By Mathew K. Jallow, associate Editor

Ko min musitdo modon Musa Camara jodanion n’doo. Mbalen jam. And with that, one day last week our friend and brother Musa Camara said his signature goodbye for the very last time. For any Gambian tuning in to the local news each night, this good night greeting signaling the end of the night’s Fula news casting, has become a familiar refrain. But last week, when the voice behind this greeting was forever silenced, it marked the end of an era, and it also marked the end of three decades of illustrious radio journalism career. Musa “Balla” Camara may have passed on, but his spirit lives, and even while we mourn his passing, we will celebrate his life; a life well lived, and a life lived fully. Today, Balla is at peace with himself, for one can expect nothing less for a man who lived life as if everyone in the world was meant to be his friend. Balla was a man so full of love, always impeccably dressed and well manicured, but above all, he was cultured and he had class and dignity without the arrogance.

I first met Musa Camara way back when I was a teacher at St. George’s School in his home village of Mansajang Kunda, and like everyone who touched his life in any way, our relationship became a life long friendship. Anyone who has met him can testify to the fact that he was a man with a warm, easy smile, a face that lit up without provocation, and a man without anger or malice in his heart. Musa Camara was a very peaceful person, a man who never raised his voice in anger, yet he was, nonetheless, very proud of his World War II warrior father. Sergeant Major Bokar Camara, his father, was one of the most decorated war veterans, a soldier whose war exploits are legendary, whose presence awed those around him, and whose story of bravery is what Hollywood movies are made about. This is the background from which Musa Camara came, with a revered role model as his father, yet educated in humility, tolerance and acceptance of anything different from what his proud Mansajang roots taught him.

Multi-lingual Musa Camara was just as at ease reading the news in Mandinka and Wollof as he was in his Fula. But for Gambians, especially the Fulas, Musa Camara was more than just the news he read so eloquently and so masterfully each day, and every day. He was an icon and a walking encyclopedia of Fula culture, a culture he proudly carried with him wherever and everywhere he went. More than anyone ever or since, Balla has done more for Fula culture and tradition; always keeping abreast of new trends and forever in search of new music and other entertain forms with which to entertain his ever expanding audience, which span the three parts of the now defunct Fulladou Kingdom stretching from Fulladou Gambia, through Fulladou Cassamance, to Fulladou Guinea-Bissau. Not since the days of King Musa Molloh Baldeh has anyone succeeded in bringing the entire Fulladou so culturally close again as Balla has done. Due to his singular efforts, Fula culture today, from Guinea-Conakry to The Gambia, has in a way become fused, and it knows no national boundary.

Finally, Musa Camara has combed towns and villages throughout the Fulladous, from the banks of the River Gambia to the palm forests of Guinea-Bissau in search of Fula entertainers and to learn more about the culture he loves so much. In the span of his career, he has hosted every Fula musician and entertainer of repute, and in turn all, everyone from soul singer Mama Egge Baldeh to the master fiddler Juldeh Jallow, have memorialized his name in song. Like Albert Herb who passed away before him, Balla’s love for Fula music and culture has distinguished him and earned him a reputation for which he will be immortalized in the minds and spirits of so many. The Gambia has lost a son, and the Fulas and Fulladou, have lost one of their own, a friend and a brother. If only you could hear me now, Balla Musa, as I dedicate this last mournful Fula song to you. Peace be with you.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or any other article or image, or portions thereof, in any form or context without the expressed permission of The Gambia Echo Newspaper.