User:Aerfan2/Tijan M. Sallah

Tijan M. Sallah
Tijan M. Sallah (March 6, 1958) is a Gambian writer, poet and economist. Currently employed at the World Bank as the manager of the Capacity Development and Partnerships Unit of the Africa Region, Sallah continues to be a prominent voice in African literature around the world. Through his production of various volumes of short stories, authentic literary works and scholarly articles about politics and economics, he maintains a strong appreciation for African history and cultures, as well as social justice.

He is a notable African author due to his ability to recognize the different cultures of Africa. His works have been featured over NPR and the BBC

Early Life
Tijan Momodou Sallah was born in Sere Kunda, Gambia in 1958. Sallah's father was a Muslim of Halpulaar origin and Sallah's mother of Serrer and Wolof origin. His parents had two daughters, one which passed away, and four sons.

As a young child, Sallah attended Serrekunda Primary School and then St. Augustine’s High School before leaving for the United States. Sallah was a dedicated student because his education was a priority. However, he also needed to work to pay for his tuition. Hence, his first employment was as an audit clerk at the Customs Department. He later worked at the General Post office. He was able to continue his education by winning a scholarship to Berea College in Kentucky, from where he graduated with degrees in Bachelors of Science, Business Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Having completed his undergraduate career with extraordinary success, he won the Berea Senior Award for Economics, as well as a nomination for the Carnegie Endowment for Peace Internship.

Sallah went on to earn his Masters and Ph.D in Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. To prepare for his doctorate he would lecture on Micro and Macroeconomics. Thus, his professional career as a lecturer began at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. His current employment came about when Sallah joined the World Bank in 1989, where he has managed developments in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as well as, projects for Natural Resources, Water and the Environment in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen.

Personal
Sallah is married to a woman of Malian origin. He has two children: a 13 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. His wife has a PhD in satellite engineering and is employed as a manager at Intelsat.

Work
As Sallah chose to work outside the Gambia, he considers himself a “Gambian in voluntary self-imposed exile.” He is greatly inspired by the work of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

Sallah's first poem, The African Redeemer, was published in Sunu Kibaro: the poem was written as a tribute to Ghana's first leader, Dr. Osagyfo Kwame Nkrumah, due to Nkrumah's impressive “oratorical skills, persuasive speaking skills, and his leadership skills among other African leaders.” Sallah's inspiration came about from learning “real poetry” from Harry Lloyd Van Brunt, one of his teachers at Rabun Gap Nacoochee High School in the United States. Sallah also gained his literary inspiration through a position as an editor for his high school's newspaper, "Silent Runner".

His second poem, "Worm Eaters", was featured in the Atlanta Gazette in February 17, 1978. “It was a public satire on people who portray in public quite an opposite image of what they really are.” At Berea College in 1978, he constantly worked on his writing skills.

Inspired by Negritude attitudes, Sallah wrote a collection of 36 poems known as "When Africa Was a Young Woman." The first set of poems deal with African and European interactions, and the second set exposes false ideas of Africa being a Tarzan-like jungle. There are also “poems about individual experiences in that world, when Africa was a young woman.”

In the anthology "Under African Skies: Modern African Stories" Sallah has a published short story called “Innocent Terror.” It evokes sentiments from readers regarding the social superiority of the Lebanese in Gambia. Sallah’s "Kora Land", a collection of poems, surrounds the culture of his native Gambia. In attempts to forgo his interest in Europe, Sallah reveals Gambian traditions in "Kora Land." “For example, in traditional Gambian society, how elders use certain taboos to try to defend their privileges. When they want to keep certain things for themselves, they say ‘this is not good for children’.”

Sallah's works have been included in major African anthologies of poetry and short stories throughout the years.

List of Works

 * When Africa Was a Young Woman, poetry, 1980
 * Before the New Earth, short stories, 1986
 * Kora Land: Poems, poetry, 1989
 * Dreams of Dusty Roads: New Poems, poetry, 1993
 * New Poets of West Africa, poetry, 1995
 * Wolof, ethnography, 1996
 * New African Poetry: An Anthology by Tijan M. Sallah and Tanure Ojaide, poetry, 1999
 * Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light, A Biography by Tijan M. Sallah and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, biography, 2004
 * Research and Development in Mental Health: Theory, Framework, and Models, 2005
 * Dream Kingdom: New and Selected Poems, poetry, 2007

Reviews

 * The Tragedy of Platitudinous Piety by Bill Best (1981)
 * Summer of Pure Ice by William White (1985)
 * Gem Within by Rosemary Wilkonson (1986)