By Alhassan Darboe:
Apart from Yahya Jammeh and other prominent Gambians, few people have captured the spirit and soul of our nation like Pa Modou Bojang does Gambia. From the gardens of women gardeners in Gunjur, market women in Brikama and thousands of Gambians in diaspora, the voice of Pa Modou Bojang of “Megbe Kering” reigns.
If the source of our news and the narrator is so important today, why do so few people or journalists know so little about the man and arguably the legendary king of Gambian air waves, Pa Modou Bojang? So long after dawn and so far away before sunset, we set out to find out who the man behind the name Pa Modou Bojang. What is the substance of the name behind the man?
Pa Modou Bojang was born into a prominent family in Brikama. According to our biographer and investigator in Brikama, Pa Modou’s Father Landing Sally Bojang was among the town’s first commercial drivers. PMB is also a brother to award winning Gambian journalist and editor of the chronicle Sheriff Bojang Jr. Our investigator speaking to people who knew PMB in Brikama revealed that Pa Modou was very stubborn and fearless as a young man and spent most of his youthful days in Casamance, Senegal which tamed his stubbornness.
Pa Modou attended Senegalese High School in Banjul and is fluent in both English and French. He also had a stint as a teacher at Kunta Kinteh Junior Secondary School in Brikama before venturing into journalism and mass communication. He worked as a freelancer and later became the manager of ‘Yiriwa FM’ the first private radio station in Brikama.
Pa Modou later left for the United Kingdom where he lived and started “mengbe Kering” until his relocation to Banjul after the downfall of Yahya Jammeh. Pa Modou is happily married with kids.
A veteran journalist and expert in social media Psychology that spoke to Gunjur Online has this to say about Pa Modou Bojang: “Pa Modou Bojang is right now the biggest and most influential journalist in the Gambia. You can put his success down to focusing on hot and controversial issues in our society. Pa Modou Bojang also speaks in Mandinka and breaks down complex news and social issues in a way market woman in Brikama and people in rural areas can understand.”
Pa Modou despite his credibility and massive following on social media has been accused of being impartial and unethical as a journalist sometimes. He has publicly called witnesses appearing before Janneh commission “liars and thieves” which according to his critics does not abide by the journalism code of impartiality in the course of reporting news to a neutral base.
A critic who spoke to this platform said: “Pa Modou is a UDP mouthpiece and very unprofessional. He gets personal and very partial and unprofessional sometimes. He sometimes shares posts of UDP social media bullies on his page which is unprofessional and unfair to thousands of his followers and those being bullied on social media.”
Whether or not the criticism or assessments of the man at the helm at ‘Mengbe Kering’ is true or not, one thing is for sure, PMB is playing a vital role in the civic education and democratization process in our country.