By Mathew K Jallow

Kaiaf village, Kiang Central, summer 1982. Action Aid was on a mission to transform access to education in The Gambia. At the village bantaba, villagers had begun to congregate under the shade of a giant tree. It was one of the hundreds of village and community meetings I had held around the length and breadth of the country. And by the time the alkalo and I emerged from his large hut in the middle of the village, most of the men had taken their places, covering every part of the bantaba’s sitting space. Always the last to arrive following antiquated traditions, the women-folk, prohibited to sit at the bantaba by our primitive cultures, were standing around surrounding their men-folk on all three sides, as the children, as usual, played hide and seeking; appearing and disappearing from among the animated crowd. This was one of the numerous meetings I had convened in Kaiaf over the years. The meeting that day was preceded by similar meetings the previous two days at the villages and towns of Manduar, Jali, Joli, Tankular, Jataba, Nioro Jataba, Jiroff, Batelling and Nema villages, all in the Kiang districts alone, where for the first time, Action Aid was bringing access to primary education. The village meetings were usually festive occasions for they allowed villagers who had to seen each other for days, especially the women who are not allowed to just leave and go anywhere they want to, like the men. The alkalo and I took our places in comfortable armchairs brought there by the youth of the village and after the alkalo’s remark and introduction; it was time to once again hear what I the “tubabo” had to say. Usually it was a review of progress since my last visit there. The day’s routine followed previous days; upon arrival at any village, I would first meet with my skilled paid construction workers for debriefing on progress, followed by an onsite inspection of the school and village wells construction projects, then a meeting with the alkalo and village elders close to him, before we move the meeting to the main bantaba where villagers were already waiting. That day, like previous visits, there was nothing extraordinary and urgent that needed my or community action. I addressed the village for forty-five minutes before opening the meeting to questions. After a couple of questions, somewhere at the back I acknowledged a woman who had a question; or rather a statement to make. I do not now remember what exactly it was that I asked the villagers to do, but the woman made a statement to the effect that another organization, CRS or Caritas, I cannot remember, had asked them to do the same thing, but in a completely different way. I was lost for words for a few seconds until in respect and deference to the other organization, I asked the villagers to follow the instructions of the other organization. But that was to me a powerful moment for me, in particular because until then, I had no idea Caritas or CRS were working with the village as well. But more worrisome still was the knowledge that not only was there a possibility of duplication of efforts by the growing number of nonprofit organizations in other villages and communities around the country, other villagers were probably being also confused by the different messages and duplicity of projects from the different charitable organizations. As I left the village that day, the question of duplicity of project resources and educational outreach messages became of concern and I thought long and hard about what needed to be done to resolve this problem once and for all. By the time I got to Soma town later that evening, I had an answer; to found an organization that would bring all the organizations operating in Gambia under the umbrella of a unifying coalition. For the next few days, as I was building and perfecting a concept for the new organization in my mind, I was also thinking of a perfect name to call the new umbrella organization. I made up several names in my mind by combining words together only to reject them as not conveying the concept I had in mind. Eventually, though I found the right combination of words that matched what I wanted and it seemed like a perfect name. I had hit gold with: The Association of Non-Governmental Orgainzations (TANGO) and it felt like I had won the lottery. The name sounded perfect to me. In fact, it was stroke of genius I thought. I was as joyous as a child with a candy bar. Upon returning to Banjul at the end of the week, I first talked to my co-worker Sarjo Jallow about it, before approaching CRS, Caritas, CUSO and FFHC the biggest ngos at the time. The idea of an umbrella organization was well received. By the end of the following week, I drafted a formal letter inviting all the ngos to send representatives to a meeting I scheduled the following week at the Ministry of Agriculture which was then located at the then new Central Bank Building on Buckle Street. I addressed a letter to Omar Jallow (OJ) who was Agriculture Minister at the time seeking permission to use their Conference room for our meeting and permission was granted. Now somewhere buried among the files of the Ministry of Agriculture, are copies of that correspondence. The first ever TANGO meeting was attended by myself as the convener; Sajo Jallow, Action Aid; Pierre Badjan, Caritas; Momodou Bah, FFHC; Mrs. Njie, Caritas and two others I cannot remember. Today, the only one original hand-written document has survived, was one I addressed to members of the National Assembly introducing TANGO to them and explaining the organization’s objectives and concept. Later that year in 1982, I left for UK under Action Aid sponsorship, and while I was away, acquaintances of mine, Steve who was Director of CUSO and the then Director of Caritas kept the idea of TANGO alive and helped tremendously to bring TANGO into fruition. Thanks to them also, TANGO has now become an institution in The Gambia, even though it has somewhat deviated from some of the ideas I had originally planned for the organization. When TANGO was finally incorporated in 1983, it opened offices at my alma-mater, St. Augustine’s High School.on Box Bar Road and Mr. Mbye became its first Executive Director. Today, TANGO is in good hands under the directorship of my former Yundum College classmate, Ousman Yabo and the chairmanship of my old friend and attaya drinking buddy from our Tobacco Road days, Yankuba Dibba. I wish you good-luck with the week-long celebration of NGOs.

PS. If you want the only surviving 1982 hand-written document relating to TANGO’s founding for the TANGO secretariat archives, please let me know. I will either sent the original copy or make copies for you.