The Fatou Jaw-Manneh I Know.

By Mathew K. Jallow

One warm summer afternoon as I was standing on the second floor balcony of The Daily Observer building overlooking Sait Matty Road, Bakau, I was absorbing the beauty of the surrounding scenery and enjoying the cool, refreshing ocean breeze, as if without a care in the world.

 Standing there, I was lost in my own thoughts when suddenly something below caught my attention. A yellow taxicab came to a halt near the gates, and a slender lady exited from the back clutching a bag and walking gingerly as if she owned the grounds on which she was walking. But, Ms Fatou Jaw-Manneh is not one to be ever condescending, nor is there any sense of entitlement in her being; rather, it is in her nature to exude confidence, grace and dignity no matter what situation she finds herself in. Instead, it was Fatou simply being herself, true to her nature: unafraid and un-intimidated. She walked quaintly up the flight of stairs, stood right next to me and requested to see the editor. “That would be me,” I replied. Without saying a word, she handed me three pages of handwritten notes, smiled, turned and walked away down the flight of stairs again. I watched as the taxicab she was in maneuvered its way through the chaotic traffic, and before long it sped towards Radio Gambia and disappeared from my view.

Nothing about my first meeting with Fatou that afternoon could betray the mutual respect we would develop for each other in the months and years to come. But, as I later read her article, I was struck by our common values of caring about the everyday issues that affect the lives of ordinary Gambians. Typically, like all human-interest stories, her articles were powerful and scintillating at times and passionate and thought provoking at others yet no matter what was in her mind, she never deviated from the issues that mattered most: equality, justice and human dignity. In all her writings, Fatou found no need to embellish, but equally importantly, she carved out a niche for herself as one of our most recognizable female journalists and activists, whose passion for justice and equality has put her on a pedestal all her own. Yet, Fatou Jaw-Manneh is not about empty, clueless and malicious personification of intellectualism, instead, everything about her is real, embodying the courage to speak truth to power. Ms Jaw-Manneh is unmoved and unimpressed by the materialism and greed that has over-taken the lives of many of our womenfolk. In that way, she belongs to a small group of our women for whom the human being is defined by character rather than by their material possessions.

In anyway one looks at it, Fatou is a trailblazer herself, not unlike the very revered Dr. Florence Mahoney, or the humanist Fatoumata Tambajang and the gender activist Dr. Isatou Touray. Born to a Fula mother and a Mandinka father, Ms. Jaw-Manneh has not doubt where her tribal loyalties lie, because for her the pendulum swings to the one tribe that matters most; the human tribe. By virtue of her writings, Fatou Jaw-Manneh finds herself often in the limelight, yet she is very much a private person, and one who does not unnecessarily court the spotlight or the glare of a thousand faces. In her writings Fatou often challenges us to look critically at ourselves, to carefully dissect our actions and our words, and to match what we do to others, to what we ourselves expect done to us. When it comes to her critics, Fatou Jaw-Manneh is not bitter, rather, she is philosophical about others attitudes towards her. “If people don’t find something to talk about you, then you are nobody,” I told her months ago and she agrees. For someone who has lived her life fighting for justice and equality, it is hard to fathom what problem Yahya Jammeh and his NIA have with Fatou’s commitment to “justice and equality” for all. Fatou does not believe in political posturing, on the contrary, she believes in what she stands for and will stick her neck out to get it. In sum, Fatou Jaw-Manneh is over Yahya Jammeh, she is over partisan politics, and she is over the myopia and small mindedness of selfish critics; for Fatou it is all about The Gambia and how to make it work and function better so all of us can live in a prosperous and peaceful country. Who will fight that noble objective? In her times of trouble, we remind Fatou that she is not alone. The whole world has heard her distress, and we are all behind her.