Gambia’s founding president Sir Dawda Jawara has been buried on the grounds of the National Assembly in Banjul, in an emotional state ceremony witnessed by a surging tide of mourners on Thursday.
Jawara who led The Gambia to independence from Britain and ruled for 32 years died at the age of 95 on Tuesday.
It was The Gambia’s first handling the death of a former head of state.
There was a profound sense of national grief and loss as Jawara’s body was lowered into its final resting place near the National Assembly complex, signalling the end of a man many had variously described as a humanist whose impact transcends his country’s borders.
Outside the precinct of the National Assembly, hundreds of mourners who could not be accommodated inside the bowel of the building which was full to overflowing kept a silent vigil as they followed the proceeding from loudspeakers.
Jawara has been lying in state in the main chamber of the National Assembly in Banjul where he was given a 21 gun salute by soldiers before his body was taken by a funeral cortege to the capital’s main mosque for the customary religious rites ahead of the burial.
Inside the chamber speaker after speaker including President Adama Barrow, politicians Omar A Jallow, and Sidia Jatta and Chief Justice Hassan B Jallow eugolized the man and converged on the idea that as a humanist he left an indelible mark not only in his country but in the wider world thanks to his humility, honesty, fairness and selfless service to humanity.
Paying their last respects hundreds of mourners filed past his coffin which was draped in the national colours and placed on a plinth by six military pallbearers accompanied by two parallel lines of soldiers marching on either side in solemn strides.
Gambians of all stripes began flocking to the nation’s capital as early as 6am ahead of Thursday’s funeral.
Since his death, tributes have been pouring in thick and fast for the elder statesman whose name is liberally juxtaposed with democracy, human rights and the rule of law during the course of his leadership.
The Glasgow-trained veterinarian negotiated and took The Gambia to independence in 1965 at a time when much of the world saw Africa’s smallest country as an improbable nation with no viability to last any length of time.
Since returning from exile in the United Kingdom in 2002, ex-president Jawara has been living a quiet retirement life in his Fajara home, 14km south of Banjul.
Jawara was born to a modest family in Barrajally, 226km east of the Gambian capital in 1924 and first went to school at the age of 13.
He would later enrol in Achimota College in Ghana before earning a degree in Veterinary Science from Glasgow University in Scotland.
He entered politics in 1959.
DB/as/APA