My pal Phoday Jarjussey, who has died aged 76, was a civil servant within the Gambia who fled to the UK after a navy coup within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, after which he made a brand new life in London, the place for a few years he was a full-time Labour get together councillor.
Phoday was born in Sukuta within the Gambia to Mba (nee Bojang), a farmer, and her husband, Saikouba Jarjussey, chief of the settlement of Jarra Soma, which Phoday all the time thought to be his dwelling.
After secondary college at Armitage highschool in Janjanbureh, and later, St Augustine’s highschool and Gambia highschool, each in Banjul, in 1968 he left for the UK to review for a level in historical past at York College.
On graduating, Phoday returned to the Gambia, initially working as a historical past trainer and writing extensively in native newspapers on Gambian and African historical past. He then joined the civil service, holding varied positions in ministries protecting areas reminiscent of native authorities, agriculture and training.
In 1977 he was posted to the workplace of the long-serving Gambian president Dawda Jawara, working there for greater than a decade, together with as Jawara’s speechwriter. Throughout that point he rose from the publish of assistant secretary to grow to be everlasting secretary of the Ministry of Works and Communications in 1988.
Phoday’s mental prowess and eloquence earned him a status within the Gambia as one of many best minds within the nation. He was additionally well-liked for his philanthropic actions and was particularly benevolent to the individuals of Jarra Soma, the place he fulfilled his late father’s legacy by all the time serving to anybody in want.
After a navy coup in 1994 that deposed Jawara, Phoday moved for his personal security to the UK and settled in Hayes, west London, the place he served the area people as a Labour get together councillor for the Botwell ward in Hillingdon between 2002 and 2014. As he had achieved within the Gambia, he proved himself within the UK to be a devoted and compassionate public servant.
He’s survived by his spouse, Oumie (nee Njie), whom he married in 1984, their daughter, Fanta, and 4 brothers and 5 sisters.
