The Council Room

[Jim Graves]

Charlie Thomas had a great impact on many during the few years he was at Wyanoke. In a recent link there was a question regarding what is he doing now, which got me going on a search, and so far this is what I have found. Unfortunately I have to leave and get ready for work. Perhaps somebody else could pick up the search. Wouldn't it be great to get Charlie involved in the council room?

INSIDE GAMBIA[/b] with Alhagie Mbye
This week our Encounter column is pleased to feature yet another outstanding Gambian. Widely recognized to be versatile, Mr Charles Sarr Thomas is a ‘ Man for all Seasons’.

For those who could recall, Gambians got a real treat from watching the drama ‘A man for all Seasons’ last year by the EBUNJAN THEATRE TROUPE at the Alliance Franco Gambienne. It featured one of Gambia’s best actors, who played the leading role of Sir Thomas More as “ The Man for all Seasons” in that sizzling and successful drama. That actor is none other than Charles Thomas. Mr Thomas however, is not a man for all seasons only in that theatre, he has been such also in real life. He is known as a talented actor, a versatile sportsman, educationist, administrator, and writer. He entered St Augustine’s High School at the early age of 10; by 16 he had already completed high school; by 19 he was already teaching as a certified qualified teacher at Crab Island Middle School and St Augustine’s High School respectively. At 22 he became Senior Master/Assistant Headmaster) at St Therese Primary and Secondary Modern. He studied English Language and Literature at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Public and Development Administration at the nascent Management Development Institute (Gambia) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) successively, and academic law at London University and the Law Society (London)

In sports he played on the Gambia national team in four sports; football, tennis, athletics and table tennis; and also played league cricket.

At college, he played intramural badminton and squash; and coached football and riflery in America.

In Public Service, he served in the Office of the President, in the Foreign Service, Ministry of Economic Planning and Industrial Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as Commissioner Central River Division, and Magistrate LRD / NBD.

Recently he granted an exclusive interview to The Point. Please read on:

The Point: You have had a very varied background. Can you explain to us the reasons and what your pursuits were?

Charles Thomas: Yes, of course. I am somewhat curious and like to learn about things, especially things I am personally interested in. I have a deep feeling of happiness and satisfaction when I go into things I am very interested in, hence my engagement in various fields of interest. I do not aim for a particular post or appointment; I just want to be engaged in things I enjoy and love doing. I do not get a particular job or post, but I get happiness and satisfaction from what I am doing. That to me is greater than money and power.

The Point: Of all your interests, which would you say has been your prominent one?

Charles Thomas: My genuine desire has always been to become a professional actor like Sydney Poitier or James Earl Jones, or sportsman like Arthur Ashe or a mini-Pele even. But Gambia has not been able to offer any of these opportunities; and as an African, it wasn’t easy for me to find the right opportunities overseas in those days. I am exceedingly happy that young sportsmen are now getting the opportunities and the goodwill abroad. Look at Jatto Ceesay, look at Ebou Sillah. We are all very happy for them. I am sure they too must be happy achieving their dream in sports. This is what life should be: to be able to be given the opportunity to achieve one’s goals.

The Point: Now let’s come to your educational background. How come you got into High School at such early age as 10 (I understand it could have been age 9 if you hadn’t been held back in one of your classes)?

Charles Thomas: It had a lot to do with fear and very little to do with intelligence. You know my parents hired a formidable Police-cum-Army Officer by the nickname ‘Joe the Ampa’ to take me pre-school studies. This guy was big and tough: about 6’ 5” and 240 pounds. As a parade police with the Police Band, he used to throw his heavy baton way up into the sky and arrest the falling mace with ease, and in stride; as a police/army goalkeeper he used to punch the football way over the touch line. He was just mighty strong; everyone respected him, but I was simply scared of him. So I used to do my homework regularly and with lightening speed. Because of ‘Joe the Ampa’ I was made to skip Infants School and to prepare for Common Entrance at age 9. May his soul rest in perfect peace!

The Point: What has been your educational development since high school?

Charles Thomas: I studied Education at Yundum College; Literature at Harvard University (Cambridge Massachusetts); Law at London University (Queen Marry College) and with the Law Society of London respectively; and Administration at the Management Development Institute (Gambia) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) respectively. These have been my main learning experiences.

The Point: Which has been your biggest or most cherished sporting achievement?

Charles Thomas: I have enjoyed lots of moments in the area of sports performance, especially for national teams. My most cherished, however, must be my football match in 1972 against Santos of Brazil with Pele as their main striker. I was striker for the opposing team (Boston Astros) which is a professional team comprising world cup veterans such as Coluna of Portugal, Carma Pais and Miguel of Spain, Decio Britto of Brazil. It was a great thrill for me to play against the 1970 World cup winners; heroes like Jairzinho, Tostao, Rivelino, Gerson, Everaldo, Clodoaldo, Piazza, and their fantastic team captain Carlos Alberto who kept feeding dangerous deceptive passes to Pele who scored thrice in their 4-1 victory over us. It is still exciting for me to recount that in that game ‘King Pele’ even committed a foul against me. It was a midfield tussle from which I hooked the ball behind me and allowed it to trail with me from behind. Pele in trying to take the ball from my trailing back foot, managed instead to trip me for an open foul. I recall the referee blasting his whistle against him reprimandingly. Pele, like the great gentleman he was and still is, gave me a big hug with lots of open apologies. For me, I just felt elated to be fouled by the king of soccer. I made the pass for our only goal in that game.

The Point: What was your role in the Gambia National team?

Charles Thomas: I played what you might want to call ‘Upstream’ striker. This means that I took positions as deep as possible in the Opponent’s defence, and at times caused them to apply faculty offside traps. In very deep offensive positions, and marked by two defenders, I had to take passes towards the touch lines instead of attacking single handed towards the goal. That delay would allow the other forwards and the mid fielders to pour into the attack through the middle; and this worked a lot of times to produce threatening attacks, and even goals. I did the same for my league team, the Augustinians Football Club.

Point: Records show that Augustinians was a formidable team; do you go along with that?

Charles Thomas: It is not said out of prejudice or immodesty but Augustinians was indeed a formidable team- according to records, as you say. In the Sixties (60s), Augustinians took most if not all the trophies and medals, from year to year. I can attribute this triumph to the calibre of players at the time: they played cohesively and purposefully, and besides, you had very tactical players like Lie Ngum upfront, flanked by deceptive ball-makers like Ole Man Jatta (Body Balance) or Francis Njie (Fling) and heavy-footed strikers like Solomon Gomez (Garrincha). The midfield was patrolled by big stamina dynamos like Ticks Faal and Ma Ebou Sagnia (He–Man); these centre field players had extraordinarily great hustle and unflagging stamina. At the back were speedy defenders like Babou Mbye , Nuru Adams and Labbou Correa, balanced by the experience of Captain Yusupha Mboob , Moses Trinn or Babou Sowe. Goalkeeper Lamin Touray was virtually unbeatable when he was in right form . It was an absolute pleasure for me to play on that team. In fact many big-name players had the honour of playing for Augustinians before moving on to other big teams like Gambia United, White Phantoms , Black Diamonds , Arrance and Wallidan. Augustinians had a big name here similar to Real Madrid of Spain. The name reverberates to this very day among football fans and players.

The Point: And how about the quality of the National team?

Charles Thomas: The National team was very purposeful and determined in those days with very experienced and skillful players. The team was never easily beaten and we always cherish the match in 1962/63 season, when the team came from 2 goals behind to beat Senegal 3-2 in their capital , Dakar, to the win the Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup. We were very happy with our team’s victory that year, not only because we were close rivals but also because of the grandiose status of the Nkrumah Gold Cup.

The Point: What advice would you give to the present generation of players?

Charles Thomas: It would be about attitude. Playing skills are good , but players should also aim always to tighten their belts ; they should play with the highest determination and pride, and fight from the beginning to the final whistle. If they do that, it would be difficult for anyone to beat them, or for them to sustain humiliating defeats.

The Point: You played other sports nationally; what has been the level of your performance in those ?

Charles Thomas: I was in championships for at least 20 years in Lawn Tennis ; the same for Table Tennis . In athletics, my event was the triple jump. It was a brief spell and I only jumped when the leading jumpers (Pierre Jallow, Winston Joiner, Chill Boy Blain) were either down with injury or busy performing in other events . I shortly gave way to Bamba Njie, the current national coach for field events.

(To be continued)
_________________
Jim Graves
67 J-2 Jerry Hoyt
68 J-5 Todd Whittimore
69 J-9 Charlie Thomas
70 S-1 Bob Arnot
71 S-5 Russ Vaughn
72 J-2 Dan Mannis
74 J-? (The small cabin across road from J-2) Councilor
75 J-5 Councilor

[DavidAyars]

Cool! Nice work, Jim. I assume Jim will be posting the second half of the interview soon, but if not, it can be Googled. And for those, like me, wondering when this interview dates from, it was May 2007.
_________________
Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Jim Graves]

More on Charlie...

Arts and Culture, Travel Talk, Entertainment & Whatagwan, Society, Society & Development

The Great Charles Thomas
Wednesday 16th May 2007

Welcome to another edition of Encounter Inside Gambia. Today we are continuing from where we stopped last week in our full-blown interview with Charles Thomas, the man for all seasons. In this final part of the interview, we focus on his involvement in drama and other interesting issues.

Please read on :

The Point: Coming to drama, have you contributed in this important cultural area; if so, to what extend?

Charles Thomas: I took part in many national productions and in particular in a major competition in 1964 with an international panel of judges. The competition was staged at the Crab Island Upper Basic Hall. It went on for three nights to allow the various contesting theatre groups to stage a 40-minte One Act Play. I think about seven to eight theatre groups competed. The competition was hotly contested and rigorously judged. My group, the COLUMBIAN Drama club luckily won the contest with a1-Act entitled “Too Many Brides,” a domestic comedy. I say ‘luckily’ because the standard of all contestants was frightfully high. We also won ‘Gambia’s Best Actor’ and ‘Supporting Actor awards, as well as ‘Supporting Best Actress’. We received our giant trophies from the President of the Republic at the presentation ceremony; it was a gratifying moment for me coming out as Best Actor of the Competition.

The following year, at Gambia’s attainment of independence the national troupe staged a message to new President and Head of State on good governance: how not to mistreat or step on citizens and civil rights, and how not to automatically make his word the only word especially from a position of error or wrong-headedness. We therefore staged the Greek play, ‘ANTIGONE’, by Sophocles, which was appreciating to the occasion. The President took it all from his front seat position.

A year later (1966), the Gambia participated in a worldwide theatre event: the 1st World Festival of Negro Arts’ held in Dakar, Senegal, at the Daniel Sorrano Theatre. The Gambia’s presentation, a play entitled ‘Master Brain’ was written by the then First Lady, Mrs. Darling Jawara, in English and ably translated into Wollof for performance by Mr Joachin Da Costa, both of blessed memory.

On the night of Gambia’s performance, graced by President Jawara and Lepold Sedar Senghore, Gambia got one of the longest standing ovation, I am happy to report. The play was well-received by all indications, and Uncle Da Costa’s Wollof translation was what made it absolutely pleasurable for the audiences. Black American artists participated, so also artistes from other parts of Africa and the Caribbean. I did play the role of Kadurr Louteh, an African king who could not deal with the competing social demands and caprices of two bewitching wives (Sainabou and very young Ancha). The play was directed by Gambian drama maestro, Gabriel J. Roberts, assisted by Serign Secka of the National Drama Troupe.

The Point: After the 1st world festival of Negro Arts held in Dakar in 1966, you also embarked on another cultural episode almost twining Gambia and the United States?

Charles Thomas: It was in 1977. Alex Harley, the black American author of ‘Roots’ had just launched his book and the Premiere viewing of the film. First a government mission was sent to the US to witness the premiere, led by Minister Kuti Sanyang with high-ranking officials in the persons of Alhaji Alieu Jagne then Permanent Secretary at the Ministry if Information and Tourism, and the Director of Information and Tourism, Mr Swaebou Conateh. I represented the Office of the President on that mission, that government mission was then shortly followed by a multi-cultural mission whose assignment was to exhibit The Gambia’s cultural, art, history, government, economic climate and investment opportunities. One outstanding result of the mission was the creation of broad-based American tourism to the Gambia and the establishment of The Gambian Embassy in America, to serve the U.S, Latin America, and West Indies. Also Banjul was twinned to Taskegee; and furthermore the famous ROOTS HOMECOMING festival has remained as an important cultural offshoot of that cultural mission.

The Point: Could you explain briefly how the idea came about and its execution/management?

Charles Thomas: It came as a result of the first mission, during which I was struck by the idea of a cultural mission to create cultural links and introduce investment opportunities. The Mission members, though financed by Government, were sent in fact drawn from various sections and sectors of the wider community. There were tie-dye expert (Musu Kebba Drammeh); prominent vocalists and instrumentalists (NORSE Kanute, Fabala, Alhaji Abdoulie Samba, Yankuba Saho, Manjago Suso; promotional journalist (Jay Saidy); tourism, history and cultural experts (Junaidi Jallow, Fatoumatta Sallah, Saim Kinteh, and Bakary Sidibeh).

We went through strenuous and challenging interviews from all aspects of the media (radio, newspapers and televisions across the USA) but especially the newspapers. We commenced in Tuskegee, Alabama, in the South; then to Atlanta, Georgia; Releigh, North Carolina; Washington D.C; Cambridge and Boston in Massachusetts; Nuffield, Connecticut; and to New York. As we were preparing to return to Gambia, our enormous publicity got us special invitation to La Verne University in California and to Jamaica, West Indies. We set up art exhibition wherever we went, and gave musical presentations and talks. Gambia was truly well advertised. Even though I conceived and coordinated the mission, it was Dr Lenrie Peters who ably headed the delegation on that rather demanding and logistically complex mission, Mr Bakary Sidibeh then head of the Cultural Achieves at the Office of the President.

We also had the full assistance of the U.D State Department as well as the African –American Institute. For me, it is happy to note that there is now a Gambian embassy in the U.S. continuing to serve a cultural purpose.

The Point: Now, what are your comments, if any, on the political and economic life of this Country?

Charles Thomas: my party was the United Party under P.S. Njie; a party of able ministers and officials. when they left, the Country never realized again if full potential and chances for development and growth. Unfortunately and in my view, we did not have people of the right calibre to discuss with the British at Independence and after, thereby creating a lot of lost development opportunities then, and since then. The country sank a lot after the U.P, the Democratic, and the Congress parties and coalitions of the early 60s. The country was just about to be buried alive when the AFPRC came to salvage the situation. The reasonably stable gains of the ERP (Economic Recovery Programme) and the PSD (Programme for Sustainable Development) of the 1980’s were ostensibly, severely undermined and devastated by excessive greed, corrupt practices of political and public officials. Many ex-U.P sympathizers have the conviction that the AFPRC (now APRC) with its similar green political colours, saved the country and now is doing, and even out-doing, what the United Party would have done in the area of development.

Sorry to sound anachronistic, talking about U.P, but this is reality, this is the true political history and evolution, based on the simple law of cause and effect, and which has been handing and plaguing this country’s development for a long time (30 years at least)

The Point: Finally, what message you have for fellow Gambians?

Charles Thomas: Firstly, the entire population should be involved in national development or in self-development through gainful employment including self-employment, the latter of course constituting a part of the former. Secondly, Gambia belongs to us all. We should therefore strive to develop our country, earnestly, collectively, and without the retrograding and dissipating attitudes and effects of regionalism, race, religion, or creed. We have a duty to preserve and nurture the peace and unity that our parents and grand parents left us. We have to preserve that good legacy for we owe it to ourselves and our children and grand children after us. Let us be convinced that Gambia is a model Country and Gambians are a model people; we are role models for the rest of the world. Maintaining such an ambition and prodigious role is not easy, hence the need for pluralistic conscientious and concerted effort.

The Point: Thank you for your time and your contributions.

Charles Thomas: Thank you.


Charles Thomas
(http://gambianliterature.blogspot.com/2004/11/history-of-gambian-literature_26.html)

Charles Thomas successfully studied in the USA, UK and India. He holds a degree in English Language and Literature and a Postgraduate degree in Law and Development Aid Management. He has occupied different position in the Civil Service. He has published a play with one act entitled Go Tell it On The Mountain and a script inspired from The Will of Joseph H. Joof.

The Memorandum, published in Banjul in 2000, is 75 pages long. It’s a four-act play with 32 actors. The main character, Tijan, is a young public worker who is faced with the almost insurmountable contradiction in his professional, family and religious activities : respect for skill, honesty without political compromise, religious tolerance, are virtually impossible. Thus, Tijan found no other solution but to migrate to Switzerland with Regina, the woman that he loves, in order to try and live according to his ideals.
_________________
Jim Graves
67 J-2 Jerry Hoyt
68 J-5 Todd Whittimore
69 J-9 Charlie Thomas
70 S-1 Bob Arnot
71 S-5 Russ Vaughn
72 J-2 Dan Mannis
74 J-? (The small cabin across road from J-2) Councilor
75 J-5 Councilor

[Jeff G]

Jim:

You are a Rock Star. Great post on Charlie.

Jeff G.

[Jeff G]

Hey:

I think I found Charlie. I sent him a quick email linking wyanoke.com.

Let's see what happens...



Jeff G.

[CharleyLax]

http://www.gamwriters.com/43.html


Gambian Literature and writings
Charles Thomas



Charles Thomas successfully studied in the USA, UK and India. He holds a degree in English Language and Literature and a Postgraduate degree in Law and Development Aid Management. He has occupied different position in the Civil Service. He has published a play with one act entitled Go Tell it On The Mountain and a script inspired from The Will of Joseph H. Joof.

The Memorandum, published in Banjul in 2000, is 75 pages long. It’s a four-act play with 32 actors. The main character, Tijan, is a young public worker who is faced with the almost insurmountable contradiction in his professional, family and religious activities : respect for skill, honesty without political compromise, religious tolerance, are virtually impossible. Thus, Tijan found no other solution but to migrate to Switzerland with Regina, the woman that he loves, in order to try and live according to his ideals.
_________________
Charley Lax
Cabin Town Midget, Junior and Senior @ Camp Wyanoke 1969-1973
Brothers Andy (lives in San Francisco)and Gerry Lax (lives in Pennington, NJ) also were campers

[DougSmith]

After reading several Wyanoke posts about Charlie . . . hats off!

Hello Chris Gill! It's been a minute since holding a broom stick @ fwd. arms (Junior Camp) on a picnic table @ night, ay?