GAMWRITERS

Intellectual Giant

By Pa Samba Johm

The news of Mr. Dawda Faal’s passing took me by surprise because I visited him at Muslim High School during my last Gambian visit in February of this year. I am greatly saddened by his passing and extend my condolences to his wife, children, family, friends and Muslim Senior Secondary School.

My relationship with Mr. Faal began in the 1991/92 academic year when he started teaching at Muslim High School. I was in Form Four and he was our class and History teacher. As the years progressed, I began to learn more about him and his intellectualism. Mr. Faal could be described as a silent, insatiable intellectual, master teacher and a man with a gentle soul who never liked the limelight. He was a history guru and his knowledge about the subject was immense beyond belief. To his students, he was many things: teacher, father, counselor, and friend.

Twenty years ago, our fates interlocked at Muslim High School when he transferred there as a History teacher. However, Mr. Faal’s intellectualism went beyond history because he was a widely-read individual and in the process, amassed an infinite amount of knowledge. His personal library was a collection of various subjects ranging from history, of course, economics, literature, geography, politics, sociology, psychology, developmental studies and the list goes on. He was an avid reader, well conversant with world affairs and, as a teacher, he brought this incredible amount of knowledge and experience to the classroom, and his students became better for it.

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