Hassoum Ceesay

Hassoum Ceesay (born 1971) is a Gambian historian, writer and museum curator at the Gambia National Museum. He is one of the most prolific Gambian historians.

Hassoum Ceesay
Born	1971 Banjul, The Gambia
Nationality	Gambian
Known for	Museum

Education

Hassoum Ceesay attended Armitage High School, and Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He continued to Canada's Saint Mary's University, in the Nova Scotia capital of Halifax, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1999. He gained a post-graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in 2003.

Career

Ceesay was the features editor at The Daily Observer newspaper in Banjul and editorial writer from 1999 to 2006. He was curator of The Gambia National Museum from 1999 to 2008, curating art and ethnography exhibitions. From January 2008 to August 2008 he was Deputy Permanent Secretary and Director of the Press Office for President Jammeh. In 2009 he gained a MA in African History from the University of the Gambia. In 2010 he was lead researcher on a UNESCO study of cultural rights in the Gambia.

He was Director of the Copyright Office. Ceesay is the director general of the National Centre for Arts and Culture, Banjul, The Gambia. He is credited with establishing the Copyright Collecting Society of The Gambia. From 2014 to 2017, he was Member University of The Gambia Governing Council.

Ceesay wants to make history accessible. He has set up a project to digitise records.

Ceesay has spoken about the lack of historical and archaeological expertise in The Gambia, and the need to increase expertise and capacity in these areas. He has said "Preserving our history and culture is going to boost our economy and restore our identity. We should encourage the study of our history. Gambian history is still there to be researched and written about. Every day we are ashamed and embarrassed, sometimes even humiliated because simple aspect of our history has been lost to us".

Ceesay is a well-known face on Gambian television, where he frequently speaks on history topics and issues.

Works

Books

• Gambian Women: an Introductory History, Fulladu Publishers, Banjul 2007. 135 pages. First, Second, Third and Fourth editions.
• (Co-author) Ceremonies of The Gambia, 2004, 100 pages
• Gambian Women: Profiles and Historical Notes, Fulladu Publishers, 2011, ISBN 998399264-7, 120 pages.
• (Co-editor) A Guide to Historic Sites and Monuments: Sites of The Gambia, Fulladu Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978 9983 95 574 3
• Patriots: profiles of eminent Gambians, Global Hands Publishing, Leicester, UK, 2016.
• (ed. with Pierre Gomez) A Geocritical Representation of Banjul (Bathurst): 1816-2016, Global Hands Publishing, 2018.
• Founding Father: P.S. Njie, a moral biography, Gambia National Museum Books, 2018

Encyclopedic contributions

• ‘Dr Florence Mahoney’; ‘Fatou Khan’; ‘Louise N'Jie’; Sally Njie’; ‘Fatou Bensouda’ in Dictionary of African Biography, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Oxford University Press, 2011.
• 'Ada Beigh'; 'Hannah Mahoney'; 'Wilfred Davidson Carrol'; 'Matarr Ceesay'; 'Mama Tamba Jammeh'; John Colley Faye'; 'Cecelia Mary Ruth Cole'; 'Momodou Musa Njie'; 'Kemintang'; 'Marion Foon'; 'Maryann Gabbidon'; in Oxford African American Studies Centre: The Online authority on the African American Experience.

Articles and book chapters

• 'Conservation at the Katchikally Crocodile Pool', Africa 2009 Bulletin, 2001
• 'A character construction of Gabriel Roberts' Trial of Busumbala in New Ndaanan, University of The Gambia Journal, January 2009, p. 26-29
• 'Noegletek es tarsadami fejlodes Bathurstben, Gambia 1925–1965' (Hungarian) (Women and Social Development in Bathurst, Gambia 1925–1965) in AFRIKA TANULMANYOK, 2011 V. P.98-111, Journal of Hungarian African Studies.
• 'Wild Oysters, Female harvesters, and Mangrove Forests of The Gambia' in Abdoulaye Saine et al., eds., State and Society in The Gambia, Africa World Press, 2012.
• 'Chief and Protectorate Administration in The Gambia: 1894-1965' in Baba G. Jallow, ed., Leadership in Colonial Africa, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.
• 'The Impact of the Crises on Institutions in Guinea Bissau and the Sub-Region’ in Patrick Chabal and Toby Green, eds., Guinea Bissau: from micro state to 'narco-state' , Oxford University Press, and Hurst, London, 2015
• 'Small But Activist: The Gambia and West African Diplomacy, 1965-2015, Tarikh, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Ibadan University, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2018, pp17-37.
• 'Razing Africa: Combating Criminal Consortia in the logging sector’, enact, 2018, pp 1-32.
• 'Chiefs and the Management of Urbanization in Colonial Bathurst, Gambia 1939-1960', Journal of Mande Studies, (Indiana University Press) Vol.18, 2017.
• Review of Jeggan Senghor, 'The Reverend John Colley Faye. A biography, AuthorHouse, in SOAS Bulletin, (Cambridge University Press) London, February 2016.
• Ceesay, Hassoum (2016). "Historical Dictionary of The Gambia (fifth edition) by David Perfect (review)". Journal of Global South Studies. 33 (2): 87–91. doi:10.1353/gss.2016.0033. S2CID 157846038. Project MUSE 659147.
• Ceesay, Hassoum (2017). "Gendered Voices from The Gambia by Pierre Gomez, Idalou Ndow (review)". Research in African Literatures. 47 (4): 189–191. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.47.4.12. Project MUSE 648529.
• 'Pierre Sarr N’jie(1909-1993)' in Jeggan Senghor, ed., Profiles of Gambian Political Leaders in the Decolonization Era, pp. 146-218, Global Hands Publishing, Leicester, UK, 2017.
• Ceesay, Hassoum (2017). "Gambia, the". The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. doi:10.4135/9781483368924.n190. ISBN 978-1-4833-6894-8.
• Ceesay, Hassoum (May 2019). "Assan Sarr, Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin: the politics of land control, 1790–1940. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press (hb US$49.95 – 978 1 58046 569 4). 2016, 224 pp". Africa. 89 (2): 419–420. doi:10.1017/S0001972019000238. S2CID 216625461.
• Ceesay, Hassoum (2019). "'Help Us Balance Our Budget': Chiefs as Economic Agents in Colonial Gambia: 1900–1950". African Economic History. 47 (2): 84–116. doi:10.1353/aeh.2019.0009. S2CID 213513868. Project MUSE 746671.
• Hassoum Ceesay, ‘Women’s Associations and Social Development in Bathurst 1925–1965’ in Grasian Mkodzongi and Mariama Khan(eds.) Africa: History and Culture, Kendall Hunt Publishing, New York, 2020, pages 29-49’. ISBN 9781792408021
• Ceesay, Hassoum (3 July 2020). "FATOO KHAN, THE COLONIAL COMMISSIONER'S MISTRESS: AN AMOROUS RELATIONSHIP IN COLONIAL GAMBIA". Igwebuike. 6 (2).
• Ceesay, Hassoum (2020). "Henry Anthony Madi (1913-1965): A Forgotten Gambian Nationalist". Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies. 30 (1): 53–67.

Conference Papers

• Convener: Digital Data Literacy Empowerment: Competence Models for Digital Data Literacy in Africa and Digital Repositories as Open Educational Resources, University of Education in Winneba (UEW), Ghana. In collaboration with the University of Winneba and Point Sud (Bamako), 3-7 October 2022.
• Conference Paper Presented: CODESRIA/Nordic African Institute Workshop on "Generation Exodus? Youth mobility politics and radical change in West Africa". Dakar, Senegal, 8-9 December, 2022 'Stowaways’ Stories: Gambian Youth in Irregular Migration, 1950-1955'.
• Paper Presented: 'The Gambia’s Role In the PAIGC Independence Struggle in Guinea Bissau, 1963-1974', International symposium "Amilcar Cabral: fifty years later", January, 19 to 21, 2023, Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor, Senegal.