Breaking News: Musa Sey Dies, Buried at Basse

BY EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The sudden and shocking death has been announced of Musa Amadou Sey, veteran Gambian educator and public administrator. Musa Sey or Bala as he was affectionately called, died today (Monday December, 17^th.2007) and was laid to rest this evening at his native Basse. For the past year Bala was battling a sickness that saw him hospitalized at the Royal Victoria Hospital Sanatorium (locally called Wencho) for a few months. He recovered and was discharged, returned to Basse where he peacefully passed away.

            Born in cosmopolitan Basse in the late 1940s, Musa attended the village primary school in colonial Gambia from where he proceeded to Armitage High School in George Town in the McCarthy Island Division. At armitage Musa was a trailblazer noted for his charisma, camaraderie and captivating brilliance that endeared him to both staff and students. He exhibited a keen application to academics and was noted for his quick wit and marvelous grasp of the English Language recalls his good friend and brother, Miami University Political Science Professor Dr. Abdoulaye Saine. In debates, seminars and symposia, Bala brought the best out of his sharp intellect and left Armitage High ever grateful for the resounding sense of success. Musa Bala was a debater per excellence; one of the most brilliant Gambians I know remarks a devastated soft-spoken Professor Saine.

            When Musa wrote the School Certificate Examinations in the early, 1960s, he climaxed to the Yundum Teachers’ College and after a year, he proceeded to the Sixth Form at The Gambia High School, the only class in the entire nation. From The Gambia high school he was destined for greater academic heights and so he matriculated to the prestigious Ile Ife University in the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the tutelage of Professor Wole Soyinka who would later receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. He read Linguistics and English Language graduating with highest honours returning home with the golden fleece; a very unpretentious being yet one with a penchant for intellectual discourse. In the gallery of Gambian intellectuals, Musa Sey will be remembered as a very fine mind, a peculiar creed, a towering personality, an intimidating disposition with little patience for stupidity especially, with those who spoke and wrote wrong English.

The last time I saw him in 1995, he had as always, a copy of the latest edition of Readers’ Digest.

            He was the premiere Administrative Officer at the African Center for Democracy & Human Rights Studies and had worked at various others offices and establishments that almost all knew him. Musa Sey taught English Language at The Gambia College, and at almost all the premiere high schools in the country-Saint Augustine’s, Gambia High, Muslim High and Armitage. In 1992, he briefly served as Editor of The Gambia Daily Observer. He once served as Deputy Divisional Commissioner under the late NIA Chief Daba Marena at his native Basse. Two loving daughters, Yaya Sey, 17 and Yawureh Sey, 13 survive Musa Sey. May the Almighty God grant Musa Sey’s gentle, loving and caring soul eternal peace in Heaven. Given the larger than large life Musa Sey lived, and his great contributions towards Gambian education, I would borrow these immortal lines for his tombstone: “Tanto nomini nullum par eloguim”