GAMWRITERS

For those who attended Armitage High School in the eighties, D Faal will be remembered as one of the most prominent history teachers who had great passion in instilling the values of great Africans and African history to the young minds of the time. Dawda Faal was a peculiar personality whose love for Pan Africanism and Africa's redemption was unequivocal.

Dawda Faal has a long teaching career particularly as a history teacher. From 1964 to 1966, he studied at the Yundum College to obtain the Teacher’s Certificate. He left for Ghana in 1970 to do his HTC with a major in History which he obtained two years later. From 1975 to 1978, he did his Bachelor of Arts with a double major in History and Sociology in Lesotho. He did his Post Graduate Diploma in History and Development Studies before coming back home. Dawda Faal can only be considered a seasoned teacher who was adequately equipped as one of the most prominent history teachers of The Gambia.

Since he began his teaching career, he was conscious of the major set back in the area of history education. At the time, one of the most recommended African history books was that of Adu Boahen. This concern motivated him to publish a textbook on history entitled A History of The Gambia: AD 1000 to 1965. This is an improved version of a book he republished in 1991 under the tile Peoples and Empires of Senegambia, Senegambia in History, AD 1000 to 1900. The latter was response to the call by the West African Examination Council in 1984 to introduce the national history in the history Ordinary Level examinations.

In his book, Dawda Faal covers the period from the eleventh century to independence in 1965. The work plan is as follows: following a brief summary of the country (Chapter 1), the author introduces the present populations (Chapter 2-8) namely the Mandinka, the Wollof, the Serer, the Fula, the Jola, the Serahule and the Aku. Then he broadly expounded on the trans-Saharan trade (Ch. 9) and the introduction of Islam in The Gambia (Chapter 10). That said, Dawda Faal explained the major states and empies in the sub-region (Ch. 11 to 17): Ghana, Manding, Songhai, Futa Toro, Wollof, and Kaabu Fulladu. Then, he focused on two important issues (ch. 18 and 19): the Soninke-Marabout wars and the Jihadists. Chapters 20 to 29 show how the local people have gradually lost their power with the arrival of the Europeans, then chapters 24 through to 26 describe the installation of British colonization with its political, social, economic and religious effects. Chapters 27 and 28 mark the stages of the path for independence of the Gambia. The study concludes with a bibliography.

Dawda Faal passed away on Tuesday 12 April 2011. His unavoidable departure has created a vacuum to his family and friends as well as the schools and institutions that looked highly upon him for his professionalism and experience. May his soul rest in perfect peace.