Tijan Sallah

Tijan M. Sallah (born 6 March 1958) is a Gambian poet and prose writer.

Early life

Tijan Sallah was born in Serekunda, The Gambia, on 6 March 1958. His mother was of Wolof ethnicity and his father was a Tukulor, who, according to Sallah, was a descendant of the ruling families of Futa Tooro. He attended koranic schools (locally known as daras) from the age of four, before entering Serrekunda Primary School, where he describes his teacher Harrietta Ndow as having been particularly influential. He then entered St. Augustine's High School, run by Irish Holy Ghost Fathers, and was exposed to classical British literary texts (Shakespeare's plays, Orwell's and Dickens' works, etc.) and the Bible. Although his father, Momodou Musa Sallah (Dodou Sallah), was imam of the local mosque in Serekunda, he did not mind his son studying the Bible, as it was part of the heritage of the Abrahamic religions.

Under these influences and encouraged by his teachers at St. Augustine's High School, in particular Joseph Gough, Sallah became interested creative writing and started writing poetry by his third year. He published his first poem, "The African Redeemer", a poem paying tribute to Kwame Nkrumah, in the St. Augustine's school newspaper, ''Sunu Kibaro''. This early poem had been uncharacteristically compliant to the traditional forms of rhyming and was clearly influenced by the English classics he had been studying. Lenrie Peters, the founder of Gambian literature, was a major influence on Sallah's work by this stage, as Sallah took his poetry to Peters's clinic for him to critique it. Peters wanted to promote Sallah's work, he managed to arrange for Sallah to appear on Bemba Tambedou's national radio programme, ''Writers of The Gambia''. Having graduated from St. Augustine's in 1975, Sallah worked for two years as an audit clerk in the Customs Department and then in the Government Post Office, and at the same time tried to secure a scholarship to continue his studies at the United States.

In 1977, Sallah went to the United States to study at Rabun Gap Nacoochee School in Rabun County, Georgia.

Literary career

In Georgia, Sallah was influenced by Lloyd Van Brunt, an American poet who had been organising literary workshops at his high school, who was impressed by Sallah's writing. He published his first poem in the United States, "Worm Eaters", a satiric poem about hypocrisy in the ''Atlanta Gazette'' of February 1978; and also ran the school newspaper at this time. After graduating with honours at Rabun Gap, he continued on to Berea College in Kentucky, where he also worked as a dishwasher in his first year to fund his studies. He was then employed as a tutor by the English department, and edited three college journals. He came under the influence of several prominent Appalachian writers, Jim Wayne Miller, Lee Pennington, Bill Best, and Gurney Norman. Sakkah published several poems and short stories in Appalachian, American, African and European publications and edited several of the campus literary publications. At Berea College, he also came in touch with a distinguished Indian philosopher and literary figure, Professor P. Lal, publisher of the Writers Workshop series in Calcutta, India, who at the time was a visiting professor of Hindu philosophy at Berea. Upon hearing Sallah read his poetry, he was impressed and requested a manuscript to consider for publication.

In 1980, Sallah published his first poetry collection, ''When African Was a Young Woman'', under the Writers Workshop publication series. It was reviewed on the BBC
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