Very Fresh Rising Flower in the Field of Women’s Sports in The Gambia
Friday 4th January 2008

For many years and for some inexplicable or untenable reason or reasons, women have been excluded from active sports in The Gambia. It has not been easy to understand, let alone concur, with reasons based on cultural taboos or more confoundingly on medical, physical differences.

But shattering once more such taboos, or any vesting of them, is another dynamic, focused and undiscriminating young woman, Sainabou Kujabi, incumbent Head of Sports Desk of the Pointsport (the sports sector of The Point Newspaper) who has been officially appointed Sports Editor of that Paper. Sainabou’s appointment to this position not only shows good judgment on the part of The Point management, but her appointment to the post also fittingly meets one of the cardinal objectives of our national sports policy relating to the inclusion of women in all strata of sports development. Women are now not only fully active in sports performance but are involved in the other aspects that were hitherto the privileged domain of men: sports administration, officiating, coaching, and now sports journalism and editing.

Sainabou has been attracted to sports from an early age. That attraction to sports has led to participation in school sports, and later to sports administration with the Sports Journalists Association of which she is current Secretary-General, and more recently to sports journalism and editing. Sainabou has worked under the supervision and guidance of prominent sports journalists such as Lamin Cham former sports editor of Daily Observer newspaper, Peter Gomez, proprietor of Effective Communication, and Namory Trawally, editor of Football Digest and current President of the Sports Journalists Association.

SHE SHE: What is your particular background in sports, Did you do any sports in school, at what level?

Sainabou: My  love for sports started as early as when I was in primary school. I attended Seventh-Day Adventist Primary School and while in school I took part in athletics and football. Our physical education teacher rated me as one of the best athletes in 400m in the female category. I played a midfield role in our school football team and in our inter-class competitions, and was given the sensitive responsibility of taking penalty kicks. It was a nerve-racking job as everyone expected goals from them, especially at critical stages of a game.

While in Nusrat Senior Secondary School I took part in all the sporting disciplines.  In my final year at Nusrat I was part of the female football team that won a trophy for the school for the first time.

I was also inspired and attracted in to the field of sports when little boys from my neighbourhood in Serrekunda usually would come to my grandfather’s back yard to play football and other kinds of sport.

SHE SHE: When did your attraction to sports Journalism begin; what prompted it?

Sainabou: I was attracted in the field of journalism in general when I was at senior secondary school. While in school I was taking part in the Nusrat Literary and Debating Society, a society that has as one of its objectives the grooming of students to be good readers, writers etc. and we made various field visits to media houses especially the Gambia Radio and Television Services.

Based on this and with my love and interest in the field, I joined the Daily Observer immediately after sitting my West African Examination Council exams in June 2001, and started work in the area of reporting.

SHE SHE: What were your initial assignments? Who were your early guides or supervisors?

Sainabou: Under the guidance and support of the then Sports Editor Lamin Cham, I became a full time sports writer. He was very supportive to me and guided me all the way. I cannot overstate my indebtedness to him and others of his senior colleagues without whose fervent support, I might have left the discipline prematurely.

While at The Observer I was also the head of the Youth Column, a very popular Column for youngsters and interested adults, for the youth issues it brought out: in prose, dialogue, and even poetry. I was columnist on youth matters for three years and also wrote on issues of national interest concerning women, environment, among others.

I also worked in Peter Gomez’s Effective Communication paper when it was in the process of producing the first Sports Paper called Sport Light in 2003/2004.

I later joined the Gambia Sports Journalist Association in 2001 and helped in producing a sports paper during the African U-17 Championship in Banjul in 2005, the first in the history of the tournament.

SHE SHE: Can you comment on your development as a Sports Journalist?

Sainabou: I am very grateful to all the people who have one way or the other contributed in making me what I am today. I feel it is a challenging position and will do all that it takes to reach the expectations of the sporting fraternity, the management and staff of The Point newspaper. I will not forget to thank the Daily Observer where I stated my journalism career. It took hard work, determination and patience to reach where I am today. All in all, I cannot forget the difficult the uphill task it has been to put stories together, especially in tight situations and time-frames… sometimes even tackling stories at late hours and involving wide-scale or in-depth interviews.

SHE SHE: What are your future aspirations in journalism?

Sainabou: Well, I believe I have gone far into the field but would need more training to excel. If given the opportunity I would like to pursue my masters in Sports Journalism.

SHE SHE: What can you say about women’s development generally, in sports journalism in particular?

Sainabou: I will like to see more women participation in the field of sports journalism. Because hardly do you see a female writer making it in the filed for more than 3 years. This can be related to the lack of motivation or encouragement or the difficult nature of the job.

More women should take up this profession which is mainly dominated by men in the country currently.

Training programmes should be organized for female journalists on the need for their participation in Sports writing, and to regard the field as not an all men’s affair.

SHE SHE: You are wished every bit of luck and success in your new assignment.

Sainabou: Thank you, and I also wish you the same in the important role you are playing in your Column.