deputy Managing Director at the Ecowas Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development. The late Alieu Jallow’s working languages were English, French, and Spanish.
In the 70s, there was only a small band of Gambian interpreters, including Ebou Khan (1943 - ?) and Alieu Jallow (1942 – 2018). Ebou Khan and Alieu Jallow were regarded, prior to their deaths, as “doyens” of simultaneous interpreting in the Gambia. In particular, Ebou Khan, who began working in the profession of simultaneous interpretation in 1971, was one of the pioneers responsible for putting simultaneous interpreting on the African map during the post-colonial period. After completing his undergraduate studies, Ebou Khan later trained as an interpreter at the School of Interpreters and Translators (ESIT), which is attached to the Sorbonne Nouvelle University - Paris 3.
Ebou Khan (1943 - ?) joined the then O.A.U. in 1973 where he worked until 1989 before taking premature retirement to work as a freelance interpreter, partnering or teaming up with Malick Sy of Senegal, another pioneer in the field of simultaneous interpretation in Africa during the post-independence period.
From what I have discovered while looking at old documents in the archives here, I can confirm that Alieu Jallow (1942 - 2018) never studied in France. Based on what I have read, Alieu Jallow was in fact, one of the Gambian youths, taken to Ghana in 1961 to study in the Kwame Nkrumah’s newly established Ideological Institute at the time.
For the benefit of the younger generation here, between 1960 and 1961, Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister and later President of Ghana, established two vibrant institutions – the Ghana Young Pioneers Movement (GYP) and the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) – to provide ideological training for the African youths and adults. Kwame Nkrumah wanted to bring about the necessary attitudinal and intellectual moulding of a new type of an African citizen. Therefore, President Nkrumah, at the time, saw the need to establish the Ghana Young Pioneers Movement (GYP) and the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) to promote but also inculcate, among other things, the virtues of community service; Pan Africanism; African Unity; African cultural and moral renaissance; African nationalism; democracy and universal suffrage, humility, and courage among young Africans.
Now, between 1960 and 1961, Ibrahima Muhammadu Garba-Jahumpa (1912–1994), a Gambian nationalist politician, who had developed a personal relationship or friendship with Kwame Nkrumah, used his close ties with Nkrumah to secure scholarships for several dozens of Gambian students, most of whom were in their teens, to pursue secondary and post-secondary education in Ghana.
Dubbed the Gambian Young Pioneers (GYP) at the time, most of these Gambian youngsters were aged between 13-19 years, having struggled to find places in the highly competitive high schools in The Gambia, which were very few at the time.
As a matter of fact, I was the last journalist to interview Mr. I.M. Garba-Jahumpa at length and exclusively for the Daily Observer newspaper at his home Banjul in June 1994 during which he (Jahumpa) was assisted (in the interview) by his daughter Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, now the Gambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa. During the interview, Mr I.M. Garba-Jahumpa said he himself had arranged or negotiated these scholarships directly with Kwame Nkrumah, having also organised the transportation (by plane) of these young Gambian students to Ghana without prior notification of the colonial administration at the time. In 1961, to the apprehension and consternation of Sir Edward Windley, British Governor of the Gambia from 1958 to 1962, Mr. I. M. Garba-Jahumpa arranged for approximately 100 young Gambians to travel to Ghana to attend secondary schools on scholarships or be trained at the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute at Winneba.
Now, while doing my research here on the educational and professional background of the late Alieu Jallow, I discovered that those who benefitted from these Ghana government scholarships included three Mr Jallows: Tamsir Jallow (1941 - 2015); Pa Momodou Jallow (1944 - 2008); and Alieu Omar Jallow (1942 - 2018). Pa Momodou Jallow served as the first Director General of the defunct National Security Services (NSS) when it was established during the First Republic. The late Tamsir Jallow obtained a B.Ed. from the University of Birmingham, England, and his date of birth here at the university of Birmingham is given as 1942. However, Tamsir’s date of birth while a student at both Swedru Secondary School and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, is given as 1941.
Having said that, I was unsure who this Alieu Omar Jallow, mentioned above, was. So, I later asked Journalist Maimouna Jallow, formerly of the BBC World Service, and now a promising filmmaker if her late Dad Alieu Jallow (veteran ECOWAS interpreter) was also known as Alieu Omar Jallow to which Maimouna responded in the positive. So, I can confirm that late Alieu Jallow (long-time ECOWAS interpreter) first studied in Ghana after which he proceeded to Spain to pursue university education in Modern Languages (French and Spanish). Alieu Jallow later completed his postgraduate studies in translation and interpretation in Quebec, Canada.
Some of the Gambians youths who went to Ghana in the early 60s also included Lamin Janha (1945 - ?); lawyer Musa Ngary Bittaye, Sidia Jatta of PDOIS, and Omar Y. Njie (deceased). The late Omar Y. Njie, who later went to study in Besancon in France, served briefly as Foreign Affairs Minister under Jammeh.
In fact, Lamin Janha, who went to Ghana in 1960 as part of the Gambian youth group that late I.M. Garba-Jahumpa took to Accra for youth training at the Young Pioneers Institute (YPI), decided, following the 1966 coup d’état in Ghana, to stay with Kwame Nkrumah in Conakry from 1966 to 1970 at Villa Syli, Nkrumah’s residence during his Guinea Conakry exile years. Lamin Janha had served as an assistant or aide to Kwame Nkrumah while he (Kwame) was in exile in Conakry, only leaving Guinea for Banjul in 1970, to help set up the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Foundation in the Gambia. In 1966, a military coup d’état orchestrated by the police and the Ghanaian army overthrew Kwame Nkrumah.
Again, as luck would have it, I had had two separate interviews with Lamin Janha, both conducted in Washington DC, during which he explained, among other things, how he got to become an “adopted son” of Kwame Nkrumah. I first interviewed Lamin Janha in 1995 at his apartment in Washington DC which was arranged and also attended by Fatou Jaw Manneh. I also spoke at length with him in 2004, again through the help of Fatou Jaw Manneh, and I still have Lamin Janha on tapes with my notes still intact.
By the way, the eminent Gambian film scholar, Professor Mbye Cham of Howard University, was working on a film the “Ghana boys”, in which Lamin Janha is featured prominently. Not sure what has happened to this film project that Professor Mbye Cham was working on.
Titled, “Xale Yi Demoon Ghana; The Ghana Boys”, and produced by Professor Mbye Cham, this is a 90-minute documentary film on the youngsters that the late Ibrahima Garba-Jahumpa sent to Ghana, in the early 60s, to pursue secondary and post-secondary education in Ghana. Professor Mbye Cham managed to interview many of the Gambian “Ghana boys” for the film and that their stories were quite interesting, I was told by Mbye Cham at the time. Professor Mbye Cham came all the way to England in 2004 to interview Tamsir Jallow for the film. Tamsir Jallow was, at the time, Deputy High Commissioner at the Gambia High Commission in London.
Speaking of Professor Mbye Cham, he (Mbye Cham) was also in Besancon, France, from 1968 around the same time Galandou Goree Ndiaye and others were there as undergraduate studies. Mbye Cham first spent a year at Dakar University from 1967 to 1968, after which he proceeded to Besancon in 1968.
