Remembering the Life and Legacy of Alhaji FaFa Edrissa Nderry Dado M’Bai (M’Bai Gilleh Ali Anta Yoro)
On 26thMarch 2025, during the sacred last ten days of Ramadan, on a night that felt like Laylatul Qadr, Ya Allah (SWT) called home a man whose life was defined by courage, conviction, and an unshakeable belief in justice. The following day, 27thMarch 2025, he was laid to rest in his beloved village of Niamina Sambang Wolof, in the Central River Region (CRR) returning to the soil that formed his character and anchored his soul.
Some lives are measured by the noise around them. Others are measured by the distance they travel despite the noise.
The dogs barked.
But the caravan crossed the desert.
For more than four decades, our father stood at the forefront of the legal system of The Gambia. He was not merely a lawyer, he was a legal luminary.
In the most fragile moments of our nation’s history, after two coup d’états when the constitutional order trembled and institutions were vulnerable, he answered the call to serve as Attorney General and Minister of Justice under two different Presidents.
It takes a particular kind of courage to steady a nation’s legal compass when political winds are violent and uncertain. He did so not for applause, not for President, not for favour, but for country.
During his first tenure as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, he was the architect behind the practice of Legal Year in The Gambia. What began under his leadership became an enduring institutional tradition within the legal profession, a moment of reflection and renewal for the justice system that continues to this day. His contributions to the development and resilience of the Gambian legal system remain woven into the very fabric of the nation’s institutions, quietly shaping the rule of law long after the turbulence of politics fades.
Public institutions are often strengthened not by grand gestures but by the quiet discipline of individuals who believe deeply in the rule of law. Throughout his career, our father approached public service with that sense of responsibility. He believed that the justice system was not merely a collection of courts and statutes but a living institution that required integrity, courage, and intellectual rigour to function properly. In times when political pressures could easily distort the course of justice, he remained committed to the belief that the law must stand above personalities and temporary interests.
That conviction was not abstract, it was lived in service.
Despite arrests, detentions, evictions, and periods of profound personal and familial hardship, his faith remained unshaken and his commitment to country undiminished. He continued to serve The Gambia with distinction in numerous national and international capacities, including as Chairman of the Law Reform Commission, Member of the National Council for Law Reporting, Member of the Steering Committee that established the Law Faculty of the University of The Gambia, where he later served as Adjunct Lecturer, Member of the Board of the Gambia Revenue Authority, Chairman of the National Agency Against Trafficking in Personsand Chairman of the Board of Governors of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies.
He further contributed as a Judiciary Consultant in the drafting of the Cadi Courts and Cadi Appeals Court Civil Procedure Rules, as a Lead Consultant under the UNDP Public Service Reform Programme reviewing the legal and regulatory framework of the Gambian public service, and as Consultant to the General Legal Council for the establishment of The Gambia Law School, including its curriculum and professional training structure. His expertise also informed the EU Access to Justice Project, where he served as a Key Customary Law Expert contributing to landmark research on Sharia jurisprudence and customary law. In later years, he continued to shape national institutions as Legal Adviser in the development of the Judiciary’s Five-Year Strategic Plan.
Beyond offices held, he invested deeply in the intellectual life of the nation, delivering inaugural lectures, keynote addresses, and professional reflections that shaped generations of lawyers and public servants.
He was also a prolific author whose writings reflected both his intellectual depth and his commitment to the development of law and society. Among his notable works are In the Service of My Beliefs and A Senegambia Insight.
His more recent publications include:
Justice Magazine
Legal Aspects of Medical Practice
Law and Lawyers in a Changing Society
Advocacy, Ethics and Legal Practice
Marriages Divorce, Custody & Inheritance and
Reflections on the Developments of Islamic Sharia and Customary Law Jurisprudence in The Gambia.
Through these works, he extended his influence beyond the courtroom and the classroom, contributing enduringly to legal thought and practice in The Gambia.
His life embodied a principle captured in the enduring words of John F. Kennedy:
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
He did not merely believe this, he lived it.
The dogs barked.
But the caravan crossed the desert.
Long before the political battles, there was another test, one that revealed the measure of the man. As a young African student at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he topped his class. Instead of celebration, he met suspicion. The university board could not reconcile their prejudice with his brilliance.
So, they forced him to sit the examinations again, this time under police supervision.
He did. And he produced the same excellence.
As Nelson Mandela once said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
He did not merely rise, he stood taller.
Disillusioned by the indignity, and with our mother six months pregnant, he left New Zealand. Yet exile did not extinguish his spirit, it refined it. He returned home to The Gambia and later secured another government scholarship and proceeded to England. In just five years there, he earned five academic degrees, an extraordinary achievement that reflected both brilliance and relentless determination.
His life seemed to echo a truth he believed deeply that everything that went wrong in your life is what made everything go right in your life.
Back in The Gambia, he built a legal career that would span more than four decades. Yet like many who stand firmly for principle, his path was not without storms.
He was removed.
He was evicted from his only home.
He was investigated.
He was subjected to multiple commissions of inquiry.
And yet he was vindicated, again and again.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
For him, it bent toward justice every time.
The final attempt to silence him came through the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC). For some, it was meant to be the closing chapter of his public life.
Instead, it became another moment where truth prevailed. He emerged with his dignity intact, his reputation unbroken, and his commitment to truth unshaken.
The dogs barked.
But the caravan crossed the desert.
One of the most remarkable things about our father was his mind. Those who knew him closely often marvelled at the speed with which he could read a book and grasp its deepest meaning. Books were not simply objects to him, they were instruments of transformation. He would often say that books carried his mind from the village to places his feet had never travelled.
His intellectual curiosity was not limited to law. Literature, philosophy, and history were constant companions throughout his life. It was not uncommon to see him reading late into the night, absorbing page after page with astonishing speed. What was even more remarkable was not simply how quickly he read, but how deeply he understood what he read.
Among the writers he admired most was Rudyard Kipling, particularly his timeless poem “If”, whose message of discipline, resilience, humility, and self-mastery resonated deeply with the way he lived his life. The values captured in those lines were not merely words to him, they were principles he embodied:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.
He could recite passages such as these with ease, just as he could from Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son, drawing lessons about discipline, character, and the responsibilities of an educated mind. To those who listened, it often felt as though the pages of those books had not merely been read but had taken residence in his memory.
To him, education was not merely a path to opportunity, it was liberation.
Niamina Sambang Wolof was never simply a place he came from, it was the compass that guided his life. Like many who rise from humble beginnings, he carried the village within him wherever he went. The rhythms of village life, the values of community, and the quiet dignity of people who measure wealth not in possessions but in character shaped the man he became. Even as his professional journey took him far beyond the village, he never allowed distance or status to separate him from his roots. Sambang was not merely the beginning of his story, it was its moral anchor. While our friends were flown to England for the summer holidays, we were driven home to Niamina Sambang, an experience we would grow to cherish and understand more deeply with time.
Because he had lived the journey from village life to the world of scholarship and public service, he was uncompromising when it came to education. He was strict, especially when it came to preparing for life. He did not play about when it came to making something of yourself.
He believed that the ability to learn is a gift, even when pain is the teacher.
He often reminded us, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
He also believed that behaviour is the only reliable evidence of motivation.
And above all, he believed in a principle that guided how he raised his children. It is not what you leave to them that makes them great, t is what you leave in them.
Behind him stood our dear beloved mother, a woman who devoted her entire life to caring for the sick both in The Gambia and the United Kingdom. As a midwife she brought life into the world while quietly strengthening her family with resilience and dedication. Together they built a home grounded in faith, discipline, and education.
Life tested him in many ways, yet through every valley he maintained perspective. He often reminded those around him, “Learn to deal with the valleys, the hills will take care of themselves.”
His outlook also reflected a quote he admired deeply from Dalai Lama, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in your suffering.”
He did not simply endure hardship.
He found meaning in it.
As Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
And as Mahatma Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
He was ignored.
He was fought.
He was investigated.
He was maligned.
And yet he endured.
As Winston Churchill said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you have stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
He stood.
And he never knelt to falsehood.
As we reflect on his life one year after his passing, we are reminded that the true measure of a person is rarely found in the controversies that surround them, but in the character, they demonstrate and the lives they shape. Titles and positions may fade with time, but the values a person lives by continue to echo in the institutions they serve and in the children they raise. For us, his family, his greatest legacy is the discipline, courage, and reverence for knowledge that he planted in us. In the end, the measure of a life is not the noise that surrounds it, but the quiet legacy it leaves behind.
He rose from a quiet village to the highest offices of the law yet never allowed power to change the principles that carried him there.
The dogs barked, relentlessly.
But the caravan has crossed the desert.
And it continues its journey.
May Ya Allah (SWT) grant him and our dearestmother and all departed souls the highest of Jannatul Firdaus and accept his struggles as acts of service to truth and justice.
About the Author
The author is a Legal Practitioner, a governance advocate, and a parent based in Dubai, UAE. He writes regularly on institutional integrity, leadership, and education across Africa, Middle East, and Asia.
