In a message dated 5/1/01 7:49:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> Subj: Re: OBITUARY ANNOUNCEMENTS.
> Date: 5/1/01 7:49:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time
> From:    [log in to unmask] (sulayman Nyang)
> Sender:    [log in to unmask] (The Gambia and related-issues
> mailing list)
> Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</A> (The Gambia and related-issues
> mailing list)
> To:    [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> Dear Colleagues:
>                 I am writing to announce the sudden
> death of our good friend and brother Alhaji Bai Abi
> Phall. He died suddenly on Monday at Laurel Hospital,
> Montgomery County, Maryland. For those of you who do
> not know much about this brother, let me give you a
> brief account of his life and times:
>
>
>                    OBITUARY
>
>                Alhaji Bai abi Phall: A Gambian Who
>                Labored Hard for his Contemporaries
>
>
>              Alhaji Bai Abi Phall has returned to his
> Creator. Like those before us he too has taken the
> path which all of us will eventually take. During his
> life he went through the stages of socialization most
> young Gambians of the colonial era experienced. The
> son of Pa Essa Faal, a private contractor whose
> reputation among the colonial Gambians was far and
> wide. His father earned the distinction of being the
> Gambian contractor who built more wharves than any
> other contractor. Throughout the Provinces the name
> Essa Faal was known among many villagers and
> townspeople. Young Bai Abi shared this commitment to
> public service with his father. He joined the Boy
> Scouts of the Gambia and excelled in many ways. Later
> he became a member of the Zegoza, one of the earliest
> Gambian youth groups projecting a modern outlook in
> mode of dress and social activism. It was groups like
> this that pioneered much of the changes that many
> Gambian youths now take for granted. What later came
> to be known in the provinces as Kompinos were in many
> ways modelled after these urban-based youth groups.
>           Mr. Phall attended the Methodist Boys High
> School in Banjul. After finishing his education he
> joined that small but growing caravan of aspiring
> Gambians who went to the United Kingdom for higher
> education. He studied the medical and health sciences
> and worked in England for many years as a physician's
> assistant. He emigrated to the United States of
> America in 1969 and worked at the Washington Hospital
> Center in Washington, D.C. Bai abi Phall was one of
> the first Gambians who emigrated to the United States.
> After almost five years in the United States of
> America he decided to answer the call of duty and
> returned to the Gambia. He was one the first team of
> teachers to open the Gambia School of Public Health in
> Banjul. During his tenure at this institution he
> gained fame and recognition among Gambians not only
> for his dedicated services to the community but his
> radio broadcasts on health and medical issues in the
> country.
>          Alhaji Bai Abi Phall spent many years in the
> Gambian Civil Service. During his years of service he
> became known to almost all his contemporaries. He was
> definitely a man who gave much of himself to others.
> He gave medicine to the sick, school lunch money to
> the youth and fish money to relatives,friends and
> neighbors. In classical  Wolof terminology he would
> have been described as Samba yek nyep. This is to say,
> he was someone who cares for most if not all who came
> his way.
>            Alhaji Bai Abi Phall whose last name is
> spelt differently from his cosuins(the Faals) in
> Banjul and elsewhere in the Gambia, took this decision
> to assert his independence and to capture phonetically
> the sound of his name which many of his American and
> British friends confuse with the English verb fall. He
> is survived by his wife Hania and five daughters. May
> his soul rest in peace. We express our condolences to
> the family and to the in-laws, Habib Ghanim, Ghanim
> Diab of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, Kathleen and Fatwa,
> Amira Diab Jagne and all others in Gambia, Lebanon,
> United States of America and elsewhere.
>

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