SWAEBOU CONATEH’S TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM DIXON COLLEY BY SWAEBOU CONATEH This statement is being given in the form of a tribute to the late W. Dixon - Colley, Editor and Proprietor of Africa Nyaato and The Nation newspapers at Tango hall. Kanifing, on 13 February, 2010. I have decided to make the statement a tribute in view of the huge debt of gratitude I owe to Mr. Dixon Colley who, from a crucial stage in my life, strengthened me in my resolve to be a journalist. I remember those days in the early 1960s. Some of you who were around would recall how observers of the African scene referred to 1960 as Africa’s year of destiny due to the unprecedented number of African states which became independent that year. For as Harold Macmillan, the UK Prime Minister, told the South African parliament during an official visit, “A wind of change was blowing through the African continent”. This wind of change swept people everywhere it passed through, including The Gambia, and left no African people untouched. The effect was a coming together of ideas as African peoples everywhere also made their legitimate demand for independence. Being young and politically active gave the likes of me a reason to be interested in nationalist politics to attend what were then known as night broadcast talks by the Workers Union and the rival political parties, to read newspaper accounts of local political events and developments elsewhere in Africa, particularly in Nkrumah’s Ghana, and to have the ardent wish to be associated with those involved in the ongoing developments. By 1960, when I was in form 4 (which is like grade 9/10 now), I had already decided to become a journalist, partly because of the above factors. I published my first story, on the topic of Senegambia, in The Gambia Echo. In 1963, 1 met Mr. Colley at his printing house on Buckle Street. I was passing by one evening when the signboard “Peoples Press” caught my attention. I was very excited to find out that Mr. Colley, newly returned from England, was setting up shop there to start printing services and newspaper publishing. We soon became fully acquainted, and I still remember the journalism book he lent me from his library when he realised that I was serious about becoming a journalist. Thus was to start a lifelong friendship through which I benefited greatly by his style and example, and his encouragement and generosity. I still remember writing a story on African nationalism which he found good enough to offer to the editor of News and Views newspaper, a workers’ journal published in Detriot. The editor was in Banjul to visit Colley at the time, both of them being left -leaning in their politics. Colley was publishing Africa Nyaato by then, a paper he later renamed The Nation as the demand for independence for Gambia took pace. Through such association with him, he came to know my family in Dippakunda as I learned a great deal about being an independent journalist. In 1964, I was in the sixth form when two things happened. Colley went to a seminar for African journalists in Lagos and told me about the dean of a journalism school in Kansas who was at that seminar. That year I sat for the ASPAU exam and passed it to study journalism in the US . Colley encouraged me to go to Kansas University for my journalism studies and thus my reason for going there to do journalism. He maintained contact with me throughout my student years, and sent me copies of every edition of The Nation he published. When I completed my studies and returned to Banjul , I engaged myself in freelance journalism for American and UK publications and wrote several stories for Colley’s ‘The Nation’. It was in this fashion that Banku Seido or National Witness came to be published as a column in the paper. I was the first columnist for Banku Seido and, in fact, chose the name for the column. By the end of that year, 1969, a dramatic change ensured when I joined the government information services as a News Editor for Radio Gambia. But to his credit, Colley maintained the Banku Seido column and turned it into a successful column in the Nation. He also kept up his hard hitting editorials and biting comments including a cartoon strip which exploited rumour by raising questions about them and there was his famous question, “Is it true?” which kept officials on their toes and often on the defensive. I later joined the private publishing scene when I retired from government service in 1991 and started publishing my own paper, The Gambia News and Report. I therefore wish to put on record the great debt of gratitude I owed Dixon Colley as one can see that through his example, encouragement and inspiration, I did not only become a journalist but stayed put in the profession of which I still remain a proud member. In the final years of his life, Colley, by then semi retired, kept active in the press union and the few times I met him on his occasional visits to collect the mail in Banjul he always congratulated me for never wavering in my resolve to be a journalist from the time he knew me in 1963. I always felt flattered by his encouraging remarks as he expressed satisfaction that the torch he was holding had successfully been passed to our generation of journalists to continue the work in this noble profession. I therefore feel privileged and honoured to be able to pay this humble tribute to him and to his sacred memory. He shall ever remain a bright example in the annals of Gambian journalism. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤