Born London, 12th May 1958, died The Gambia, 31st January 2008.

Jayzik was, to use one of Maya Angelou’s poetic expressions, a ‘phenomenal woman’.  She lived at full speed, in full colour and brought joy into many people’s lives. Even if you think you didn’t know her, it’s most likely you did.  If you managed to miss the fierce dreadlocks, decked in silver rings and seashells, and you weren’t dazzled by the vibrant colour – greens, oranges, yellows – anything that wasn’t black – of the outfits she personally designed, then you couldn’t fail but be drawn in by the bright and cheeky smile that made her look as if she were perpetually sixteen years old.  If, by some chance, the smile didn’t grab your attention then the voice would, a lively, East London accent calling out loud and boisterous greetings, as she flew by in her open top jeep. ‘Hi, (never hello) and ‘Nanga def?’.  Jayzik made a point of knowing people and even those who didn’t have the chance to meet her personally, most likely heard her voice on the radio, singing the song that she wrote and performed, and that became her trademark, ‘Everyone Loves The Gambia’.

In her professional career, Jayzik was a performance poet, songstress and song writer.  She worked closely with ‘The Mad Professor’ and his Ariwa sound system and performed internationally with the Reggae Collective Sistas, and in support of various internationally renowned artists including Beenie Man, Luciano and Lee Scratch Perry.  She loved touring and performed in many countries, too many to list.  Particular highlights included appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in San Fransico.

On stage, Jayzik called herself The Simple Poet.  In many ways, this is exactly what she was; beautifully simple.  Jayzik enjoyed the simple life, took simple pleasures, had no need for expensive things and whatever she did have, she used to help and bring happiness to others.  She wasn’t interested in status and could sit with simple people as easily as she could the big stars with whom she performed. 

Jayzik’s artistry speaks for itself.  She was a prolific poet.  Not only the dub poems she recorded, ‘Problem Child’, ‘Burn Down the Teachings’, ‘Snowman in Winter’, ‘No Hello’, but also the constant flow of rhyme and wisdom that was her everyday life.  She loved language and words and had, before she died, been developing her own ‘translation song’ drawing from the Fula, Mandinka, Wollof, Serehule, Jola, Serre and Manjago people she knew, whose language she was always learning and weaving into inspiring and educational poetry.

Jayzik had much to say about many things and could be relied upon to deliver a line or two for any occasion.  If ever anyone made the mistake of greeting her with the word ‘hello’;

‘Hello? Don’t you know that hell is low? How low can you go?’  If you said you were depressed; ‘Depressed? Get more depressed.  Get really depressed.  Get so depressed that you can’t get depressed any more.

Then take a look at yourself in the mirror and see how ugly you look – that’ll make you laugh.’

On people giving her stress;

‘No one lives rent free in my brain’.

On Humpty Dumpty;

‘He didn’t fall – he was pushed!’

Jayzik loved to laugh and to have people laugh with her.  Making people laugh and making music were two of the things for which she had a special talent.  She surrounded herself with music and where there was none, created it herself.

She loved watching musicals on TV, because, she said, whenever anything happened, however trivial, to the people in the story, they’d sing about it.  That was how she wanted to live and like many of the things she wanted out of life, Jayzik made it happen.  She could and did, sing about anything and everything, anytime and anywhere.

Off stage (if there ever was such a thing for a natural born entertainer like Jayzik) she was a loving and much loved, mother, daughter, sister, aunty and friend.  Many of her family and friends are here now, having travelled to The Gambia to pay their last respects and see her laid to rest.  Family members suspect that she is watching and smiling, happy that they have come, some of them for the first time. 

The Gambia was home to Jayzik, a place that she loved, and where she chose to live and raise her children, up until her death.  Looking back on some of her poetry we might say that Africa had always been her destiny.  In the poem, ‘Snowmen in Winter’, she wants to;

‘Run free in the fields lush with green and I’d rest in the shade of the palms. Love to swim in the deep blue ocean, lie back on gold warm sand,

drink coconut milk and eat fresh fruit, whilst stepping the Motherland’.

Jayzik was very proud to be able to write a song celebrating The Gambia – the country and the people that she held as her own. 

Two days before she died, she was still singing, relating the story of the immigration officer processing her residential permit, who had confided that he knew the song well and that his favourite line was ‘Guaranteed sunshine!’ The process took longer than it might, she said, as he stopped writing, more than few times, to sing that same line back to her; "Guaranteed sunshine".

Life is tough sometimes.  Jayzik, having faced many challenges in her own life, knew that well.  She did what she could to help, sponsoring a school in her local area, helping to promote various Gambian artists and organising various networking events for those people of African heritage, like herself, who came from the diaspora to reconnect with their African roots.  Over and above these efforts, during hard times, she herself was a unique medicine.  Whatever the weather, no matter how bad the situation; Jayzik was always the same; guaranteed sunshine.

"It’s the unofficial national anthem" she said of ‘Everyone Loves The Gambia’.  The song that she wrote and performed to publicise The Gambia worldwide as the ideal holiday destination.  She was thrilled with the song’s success and delighted by the fact that it was, and still is, played regularly, not only within The Gambia, but also in Europe and America via CNN. 

"Betcha" people will be singing this long after I’ve gone", she said with a smile so wide that it hardly left space for the rest of us in the small hospital room. Yes, Jayzik, betcha we will.

Everyone loves The Gambia.  Jayzik loved The Gambia.  The Gambia, like all of us, loved Jayzik.  She was phenomenal, definitely one of a kind, and she will be deeply missed.  May her soul rest in perfect peace and harmony.