Singhateh, Sally Sadi (1977 - )

Sally Sadie Singhateh was born in 1977 and wrote her first full-length work when she was 16. She has since published one children’s book and three novels, the latest of which is called Baby Trouble (2006, East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi, Kenya). Her poetry won her an International Poetry Award of Merit in 1995.

Sally, who has a background in communication, international relations and literature with focus on creative writing, currently works with The Foundation for Research on Women’s Health, Productivity and the Environment (BAFROW) as the communications officer.

When she is not busy writing, she enjoys settling down in a quiet spot with a good book. Otherwise she draws, creates crosswords and logic puzzles, watches movies, or spends time with her family and friends.

Sally currently lives in the Gambia with her family.

Christies’s Crisis, a 91-page novel written in 1998 and published by the East African Educational Publishers. Christie lives with her mother Anna. Her father, Musa, passed away six months earlier. She is 16 and lives like any other teenager. Anna, who is a lawyer, met a young lady who was not capable of taking care of her son. She appeals to Anna for help. Anna learns to her surprise that the father of the lady’s baby is her former husband. Christie’s paternal grandmother comes for a visit and one day, Christie overheard her grandmother talking to Musa over the phone. The confusing situation added to her sentimental problems will shake our teenager. She, together with her friends decide to mount an investigation. She soon discovers that her father was a drug baron surrounded by dubious characters.

In The Sun Will Soon Shine (2004) written by Sally Sadie Singhateh, a female author, portrays an intelligent, ambitious girl growing up in a Gambian village, where marriage and motherhood and Female Genital Mutilation are often issues that women have to endure. The female character, the heroine of the novel is full of immense courage, able to see beyond her situation, despite the bleakness of life. She is overtaken by circumstances beyond her own control and is forced into paths which she has desperately fought against. She is however able to see beyond her situation, despite the bleakness of life. She makes it through her darkest hours and emerges stronger. At the end of the novel, only determination could have changed her situation. (Reviewed by Dr Pierre Gomez, Sr Lecturer, UTG)

A review of Baby Trouble will soon be online