Tamba Jammeh

Mama Tamba Jammeh , OBE (* 1890 in Illiassa , † October 13, 1987 in Illiassa) was in the West African British colony of Gambia and after the independence of Gambia Gambian Seyfo and politician.

Life

Origin and education

Jammeh was the son of Jatta Selung Jammeh (spelling: Jata Silang Jame ), a member of the Mandinka (also Serer -Mandinka), and Awa Jobe a member of the Wolof . Jatta Selung was one of the most important generals in the Baddibu Wars in the 1870s under the jihad leader Maba Jahou Bah (spelling variant: Maba Diakhou Bâ ) . Jatta Selung Jammeh was appointed ruler over all of Baddibu by the victorious Maba Jahou and asked him to form a theocratic state . When the British declared the area as a British colonial protectorate in 1894 , Jatta Selung was allowed to become the first Seyfo (the term chief is also very common) of Illiasa (or the Upper Baddibu district ).

Tamba Jammeh, the son of a Seyfo, attended the Muhammedan School in Bathurst, founded in 1903, from 1905 to 1913 . He was then employed as a clerk at his father's tribunal. The British Traveling Commissioner (a forerunner of today's Gambian Governor), John Henry Ozanne , appointed Tamba Jammeh as Deputy Seyfo in 1925 because his father was frail and unable to carry out the demanding duties of his duties. In January 1928 his father Jatta Selung Jammeh died and Mama Tamba Jammeh was promoted to Seyfo von IIIiasa on February 28, 1928 (according to another source, he follows his older brother).

Seyfo from Upper Baddibu

In 1934, Jammeh faced a major leadership challenge when he survived a palace coup led by his powerful lieutenants Suntung Camara and Tomany Marong , who accused him of arrogance, bribery, and other forms of abuse. Jammeh's opponents in Upper Baddibu received the support of EF Small , who sought Jammeh's resignation. The allegations were serious enough to justify a commission of inquiry which subsequently led to the discharge of Jammeh and the detention of the accusers for perjury. The allegations left a bad mood in the district, especially in the villages where the conspirators came from.

Jammeh developed the social services in his district. He brought a pharmacy and a market to Balingho and expanded Kanikunda in 1948 as a port city and peanut depot on the Gambia River . He remained a loyal ally of the British during World War II. During the war, he led the Illiasa to contribute to the war fund with a personal donation of ten pounds. Other village chiefs and figures in the district also made generous contributions to the War Fund, which was used to buy Spitfire bombers to protect London from Hitler's Blitzkrieg. He also hired one hundred recruits for the Gambia Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) to fight the Allied cause. During the war, Jammeh regularly appealed to his people to remain loyal to Great Britain and His Majesty, particularly when Dakar , Senegal fell into the hands of the Quisling-Vichy regime in 1940 , which meant that his district was only a few miles away from the Nazi - Stronghold in West Africa.

For his strong Allied support, Jammeh was one of dozen of West African traditional rulers, including Nigerian obas and sultans, invited to the 1948 victory celebrations organized by the British in London. The celebrations thank the chiefs for their support in the war against Hitler.

Political activity

He was instrumental in setting up the annual conference of the Protectorate Councils in 1944, which then took place regularly from 1944 to 1965.

In 1947, Jammeh was one of the first three Seyfos to be appointed to the Gambian Legislative Council, a position he held until 1962. He helped found the People's Progressive Party (PPP). During this time he was instrumental in ensuring that women were given the right to vote in 1960 . As a member of the Legislative Council, he supported rural issues such as agricultural subsidies and the modernization of the Armitage School in 1959. His political influence peaked in February 1958 when he mobilized the Seyfolu to replace the Bathurst politicians with protectorate officials. His speech at the conference marked the end of the dominance of national politics by Bathurst-born political leaders. He said:

“ We will take care of ourselves and choose our own candidates from among the peasants and chiefs and send them to the Legislative Council. In the case of ministers, we expect our protectorate representatives to be appointed ministers. We do not want help from anyone who is not a member of the Protectorate. "

Immediately after this discussion, the protectorate for the 1960 elections was divided into twenty constituencies and Bathurst into five constituencies. He was one of five Seyfos elected to the House of Representatives in the 1960 Seyfos' separate election . However , he did not run again for the 1962 election .

He was appointed to the Gambian Executive Council at the end of January 1951 and again at the end of October 1951.

Retirement and family

Mama Tamba retired in 1962 (according to another source: 1964). It was said that the government forced him to retire due to old age. Mama Tamba Jammeh died in 1987.

His son Kalilu B. Jammeh resigned in the 1960 election in the Baddibu constituency as a non-party candidate and was subject to Sheriff Dibba ( PPP ). In the 1962 election, Kalilu B. Jammeh ran again in the Illiasa constituency, this time as a United Party candidate . But he was defeated by Lamin Bora M'Boge ( PPP ). Another son is Kebba Tamba Jammeh , he was his successor as Seyfo of Upper Baddibu (1963-1983). He was a loyal representative of the National Convention Party in the 1980s before joining the People's Progressive Party (PPP) in 1990. He won the Illiassa constituency for the PPP in the 1992 parliamentary elections . One of his grandsons, Alieu K. Jammeh , was appointed Minister of Youth and Sport in February 2012. His grandson Ebrima AT Jammeh has been Seyfo from Upper Baddibu since 2009.

Jammeh's tenure as Seyfo

The Gambian historian Hassoum Ceesay describes Jammeh's chieftum as follows: Mama Tamba was a progressive Seyfo. His aim was to bring his people the necessary advances, including communication, education and agriculture.

Jammeh remained in the office of Seyfos for almost 40 years and brought much wealth for himself, his people and his family. Archive reports of reports on him and his district compiled by colonial commissioners show their acute ambivalence about him. In some cases he has been praised for his intelligence, competence, foresight, and loyalty; In other cases, however, he was sharply criticized for his strong rule. Shortly before the end of his long reign, perhaps in retrospect, the governor in Bathurst called him one of the best Seyfos in the country. Mama Tamba was not an autocrat, if he had been the colonialists he would have deposed him a long time ago. Above all else, he was a strong ruler who cared so much about the well-being of his people that he did as much as possible to keep them under control.

Jammeh's transport project

Jammeh was one of the first Gambians to own a car, a Ford, which he bought in 1939 just before the outbreak of war.

In 1935 he completed the dam over the famous Bao Bolong in the district, which provided a year-round structure that made communication within the district much easier and connected IIIiasa to the rest of the country. Before the dam is completed, motorists will have to wait days for the tide to ebb to risk crossing the water to Sanjal and Farafenni . Since he owned a car himself, the dam must have helped him a lot in running his district's business. In addition to this bridge, he also regularly maintained the paths and roads in the area, so that the colonial officials had easier access to his people than in other parts of the country. Such a communication infrastructure made trade in the region much easier, as goods and people were transported much faster.

Jammeh's rice project

Jammeh introduced a number of important agricultural reforms in Baddibu. These included the introduction of ox plowing in 1939, the establishment of the Village Famine Reserve Farm to fight famine in 1940, the initiation of a successful cattle vaccination program in 1941, and the promotion of rice cultivation from 1941.

He encouraged the cultivation of food crops to ensure food self-sufficiency. In particular, he promoted rice cultivation . In 1941, he cleared the Kanikunda swamps and started a huge rice project, which a visiting colonial official from London described as one of the largest projects of its kind in British West Africa . The project was so successful that in 1946 the rice harvest in the district increased by 50 percent. In 1947 Prince Phillip visited the Rice Project during his visit to the Gambia colony to see for himself the success story. Mama Tamba recreated the project in Bambali and other villages in the region. The most visionary decision he ever made to boost agriculture, however, was his 1943 order that all married men in IIIiasa must cultivate a rice field. Until now, rice cultivation was considered a woman's business. This decree therefore revolutionized the rice culture in IIIiasa and had an unlimited impact on the production of the grain in the country.

In 1941, Jammeh started a successful cattle vaccination program in his district in order to make better use of the enormous livestock of his population. In two months, two thousand animals were vaccinated against deadly diseases such as rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease. He used his own vehicle to transport the vaccination team to all parts of the district. The following year, Governor Sir Hillary Blood described the campaign as the most successful ever carried out in the country.

Awards and honors

• 1951 - Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE, 1951 New Year Honors )
• 1958 - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE, 1958 New Year Honors )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Hassoum Ceesay: Mama Tamba Jammeh Prominent chief of Illiasa. In: standard.gm. January 19, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2019 (American English).  
2. ^ ^{A b c d e f} Arnold Hughes, David Perfect: Historical dictionary of The Gambia (Historical Dictionaries of Africa; Vol. 109) . 4th ed. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-5825-1 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Hassoum Ceesay: Patriots: profiles of eminent Gambians . Global Hands Publishing, Leicester 2015, ISBN 978-0-9574073-6-7 , pp. 115-126 .
4. ↑ thegazette: The London Gazette, 2 February 1951. January 18, 1951, accessed on 11 September 2019 .  
5. ↑ thegazette: The London Gazette, 2 November 1951. 2 November 1951, accessed on September 9, 2019 .  
6. ↑ Fatoumatta K. Saidykhan: Gambia: Jammeh Chief Exposed Students to Mama Tamba Jammeh's Legacy. In: The Daily Observer (Banjul). August 13, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2019 (American English).  
7. ^ British Empire: London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 39104, HMSO, London, December 29, 1950, pp. 1–34 ( PDF , accessed on September 11, 2019, English).
8. ↑ United Kingdom list: London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 41268, HMSO, London, December 31, 1957, pp. 1–37 ( PDF , accessed on September 11, 2019, English).