Hassoum Ceesay (writer)

Hassoum Ceesay (spelling: Hassum Ceesay ; to differentiate, commonly known as Hassum Ceesay Sr. ) (* 1944 in Panchang ; † May 19, 2010 ) was a Gambian financial economist and diplomat, as well as a writer , poet and dramaturge .

Life

Ceesay was the son of Alkalo Madi Ceesay. He was known to have started writing since elementary school.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Durham (UK) under the auspices of Fourah Bay College , Sierra Leone, and two Masters degrees from the prestigious Universities of Oxford , UK and Harvard , USA. Then he worked as a financial economist.

In February 1979 Ceesay and Goree Ndiaye ( Galandou Goree Ndiaye ) opened the Gambian Mission to the United Nations in New York . Ceesay served as an advisor and Ndiaye as the mission secretary.

Ceesay was a member of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group in Namibia (then South West Africa and under apartheid ) and helped Namibians transition from an apartheid regime to a free state and hold their first elections in 1989 . He worked in several countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire ), the Central African Republic and Senegal .

After working for the United Nations (UN) for more than 17 years, he returned to The Gambia in 1996. He went into retirement and settled in Kololi .

He died at the Ndeban Clinic at the age of 66 after a brief illness.

Writing

He published several articles in the Gambia News Bulletin . In 1968, he penned several articles, including a few: A Spot Worthy of Tarzan, Mr. Edward Brewer, Forestry Department Abuko Nature Reserve, and Random Thoughts on a Money Spinner. He also wrote several articles on Gambian literature in the Daily Observer .

Parallel to his diplomatic career, Ceesay developed a great interest in literary work. In the early 1970s, he joined a group of Gambian writers to found the first literary magazine, Ndaanan , of which he was a co-founder. Ndaanan is the first literary magazine published in Gambia in 1971. He published eight of his poems and one short story in them. From its inception until 1973, Ceesay was the head of the advertising and sales department, and until the publication was discontinued in 1976 he belonged with Lenrie Peters , Swaebou Conateh , Charles Jow , Gabriel J. Roberts , Wally Ndow , Esther Sow , Marcel Thomasi and Margareth Jallow to the editorial team.

Hassoum has written a lot and it will be difficult to list all of his publications. He also has numerous unpublished works such as his novellas Farm , Sisters of a Kind , What's a Mother to Do? and The Origins of a Song . His first published work is Seeking to Please , which appeared in Banjul in 1974. At that time, Ndaanan was facing financial challenges. It covers a wide variety of topics: beauty, settling bills, the dirty tricks of a prostitute, price inflation.

The first volume (by Seeking to Please ) consists of five short stories and twelve poems. Soon after, he published several more short stories, poems, and plays. Seeking to Please has ten volumes. The first six volumes were published by Macmillan UK, the other four were published locally. The last published and distributed novel is The Power of Ngewel or Banjen's Honor (2007). Ceesay has in his archives several unpublished works in manuscript form (novels, short stories, poems), some of which are already typewritten and in progress, while others are within reach in large numbers. One of his published but unpublished books is titled Things happen on the way to the well .

From his poems it is easy to see Ceesay's love for the Gambian people and his concern for their well-being. All of his poems observe those topics that are barely noticed, although they directly affect our lives. Ceesay took it upon himself to entertain, but not forget, through his writings, how to enlighten and educate, warn, and advise like a truly caring person. As a writer, poet and dramaturge, he saw it as his duty to send a message, both in the Gambia and elsewhere, to all people in the Gambia and elsewhere who deal with the questions and worries of our societies and the beauties that lie in them. deal.

Ceesay, the philanthropist

After returning to The Gambia in 1996, he made an enormous contribution to Gambian society in various ways, including donating his books to schools and mosques and providing financial support to individuals. He bought several plots of land in the Greater Banjul area and distributed them to people he knew he would never ask for rent, and he paid huge sums of money to build important mosques in the same town. Ceesay, the philanthropist , gave away most of the Seeking to Please publication between 2003 and 2005 (2,400 copies) to the government, the Ministry of Education, for distribution to school libraries across the country.

Awards and honors

The Hassoum Ceesay Memorial Prize for Fiction , an annual literary prize, was awarded in 2016 in partnership between the Writers Association of The Gambia and the National Center for Arts and Culture (NCAC) and the Hassoum Ceesay family in memory of him Called to life.

Publications

Poems

Fugitive ( Ndaanan Vol. 1, issue 1, 1971)
Manifa Musu ( Ndaanan Vol. 1, issue 1, 1971)
The Cotton Tree ( Ndaanan Vol. 2, issue 1, 1972)
The Palmwine Vendor's Son ( Ndaanan Vol. 2, issue 1, 1972)
Behind the Looking Glass ( Ndaanan Vol. 2, issue 1, 1972)
Waves, Stigma ( Ndaanan Vol. 5, issue 1 & 2, 1976)
The Sun Stood Still ( Ndaanan Vol. 5, issue 1 & 2, 1976)
Caught in The Crossfire ( Ndaanan Vol. 5, issue 1 & 2, 1976)

Works

Seeking to Please , Banjul, 1974 (10 volumes)

Remarks

↑ That there is a family relationship between Hassoum Ceesay and Hassoum Ceesay (historian) , the curator, could not be proven. But it cannot be ruled out.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Suntou Touray: Suntoumana: Tribute to Hassum Ceesay. In: blogspot.com. May 27, 2010, accessed July 19, 2020 .
^ Diplomatic List . Department of State, 1979 ( books.google.de ).
↑ Permanent Missions to the United Nations, Officers Entitled to Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities . United States Mission to the United Nations, 1979, p. 15 ( books.google.de ).
↑ GAMBIA - Chronicle of the social and literary history. In: marabout.de. Retrieved July 19, 2020 .
↑ The Hassoum Ceesay Memorial Prize for Fiction. In: thepoint.gm. archive.thepoint.gm, October 27, 2016, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
↑ Hassoum Ceesay Memorial Prize for Fiction Launched. In: foroyaa.net. Foroyaa Newspaper, October 28, 2016, accessed July 19, 2020 (American English).

personal data
SURNAME	Ceesay, Hassoum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ceesay, Hassum; Ceesay, Hassoum (Sr.)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Gambian finance economist and diplomat as well as writer, poet and dramaturge
DATE OF BIRTH	1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Panchang
DATE OF DEATH	May 19, 2010

[2] That there is a family relationship between Hassoum Ceesay and Hassoum Ceesay (historian) , the curator, could not be proven. But it cannot be ruled out.

[suntoumana20100527-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Suntou Touray: Suntoumana: Tribute to Hassum Ceesay. In: blogspot.com. May 27, 2010, accessed July 19, 2020 .

[Diplomatic_List_1979-3] Diplomatic List . Department of State, 1979 ( books.google.de ).

[United_States_Mission_to_the_United_Nations_1979-4] Permanent Missions to the United Nations, Officers Entitled to Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities . United States Mission to the United Nations, 1979, p. 15 ( books.google.de ).

[marabout1971-5] GAMBIA - Chronicle of the social and literary history. In: marabout.de. Retrieved July 19, 2020 .

[thepoint20161027-6] The Hassoum Ceesay Memorial Prize for Fiction. In: thepoint.gm. archive.thepoint.gm, October 27, 2016, accessed on July 19, 2020 .

[foroyaa20161028-7] Hassoum Ceesay Memorial Prize for Fiction Launched. In: foroyaa.net. Foroyaa Newspaper, October 28, 2016, accessed July 19, 2020 (American English).