Louise N'Jie

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Louise Antoinette N'Jie, MBE (23 January 1922 – 22 May 2014) was a Gambian teacher, feminist and politician who was the first woman to serve as a cabinet minister in The Gambia.

Early life and education[]

Louise Antoinette Mahoney was born in Bathurst (now Banjul) in British Gambia on 23 January 1922, the third of five children.[1] Her father, was of Aku descent and was the first Speaker of the National Assembly of the Gambia and her mother, Hannah, was the first Gambian woman to work as a clerk in the Government Secretariat in the 1910s.[2] Her younger sister Augusta was the first female candidate to stand in a Gambian national election and later married Gambia's first President, Sir Dawda Jawara.[3] Her brother John later married Florence Mahoney, the first Gambian woman to obtain a PhD.

N'Jie attended the Methodist Girls High School in Banjul, obtaining the Cambridge School Certificate in 1942.[2] She then won a scholarship to attend the Achimota School in Accra, Ghana from 1942 until 1945,[1] where she trained as a teacher.[2][3] From 1963 to 1964, she studied educational administration at the University of Oxford.[4]

Career[]

N'Jie taught in various primary and secondary schools in Gambia for ten years and was principal of Bakau Primary School from 1957 until 1963.[2][3]

In 1953, she was one of five female members of a 34-member consultative committee to Governor Sir Percy Wyn-Harris on constitutional reform.[5] In 1958, she was appointed to the Committee for the Preparation of the Royal Visit and the Reception of Queen Elizabeth II to The Gambia in 1961.[2] In 1960, she participated in the United Nations Seminar on Participation of Women in Public Life in Addis Ababa.[6] In 1970, she was one of the founders of the .[2]

N'Jie was a member of the People's Progressive Party and was elected to parliament in 1977, becoming Gambia's second female MP.[2][3] She was also the only Christian member of the government at the time.[3] She was appointed a parliamentary secretary in 1979,[7] and in January 1985, became Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, making her Gambia's first female member of cabinet.[2][3][8] She oversaw an increase in the education of girls and a 20 percent increase in the number of female teachers.[4] She served in this role until 1987, when she became Minister of Health, Environment, Labor and Social Welfare.[3] She championed family planning and education to reduce the maternal mortality rate,[4] and initiated Gambia's response to the AIDS epidemic in 1987 with the establishment of a National AIDS Control Program.[2][4] She also oversaw the implementation of a cost recovery program in accordance with the Bamako Initiative adopted by African Health Ministers in 1987 to accelerate primary healthcare.[1]

N'Jie was a member of the PPP's Central Committee and led the formation of a Women's Bureau. In 1989, she led a delegation to Havana to the World Conference on Women.[1] She founded and led the Soroptimist Society and was president of the Gambia Red Cross Society for ten years.[1] In 1991, she was one of the few PPP members to encourage party leader Dawda Jawara to retire.[7]

N'Jie retired from politics in 1992. She died on 2 May 2014 in Bakau.[3]

Personal life[]

N'Jie married Denis Ebrima N'Jie, the Gambia's first dental surgeon, in the United Kingdom in 1950 and they had one son who died in 1997.[2][3] She was a committed Christian and active in local churches throughout her life.[1]

Awards and honours[]

N'Jie was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in June 1963.[3] In 2015, on the fiftieth anniversary of Gambia's independence from Britain, she was named by as one of "50 prominent Gambians who helped to shape the nation."[9]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Manneh, Ebraima (17 May 2014). "Tribute To Aunty Louise Antoinette Njie". Kairo News. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ceesay, Hassoum (7 May 2014). "Tribute: Louise Antoinette Njie (1922–2014)". The Point. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Perfect, David (2016). Historical Dictionary of the Gambia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 318. ISBN 9781442265264.
  4. ^ a b c d Ceesay, Hassoum (7 May 2014). "[Tribute]Louise Antoinette Njie (1922–2014)". The Standard. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  5. ^ Snghor, Jeggan C. (2014). The Very Reverend J. C. Faye: His Life and Times: A Biography. AuthorHouse. p. 96. ISBN 9781491869819.
  6. ^ "Full text of "Seminar on Participation of Women in Public Life,: Addis Ababa, 12 to 23 December 1960"". January 1961. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  7. ^ a b Dabo, Bakary (14 May 2014). "Tribute to Louise Antoinette N'Jie". The Point. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  8. ^ Akyeampong, Emmanuel K.; Gates, Henry Louis (2012). Dictionary of African Biography. Vol. 4. Oxford University Press. pp. 475–476.
  9. ^ Jawo, DA (11 March 2015). "The Gambia at 50: fifty prominent Gambians who helped to shape the nation". The Standard. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
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