THE GAMBIA

Bala Saho was born in 1963 in Salikenye. From 1987 to 1990, he studied in Finland and graduated with a B.A. and a Masters degree in Economics and Social History. Bala Saho worked for the Department of State for Culture in different capacities as curator of the Museum and now as Principal Cultural Officer, Research and Documentation. He lectured History at the University of the Gambia. He is presently studying in the USA. He published two books. The first is a short novel entitled The Road To My Village and the second, Songs Of A Foraging Bird, is a collection of poems.

The Road To My Village was published in Helsinki in 1994. It is a novel of 80 pages. Musa, the hero, has just completed secondary school but cannot find a job. So he decides to go to Europe. What are the implications of such a decision? Is he going to abandon his love Majula, his friends and family? Will he come back to the village or deny his origins? Before going to Europe, however, Musa comes back to his native village and lives a life different from that of his parents. A deep meditation on the return journey with the firm resolution to live in the village without blindly copying the parents’ mode of life.

Songs For A Foraging Bird published in Banjul (2000), is a collection of 44 poems with illustrations. The bird pecks at the grains disseminated in the horizon of existence, gathering souvenirs and past memories of its journeys, acquaintances… The whole recollection exercise will lead to a series of interrogations on oneself and one’s loved ones. The image of the bird finds a new expression in the Gambian literary field (cf. Weaverdom of Tijan Sallah)