Ebou Dibba

Ebrima "Ebou" Dibba was born in Bathurst (now Banjul), capital of the Gambia, where he was raised in the prevalent Wolof culture to which his mother belonged, although his father's family was from Baddibu, a Mandinka area up-river.^[1] Dibba attended the Gambian Methodist high school and was an exceptionally bright student — the first Gambian to earn three A-levels.

He won a scholarship to University College, Cardiff, in the late 1960s, "at a time when Neil Kinnock was president of the students' union", as Kaye Whiteman notes.^[1] Dibba studied French classical literature, and took a year out teaching English in Toulon, France, before graduating with a B.A. in French Literature. He earned his M.A. degree from King's College London, and subsequently worked as a teacher at an adult education centre in Muswell Hill, north London, in the early 1970s, and at a drug clinic, as well as helping at a youth club in Kilburn.^[1]

In 1974 he moved to the adult education center at Bletchingley, Surrey, initially to teach modern languages and organise classes for the disadvantaged; then from 1975 he served as the centre's director for much of the next two decades, during which period he also wrote two novels, published in the 1980s. Engaging wholeheartedly with the home counties community, "he saw his role as that of a missionary for African culture" and seemed to take it as a personal blow when the job came to an end in 1993.^[1] That same year, Dibba was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Dibba moved on to a life in nearby Edenbridge, Kent, but died in 2000, aged 57, survived by four children from two marriages.^[1]