Tijan Sallah

(06 March 1958 - )

Wumi Raji

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife

BOOKS: When Africa was a Young Woman (Calcutta: Writers’ Workshop, 1980); Before the New Earth (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1988); Koraland (Washington: Three Continents Press, 1989); Dreams of Dusty Roads (Washington: Three Continents Press, 1993); New Poets of West Africa (ed.) (Lagos: Malthouse, 1995); Wolof (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1996); with Tanure Ojaide: The New African Poetry (eds.) (Lynne Reinner, 1999); with Ngozi Okonjo Iweala: Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003).

Titled When Africa was a Young Woman (1980), Tijan Sallah’s first book of poetry betrays heavy influences of negritude ideology. The poem which supplies the title of the collection recalls a particular time in history when Africa still remained a young woman, when she was as yet unravished, and when she was therefore chased and courted by people from other parts of the world. At the time, and according to the poem, the rich, innocent woman had rebuffed the advances of all her suitors. Bedraggled, she eventually had to be raped, her treasures ravaged. As the poem winds down to a close, it talks of how even Africa’s own children have now joined in the acts of raping, how this continues even in the present, how they (the children) now “follow/That dragon called revolution,/devastating her flesh;/Leaving her barren, a broken calabash.” (1)

Today, Tijan Sallah represents the next most important literary voice from The Gambia, after Lenrie Peters. As a young boy, his initial interest in literature and poetry had been kindled as a consequence of his closeness to Reverend John Gough, an Irish priest who happened to be one of his teachers in St. Augustine’s High School, an all-male secondary school located in Banjul, the capital city of the Gambia. Sallah wrote his first poem ever in 1973 while in third year in this school. Titled “The African Redeemer,” the poem was dedicated to Kwame Nkrumah, the pan African nationalist and revolutionary who assumed the presidency of his home country of Ghana at independence in 1957. On seeing the poem, Gough had patted the boy on the back, telling him that his works would one day be “anthologized in the Ulli Beier and Gerald Moore anthology of Modern Poetry from Africa.” Encouraged by the comment and by the poem’s publication in “Sunu Kibaro,” the school’s official magazine, Tijan Sallah had continued to write. Today, he has three collections of poetry to his name, a book of short stories, two edited anthologies of poetry – one of them jointly with Tanure Ojaide – a biography of Chinua Achebe, co-authored with Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and a book on the customs and traditions of Wolof, the best known ethnic group in the Senegambian region.

Tijan Sallah was born in Serekunda, Gambia’s largest city on March 6, 1958. His father was Tukulor and his mother Wolof. In a 1991 interview with Topic, a Gambian magazine, Sallah describes his home town as a “rich melting pot which is an urban marketplace surrounded by rural hunting ground for squirrels, resting shades for aged story tellers, nooks for tam – tam drumming, and the poetic and unblemished native tongues of Wollof, Fula or Mandinka.” (24)

Gambia, a narrow strip of land jutting deep into Senegal from the Atlantic coastline to the West is predominantly Muslim. Like other Muslim children therefore, Sallah had started his education by going to the koranic school at the age of four. His learning at this point consists mainly of rote memorization of verses and chapters from the Koran. Even then, this probably represents Sallah’s first encounter with written poetry, as koranic verses are highly poetic, and parts earlier learned are revised through recitation or chanting, off – hand.

Sallah was to start formal Western education at the age of six. The country being at the time a British colony, the language of instruction in school was – still is – English. Anyhow, the boy had attended Serekunda Primary School, spending six years, and sitting, at the end, for a common entrance examination in order to secure admission into a high school. As already stated, the school which Sallah proceeded to after his elementary education was an all – male institution. Run by Catholic priests, Sallah describes the education here to be “ much more structured and formalized” than what obtained in the primary school he attended earlier. Subjects taught included English language and literature, Bible Knowledge, Mathematics, the Sciences and, for the first two years, Latin. The literature syllabus at the time comprised mainly of British authors, including Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Joyce, Coleridge, Orwell, Robert Louis Stevenson and such others. With this kind of situation then, it seems inevitable that when the young boy started writing poetry, it was in imitation of the English masters. Actually, “The African Redeemer,” his first poem, earlier mentioned, even though dedicated to a hero of African liberation struggles, was written following a strict rhyming scheme as found in the works of Sallah’s models of the time. Well, this probably was not without its own positive implications, even if inadvertent, for the boy’s career. For had the boy not followed the prevalent style of the time, his efforts would might likely not have received the praise of Father John Gough and, had this not been so, he probably would not have felt so encouraged to continue writing.

Beside the reverend father, the other early inspiration on Sallah is Lenrie Peters who, as stated earlier, represents the best known writer from The Gambia. Peters belongs in the first generation of African writers of European language expression and is the author of two major volumes of poetry and an important novel. He had trained as a medical doctor in Sierra Leone and Cambridge, returning home thereafter to practice his profession. In an interview, Sallah talks of how he used to take his works to the older poet’s clinic for comments and criticism. Also, following the publication of “The African Redeemer” in “Sunu Kibaro,” Peters had used his influence to get Sallah invited by Radio Gambia to talk on his writings. Thus it happened that the young boy obtained national recognition as a writer very early in his career.

As at the mid-seventies when Sallah completed his secondary school education, there still was no university in The Gambia. The young boy then had to work for one year as an audit clerk in The Gambian Civil Service. In 1977, he left the shores of his country for the United States of America to further his education. Before being able to proceed to college however, he first had to spend another one - year at Nacoochee High School in Rabun Gap, Georgia, at the end of which program he distinguished himself in American history and government. In addition, he also received an award for his work as a campus journalist.

It was while at Rabun Gap that Sallah met H.L. van Brunt, an American poet who was at the time organizing a Writers workshop for high school students in Georgia. Sallah was to participate in one of the workshops and, impressed by the boy’s performance, van Brunt became interested in Sallah’s works. This was the time when Sallah wrote his first poem in the US. The poem, titled “Wormeaters,” was originally published in an Atlanta Gazette edition of 1978, and was later included in When Africa was a Young Woman. The poem is simply an attack on hypocrisy and pretence, on putting up a front that is entirely at variance from what one represents.

After one year, Sallah proceeded from Nacoochee to Berea College, Kentucky where he studied and worked at the same time. He spent the first year washing dishes. From his second year however, the young student was employed as a tutor in the writing laboratory of the English Department. This, no doubt, was an acknowledgement of his profound mastery of, and competence in, the English language.

Even so, Sallah kept on writing, editing, in addition, a number of campus journals. But perhaps the most important development in his writing career at this stage was the invitation he received from Eastern Kentucky University to read from his works. It was at this reading that he met Pushio Tablal, an Indian Professor who was at the time the publisher of Writers Workshop in Calcutta, India. Originally, the workshop had taken off in 1958 with the sole aim of encouraging young Indian writers by organizing regular discussions of their works. It was in 1971 that the organizers decided to venture into book publication, again with a focus on experimental works by hitherto unpublished writers. By the time Tablal met Sallah in Eastern Kentucky, the workshop had already issued hundreds of titles. Most of these were by Indian writers, but a number of them were also authored by writers from other Commonwealth countries. Following Sallah’s performance, Tablal asked the young Gambian author to let him see a manuscript. Sallah promptly sent him one. Having gone through it, Tablal decided to issue it under the series. This is how When Africa was a Young Woman got published in 1980. It was reviewed in India the same year, and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1981, Charles Larson, the American critic of African literature included the collection among a number of recently published works from the Third World which he reviewed for World Literature Today that year. In the piece, which came out in volume 55 edition of the journal, Larson notes that Sallah’s “poems are somewhat uneven” but adds, crucially, that “there is little question about Sallah’s talents.” (58)

I have earlier noted the debt of influence, which Sallah owes the Negritude movement in this collection. As a literary ideology, Negritude was the brain – child of a group of black intellectuals of Franco – phone origin. Its chief proponent in Africa was Leopold Sedar Senghor, the former president of Senegal. As a reaction against the assumed cultural superiority of white colonizers, Negritude stands as an effort at spiritually rehabilitating the black race by affirming, as it were, its collective experience, eulogizing its history, and praising its traditions and culture. To be sure, Sallah has never denied the impact of the literary ideology on his first collection of poetry. In addition to the title poem which projects Africa as originally rich and beautiful, other poems in the collection which pushes the negritudist perspective include “If you Ask me why my Teeth are Ivory White” and “Tarzan Never Lived in my Africa.” As can be seen from its title, the latter poem is an attempt at combating the widespread image of Africa in the West. Against the predominant view which sees the continent as a “vast jungle/of elephants, lions and hyenas,” the poet persona insists that Africa is a “land of diamonds” and of “Gold, ivories, oil and raw materials.” Winding up, the poem goes back to repeat the title line, affirming that “Tarzan never lived in my Africa.”

Sallah graduated from Berea College receiving the Francis S. Hutchin’s prize for literature. In addition, he also won the Senior Economics award. In 1982, he proceeded to Virginia Polytechnic Institute where he pursued a graduate program in Economics, completing his doctorate in 1987. That he was not able to push out any new title throughout the period should not suggest that Sallah ever stopped writing at any point. He indeed wrote copiously, contributing poems, short stories and critical works and reviews to different literary journals. These include Presence Africaine, Callaloo, KentuckyPoetry Review, West Africa and Okike. A year after his graduation, Sallah eventually came out with a book of short stories. Before the New Earth (1988), being the title of the publication, was also published by the same Writers Workshop of Calcutta. In a short preface, Sallah describes the stories as the “moral tales of a society attempting to find and redefine itself – to retrieve the melodies of the past in order to create a new Dance, a New Earth.” (9)

Thematically, Before the New Earth advances on the theme of When Africa was a Young Woman. Many of the stories in the collection lament the continent’s lost glories and, also, its parlous present. Beyond this however, they go ahead to envision a new future. “The Fate of Timbuktu” is a representative piece in this regard. As the title suggests, the story presents the experience of a fictive kingdom called Timbuktu, an ancient land of the Ethiopians which is, at present, in ruins. The story focuses on how the land comes to be in its present state. It talks of how the chiefs of this once great land let down their people, trading “their dignity for the wine of Europe.” The anthem of the land, woven into the story, talks of the efforts of its great heroes including the Chakas and the Nkrumahs and the Samoris and the Sounjattas as well as the Mandelas. It also talks of its villains among whom are the Amins and the Bokassas and the Nguemas. The story talks also of current efforts to rebuild the Empire and how futile it is proving to be at the moment. It talks of the need for hope, for the smith to keep up the efforts at the forge. For, according to the story, it is only through persistent struggles that the broken pieces of precious metal can, once more, be wedged together.

Before the New Earth and Koraland (1989) connect with each other in terms of inspirational sources. Yes, while the one is a book of short stories, the other is another collection of poetry. However, in both works, Sallah betrays his debt to the oral performance techniques of the jalis, the traditional griot of the people of Senegambia. Indeed, most of the stories in Before the New Earth are presented as if they are spontaneous narration being presented before a live audience. Some have poetry and chants worked into them and the characters often possess extra – ordinary qualities while the descriptions of scenes and events are vivid, evocative. On the other hand, even the title Koraland announces the author’s primary influence in the collection. Kora is the traditional musical instrument of the jalis. A “harp lute,” to use Sallah’s description, a kora has a total of twenty-one strings, with each of them possessing its own distinct note. Again, in a short preface to the collection, Sallah informs the reader that, like kora, each of the twenty – five poems in the collection articulates a specific message but that, in the end, all of them are supposed to “harmonize into a collective vision.”

It is important to underline a small irony at this point. Koraland first came out in 1989, close on the heels of Before the New Earth, and in terms of inspirational foundation sharing a lot in common with the book of short stories. However, while the latter seems somewhat fixated with Africa’s lost glories, Koraland focuses squarely on the present, raising issues of contemporary significance in the author’s country of origin. In this second collection of his poetry, Sallah makes it clear that he has left the negritude vision behind for good. To be sure, as poems like “You must Come to Kamby,” and “Banjul Afternoon” will make clear, Sallah still remains devoted to his land of birth. He still indeed celebrates it. However, as several other poems in the collection will also show, Sallah has now become quite critical of the place, infact, of several aspects of its old traditions. A title that briefly illustrates this new position is “The Elders are Gods.” In the poem which the author uses to open the collection, the voice that comes out to speak to the reader is young and bold, and his/her aim is to question certain ancient laws of the society. It is to unmask these laws and point out how they simply protect the privileges of certain age groups. “The old folks say that/if you eat fish – heads, or/Drink coconut juice, you would/turn stupid,” so goes the poem in part: “But the elders/Eat everything and/Get wise everyday.” (3) In Sallah’s new consciousness, any situation that permits double standard is simply reprehensible, regardless of whether that law is part of the imported ways, or of inherited system. In the closing lines of the poem, the persona summarizes his/her position, pointing accusing fingers: “The elders are gods,” s/he says, “They sit on top of everything.”

In 1993, Sallah came out with Dreams of Dusty Roads (1993), his third collection of poetry. In this work, the poet grapples with three main issues: the question of his Gambian/African roots, his experience of displacement and dislocation as an exile, and finally his attempt at grappling with certain mysteries of existence. Dreams of Dusty Roads is Sallah’s most accomplished collection till date. Here, the poet has become more confident, his images and metaphors are more carefully chosen and his themes well – thrashed out. Reviewing the collection in World Literature Today, Tanure Ojaide describes the lines of the poetry as “ strong, varied and interesting.” The voice is also described as confident with, according to the Nigerian poet and critic, “appropriate and recurring images, repetitions and other techniques employed to talk about his homeland, his sojourn abroad, and his faith that a spiritual/mystical preoccupation would make life meaningful in the contemporary oppressive materialism.”(24) In his own review, Chris Dunton, as if corroborating this position, maintains in West Africa that Sallah “certainly does have a voice that is worthwhile getting in touch with.”

Since Dreams of Dusty Roads, Tijan Sallah has not come out with any new volume of creative work of his own authorship. This however is not to suggest that his interest in, and passion for, literature has diminished. Actually, if anything, what his activities since 1993 have demonstrated is an increased love for, commitment to, works of creative writing, and, as well, a determination to encourage and promote them intensely. Actually, in 1992, a year before the publication of Dreams of Dusty Roads, Sallah had published an important essay in literary history in Wasafiri, the journal of postcolonial writing based in Britain. Precisely, the essay was on the life and works of Phillis Wheatley, a Gambian girl who was captured at about the age of eight years and taken as a slave to America in 1761. Phillis turned out to be a precocious girl, transforming in no time into a great poet. Today, she stands perhaps as the first black poet of English expression. In 1995, propelled by the conviction that “the new poets of West Africa are producing some of the most culturally vibrant artistic expressions in our contemporary world,” Sallah decided to edit a selection of the works of some of these writers. The anthology was published that same year by Malthouse as New poets of West Africa. Almost immediately after this, Sallah reached out to Tanure Ojaide and, together in 1999, the two came out with a jointly edited anthology, focused this time on the entire continent. It is titled The New African Poetry: an Anthology. After this, Sallah is to make a fairly significant shift, moving on to literary biography. The product is still a collaborative work, with the Gambian now working with Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, his former colleague at the World Bank and currently Nigeria’s minister of Finance. Chinua Achebe, Africa’s foremost novelist represents the subject of the book and its title is Chinua Achebe: a Teacher of Light. It was published in 2003.

In closing, it is probably necessary to reiterate it that what Sallah’s ouvre demonstrates is the author’s strong attachment to, and concern for, his Gambian origins. And it seems also that it is this same sense of attachment and concern that has propelled him to write Wolof (1996), a book which, as the title suggests, focuses on the history and cultural traditions of the people of the same name who, arguably, represents the predominant ethnic group in the Senegambian region. Naturally, and especially since they are themselves heavily indebted to the heritage which it focuses on, it seems clear that a familiarity with Wolof, written in succinct, lucid prose, should serve to facilitate a better appreciation of Sallah’s own writings.

REFERENCES

Lisa G. Backus, “Gambia Inspires Poet.” The Berea Citizen July 31, 1980

Ebrima Ceesay, “The Poetic Dreams of Tijan M. Sallah” Daily Observer, October 1, 1993 p.7

David Dorsey, “Review of Koraland” World Literature Today 64.1, Winter 1990, p.177

Chris Dunton, “Experience of Displacement” West Africa

Samuel Baity Garren, “Exile and Return: the Poetry and Fiction of Tijan Sallah” Wasafiri15, Spring 1992 pp. 9-14

Sandra M. Grayson, “An Interview with Tijan M. Sallah, Poet” Network 2000 4.4. Fall 1997 pp. 1-5

Siga Fatima Jagne, “Tijan, Poet in his own Right” The Gambia Weekly 33, August 17, 1991

Charles Larson, “Writing from the Third World” World Literature Today 55 Winter 1981 pp. 57-58

Peter Nazareth, “Review of Before the New Earth” World Literature Today. Summer, 1989, pp. 521-522

Ezenwa Ohaeto, “For a New Earth” The African Guardian May 22, 1989 p. 35

Tanure Ojaide “Review of Dreams of Dusty Roads” World Literature Today

Tijan Sallah, “My Approach and Relation to Language” Washington Review Aug/Sept, 1990

Tijan Sallah, “Phillis Wheatley: a Brief Survey of the Life and Works of a Gambian Slave/Poet in New England America” Wasafiri 15 Spring 1992 pp.27-31

Tijan Sallah, “Profile” Topic 3.5 May 1991 pp. 24-25

Tijan Sallah, “Words or Rice: The State of Literature in The Gambia’ Daily Observer October 8, 1993