By Mrs Maria Hydara

You were not only a husband but also a friend, brother and dad to all of us. We believe in Allah and that we will all die at a time He says. But to have someone like you and lose him the way you were brutally taken away from us is unbearable.

It is a year now since you left us, and it all seems like yesterday to us. The aftermath of your death is a real horror. Your killers know not what they did; they have not only deprived us , but have also left us paralysed with such shock and sorrow that we find it extremely hard to comprehend WHY! What crime could you have committed to warrant such a brutal, inhumanand barbaric killing that you met on that fateful day?

Even though we are trying to cope, this is something we find hard to bear; we just try to eat and be there for each other. You were a man who would do anything for his family, put them first no matter what. BogaJobot – a man who cares deeply for his family. For these reasons, it sometimes seems you are still with us when we pray, eat, laugh and cry.

The fact that your work has been recognized worldwide, as shown in the endless tributes received, the award given posthumously, and the support from the Gambian and the Senegalese people, friends and family, keep us going.

You dedicated your life to the paper, The Point. No wonder you got killed on the paper’s anniversary.

We are proud of you. Though you knew you were being followed usually and knew you would be killed as you would say, this never made you quit and you always reminded us: “I am a journalist and will keep the people informed at all costs, unless I die. A bittersweet memory, that is what you left behind, but no shame or regrets.

If we have to choose all over again, we will still choose you, for you were a good friend, brother, uncle, grand-dad and above all else the best husband anyone could have asked for.

May the blessing of Allah and the kindness of your heart to other people help give you eternal peace. Amen.

(The Point, Friday, 9 December 2005)

(Reprinted with kind permission)

Suma is a Wollof word meaning my.

Karara is a praise name for a member of the Hydara clan.