Babucarr Gaye: Celebrating The Life of A Legend
By Mathew K. Jallow, associate Editor
When Babucarr Gaye and I first met, we were both teenagers, and in high school: he at Gambia High and me in St. Augustine’s. We were both still too young to form firm political opinions on anything, but we were, nonetheless, developing the philosophies of life that will define the characters and personalities we will become. Primet Street, more precisely, Number 1 Primet Street, was our hangout, young kids interested in only one thing; the social networking we were creating for ourselves. But, both tribally and geographically, we were a diverse group, still uneducated about the brutalities of tribal politics, still mere boys seeking, and creating and drawing attention to ourselves.
Our group included Baboucarr Njie our host, late Cherno Michael Baldeh, late Pet Darbo, Ringo Starr, Alhagie Jagne, Baboucarr Sarr to name just a few. Though Baboucarr Gaye and I have never been close friends in the true sense of the word, we remained lifelong acquaintance until the last time I saw him at his New Month Newspaper office, in Bakau in 1995. Looking at Baboucarr Gaye, it is impossible to pinpoint to anything in his character and personality that will betray his Kaur, Saloum, roots, and true to his nature, he assimilated easily into the new and different social paradigm of urban Bathurst (Banjul).
Baboucarr Gaye never engaged in the vitriolic and condescending degradation of persons who hold different opinions and view points, for he was too human and so much above the trivial and inconsequential that define the lives of so many of the living. His personality was tempered by his soft-spoken demeanor, yet behind that gentle façade, was a nerve of steel. After his release from Mile II Prisons following the aborted 1981 coup attempt, he unlike many who went through the same ordeal, did not relish or desire to recount the pain and suffering he went through.
Mr. Gaye was a consummate journalist, who had no biases, no predetermined positions and without an agenda to flaunt around, and in that way, he had a lot that Gambian journalists can emulate. Where many became conceited and drunken with power of the pen, Baboucarr Gaye, true to his nature, remained humble, and where many pursued profit, he sought truth. Like the true professional, his overriding interest and his life's mission was to bring the unfettered and unfiltered truth to the broader Gambian audience. His committed goal was the growth and prosperity of democracy in out country, and in the pursuit of that vision, he remained the fearless and uncompromising champion for liberty.
Baboucarr Gaye never let a coward like Jammeh go into his head, because he saw in him a person without an education and without the ability to make rational and objective judgments. He was not fazed when enemies of the unvarnished truth shut down his radio station; instead he went about his business as if Jammeh and his rogue regime were only a minor nuisance. When we met to socialize over the years, Baboucarr rarely said a thing, but his flaming eyeballs rolled from side to side intermittently, absorbing the theatre and the comedy of the absurd in motion before his eyes. And unlike many of us who craved attention and announced our comings and goings, he came quietly and left just as quietly, never a man to stand himself out in social settings.
It is sad that such a talented person with so much to give to our country can be taken at the prime of his life. We will cry and shed tears at this loss. We will reminisce the good life he lived and the good things he did, but in the final analysis, what he would like us to do is not to wallow in the loss of him; rather by his life, he has bequeathed to us the formula and the template by which to live ours. We will miss you buddy. While you are gone, take a message to Deyda, and Modou Musa Secka, and Alpha Barry, and to Omar Barrow. Tell them the road is full of ditches, the mountain too steep to climb, and the river too dangerous to wade in, but we will keep fighting, keep seeking the truth until our people are free. And if our time comes before the fight is won, together we will keep praying for the living. God Bless You.