Encounters with late Abdoulie Jammeh

By Habib Bah

It was with a feeling of surge of blood pressure, numbness of limbs and headache that I learnt of the passing of Abdoulie Jammeh with whom I was very close at some time.  I think of him as the best friend I ever had. 
I first met Abdoulie in 1987 when we were both fifth formers, he at Muslim High School and I at Armitage High School.
His class had set up base at Armitage High School during an excursion to the provinces. That Saturday evening coincided with a debate or symposium organised by the students of Armitage School. When it was time for questions, answers and comments a neatly dressed Muslim High School student with a distinctive smile raised his hand, got on the stage and briefly addressed the gathering. He was thunderously applauded by students of both schools. This student I was soon to learn was Abdoulie Jammeh. The Armitage students became restless with desire to show that their school also has students with great oratorical abilities.  They looked out for me, calling my name and urging me to go up the stage and speak. I can say without any fear of exaggeration that I was the best student public speaker at Armitage at the time.  The applause that accompanied my climb on the stage was deafening, followed by a complete silence as I started to speak then an even more deafening applause when I finished speaking and descended the stage.  I knew the Armitage students felt that I made them proud in the presence of the students of Muslim High School. I don’t remember how exactly it happened but soon after the programme Abdoulie and I started a conversation which may have started with expressions of mutual appreciation, lasted a long time and a friendship was born. 
Those were not the days of mobile phones, even land lines were accessible only to a few. Therefore, no communication ensured between us after their departure and I almost forgot about that encounter.  Lo and behold!  When the following academic year began, I enrolled into the Gambia High School’s sixth form (science stream) there was Abdoulie Jammeh in the Arts stream.  We were reunited and took every opportunity to talk together mostly about books we had read.  Nkrumah was my favourite writer and Jammeh was heavy on Ngugi Wa Thiongo, whose Devil On The Cross he gave me.  Our circle of discussion enlarged and we agreed to reach out to other students to start a students’ club that organised term end debates and symposia, annual country wide excursions for members, published an annual school magazine and kept the school’s news board alive.  Jammeh’s brilliant chairmanship of one of the debates made it the most memorable for me. The motion was controversial: The Gambia Government has through progress in the Economic Recovery Programme proved capable of handling the economy of The Gambia.  Abdoulie’s choice of words matched the situation and reassured the speakers, the shoe so fitted it needed no socks. (To borrow a Ngugi expression in Devil on the Cross.)  On Speech and Prize Giving Day I was, due to my club activities, awarded both the Principal’s Prize for Responsibility and Leadership and Lenrie Peter’s Memorial Award for Public Speaking.
After graduation I kept close contact with Abdoulie, visiting him several times at his home in Brikama where I got to know both his parents who were very kind.  I probably slept several nights there.  One morning, I fully remember, when I arrived there Abdoulie was sitting on a mat reading the Qur’an.  The book was open to the last three chapters showing the Arabic on one side and a translation and / or transliteration on the other.
At the end of 1993 I lost my job with a commercial bank. When Abdoulie got to know about it he decided to use his connections to get me another job.  He found out about a vacancy at a well doing parastatal for which I was highly qualified both academically and in experience.  He asked me to apply and went with me to see some senior people in the organisation with which he was much acquainted and to whom he vouched for me. I was shortlisted, interviewed and appointed. I am convinced his intervention was a contributing factor to that.  Abdoulie not only wished me success in life but took concrete steps towards its realisation. With hindsight I can see he envisioned me rising through the ranks of that organisation in the same way he did himself at the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority to the highest rank of Director General. It is all my fault that did not happen.
To be continued.