Phoday Jarjussey obituary

My friend Phoday Jarjussey, who has died aged 76, was a civil servant in the Gambia who fled to the UK after a military coup in the mid-1990s, after which he made a new life in London, where for many years he was a full-time Labour party councillor.

Phoday was born in Sukuta in the Gambia to Mba (nee Bojang), a farmer, and her husband, Saikouba Jarjussey, chief of the settlement of Jarra Soma, which Phoday always regarded as his home.

After secondary school at Armitage high school in Janjanbureh, and later, St Augustine’s high school and Gambia high school, both in Banjul, in 1968 he left for the UK to study for a degree in history at York University.

On graduating, Phoday returned to the Gambia, initially working as a history teacher and writing extensively in local newspapers on Gambian and African history. He then joined the civil service, holding various positions in ministries covering areas such as local government, agriculture and education.

In 1977 he was posted to the office of the long-serving Gambian president Dawda Jawara, working there for more than a decade, including as Jawara’s speechwriter. During that time he rose from the post of assistant secretary to become permanent secretary of the Ministry of Works and Communications in 1988.

Phoday’s intellectual prowess and eloquence earned him a reputation in the Gambia as one of the finest minds in the country. He was also popular for his philanthropic activities and was especially benevolent to the people of Jarra Soma, where he fulfilled his late father’s legacy by always helping anyone in need.

After a military coup in 1994 that deposed Jawara, Phoday moved for his own safety to the UK and settled in Hayes, west London, where he served the local community as a Labour party councillor for the Botwell ward in Hillingdon between 2002 and 2014. As he had done in the Gambia, he proved himself in the UK to be a dedicated and compassionate public servant.

He is survived by his wife, Oumie (nee Njie), whom he married in 1984, their daughter, Fanta, and four brothers and five sisters.