Edward Francis Small

Small was born in Bathurst in 1891, the son of John W. Small and Elizabeth Thomas. Thomas, a Sierra Leonean immigrant, was of the Aku people, as was John. At the time of Small's birth, Africa had already been partitioned by the 1884 Berlin Conference. Small was initially educated in The Gambia, but due to the lack of a high school, had to relocate to Freetown, Sierra Leone, for his secondary education. He attended Methodist Boys' High School in Freetown and in 1910 began teaching at a school there, moving back to Bathurst in 1915 to continue working as a teacher. == Missionary work ==

Small joined the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Bathurst. He earned the respect of the Mission people and was sent to open a mission in Balanghar, then a thriving trading town and holiday resort. He spent 18 months there, before being sent to Sukuta following a physical confrontation with a white trader over bell ringing. The Divisional Commissioner sided with the white trader in the dispute, resulting in Small's removal to Sukuta. The incident has since been described as an "imperialist maneuver [in] getting rid of an unwanted person". ==Nationalism and pan-Africanism==

Small aimed to empower the ordinary people of Gambia, especially farmers and workers. As one of the few educated Africans in the territory, he aimed to empower them with knowledge and information. He organised evening classes for village people, and founded the first nationalist newspaper in the country. He used this to reach his followers even when in exile in Senegal. He founded the Gambia Native Defense Union (GNDU) alongside other Akus. He also founded The Gambia Farmer's Cooperative Association in 1917, and the Bathurst Trade Union in 1929. He attended a conference in Accra, the Gold Coast, in 1920, delivering a speech on the right of West Africans to self-rule. The result of the conference was the formation of the National Congress of British West Africa, and Small set up the Gambian branch on his return. It was one of the earlier newspapers with a Pan-African/Senegambian philosophy. In 1929, his trade union organised the country's first strike. His slogan for much of his campaigning was "no taxation without representation". In the 1930s Small founded in the Rate Payers' Association (RPA), which was effectively the country's first political party and dominated local politics in Bathurst. The RPA won all six seats on the municipal council open to African candidates in the 1936 elections. In June 1931, Small took his mission to Dakar accompanied by his secretary Boubakar Secka. Senegal at the time, had a growing interest in communism and pan-Africanism. with ties to the French League against Colonial Oppression; Fofana Coulibaly, a former teacher from French Guinea with extremist ideology and anti-French sentiments; and Raphael Mensah, a man "on a list of individuals suspected of being sympathizers of the revolutionary movement." Small also had links with English-speaking blacks including William Winston, one of the people involved in the Garveyist incidents of 1922. Alongside Ibrahim Muhammadu Garba-Jahumpa, Small attended the 1945 World Trade Union Conference in London, England. == Legacy ==

Small's trade unionism inspired Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof, who went on to organise and lead the Bread and Butter Demonstration of 1959 that paved the way for Gambian independence. ==Reference(s)==