Port Of Harlem Gambian Education Partnership

01/13/2026

Trans-Atlantic Human Trading and The Gambia’s Overflowing Significance

The European Scramble for Africa - The 1889 Agreement

Watercolor, color pencil, and ink on mixed media paper by
Hampton Olfus Jr Washington, DC USA

Coming to the Juffureh Slavery Museum | The Gambia

Funded by readers, like you: pohgep.net/donate
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Exhibition Major Donors, Consultants, and Creators

Gold ($1,000)
- Omar Ceesay and Jennaba Badgi (Peace Corp Moniker) Maryland, USA
- Maggie Louise Hearon Young (posthumously) – Indiana, USA

Ivory ($500)
- Anonymous – Maryland, USA

Beeswax ($250)
- Isabelle Williams-Brown, Washington, DC USA
- Ivan Brown, Washington, DC USA
- Bernadette Champion - Maryland, USA
- Dr. Keith W. Crawford – Washington, DC USA
- Virginia A. Farquharson – New Jersey, USA
- My Gambia, Kerr Serign, The Gambia
- Ronald Lewis, Washington, D.C. USA
- Michael Ricks – Idaho, USA
- Kathleen Trent – Texas, USA

01/05/2026

Famed Senegambian-American poet Phillis Wheatley did not explicitly describe her birthplace in her own writings. Historians infer she was born around 1753 in West Africa, likely in present-day Gambia or Senegal, based on ship manifests and contemporary accounts.

Jabel Ceesay
ߊߤߑߡߊ߬ߘ ߡ. ߛߌ߬ߛߋ߫
Methodist Special School Gambia

The U.S. Postal Service is honoring Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), the first author of African descent in the American Colonies to publish a book, with the 49th stamp in the Black

12/28/2025

12/27/2025

Happy Kwanzaa
Kujichagulia (Self-determination):

During the Sunday, March 5 opening ceremonies for the “From These Shores” ( www.pohgep.net/culture) exhibit at the Juffureh Slavery Museum, Hassoum Ceesay, Director General, National Centre for Arts and Culture in The Gambia, proclaimed, “This exhibit raises the museum’s standard to a new level.” The historical markers the exhibit crosses include Africanization, appearance, and internet presence.

In addition to calling the exhibit in the colonial language, English, the display is also titled in six local languages, Mandinka, Serer, Wollof Jola, Aku, and Fula. The exhibit is also titled in French, the colonial language of the neighboring sister nation Senegal. “For the first time, the museum’s exhibit has been decolonized,” declared Ceesay.

www.pohgep.net/donate

12/26/2025

Happy Kwanzaa. Umoja (Unity).
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

The Port Harlem Gambian Education Partnership engaged the services of ߊߤߑߡߊ߬ߘ ߡ. ߛߌ߬ߛߋ߫ to help the Baobab Youth Development Association's Women Group with the soap making as a business plan.

- Working together.... you can, too. The soap is available at the Alexandria Black History Museum. You can can make a donation now: www.pohgep.net/dnate

12/14/2025

GAMBIA WOMEN'S GROUP SOAP PROJECT MOVES FORWARD

Consultant Ahmed Ceessy meets with the Baobab Youth Development Association’s Women’s Group to gather business information that may lead to a formal business plan as he prepares to assist them move to higher heights.

With Ceessy is Oumou Jallow, Fatoumatta Bah, and three younger women they work with to create handmade soap which Port of Harlem readers, like you, purchase to donate to various non-profits in The Gambia including those incarcerated at Mile2.

(I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.)

Port of Harlem
Inclusive | Diverse | PanAfrican

P.S. If you made a donation to the group, we will be glad to send you a copy of Ceessy’s report.

10/26/2025

WHEN I KNEW WE GOT IT RIGHT - AT 72 PERCENT OF GOAL

“I thought you were White,” a Juffureh Slavery Museum employee said to me in a rather surprising tone. His comment was the first I heard as I stepped out of the car in front of the museum. 

He later explained that he based his assumptions on my name, country of origin, and his past experience with those who assisted the museum in Kunta Kinte’s home village.

His revelations affirmed why the Port of Harlem Gambian Education Partnership (POHGEP) exists and that we are doing our job.

Since 2002, POHGEP has been creating connections and fills a void as implied by a question that a Gambian friend posed to me in 2001: Why don’t I see any African-American Peace Corps workers or other African-Americans working to develop The Gambia?

My response: Your children will never be able to say that.

Our most ambitious program is well underway. The project will replace 11 panels in the museum’s slavery exhibit with 14 new colorful panels and new inclusive and diverse text aiming to tell the story of slavery from the shores of the Smiling Coast of Africa: The Gambia.

Historically, the Gambia has been so important in world history that when the British signed the 1783 Treaties of Versailles recognizing its loss of the 13 American colonies, it included a clause that reasserted British control of The Gambia.

We keep the cost of the exhibit low by, for instance, making the panels the size of a suitcase so we can save the cost of having a private shipper transport them to the peaceful country.

Donation Levels:

***Gold ($1,000)

- Anonymous – Maryland, USA

- Maggie Louise Hearon Young (posthumously) – Indiana, USA

**Ivory ($500)

*Beeswax ($250) (Four new donors)

- Isabelle Williams-Brown, Washington, DC

- Ivan Brown, Washington, DC

- Bernadette Champion - Maryland, USA

- Virginia A. Farquharson – New Jersey, USA

- Ronald Lewis, Washington, D.C.

- Michael Ricks – Idaho, USA

- Kathleen Trent – Texas, USA

We named the three donation levels after the commodities that Gambians traded with Europeans, aside from humans. Donors of $250 or more for the exhibit will have their names permanently placed on a panel in the museum.

Donations of all amounts are needed and appreciated

www.pohgep.net

10/22/2025

With a generous gift from Genell Anderson of the AMAR Group, LLC, the Women’s Group Makes Soap to Donate to NonProfits in now fully funded.

We now need only $1,875 of $6,500 to reach our overall goal.

Your donation of any amount is welcome. Abaraka (Thank you.)

www.pohgep.net/donate

10/07/2025

Thanks to the support of these Port of Harlem magazine readers, subscribers, and followers, we have met our goal of funding 15 students from The Gambia, on Africa's Smiling Coast:

Michael Ricks – Idaho – 10 Students
Ric Irick – Washington, DC – 2 Students
Virginia Farquharson – New Jersey – 2 Students
Ivan Brown – Washington, DC – 1 Student

All 15 students receive an exercise book, uniform, shoes, and school bag. Instead of buying Chinese-made uniforms, our partners, the Baobab Youth Development Association hire a local tailor.

Additionally, the funds cover grade-specific fees: study fees for 3-6 graders and a book rental fee for 10-12 graders.

One of my most memorable moments with the school programs was when we distributed approximately two suitcases of new clothes that the late Trent Tucker had donated. Out of the crowd and the chaos of children receiving new clothes, a father holding his daughter's hand came to me and said Thanks to your group for sponsoring my daughter. Louis Farrakhan sponsored me.

www.pohgep.net/donate

10/04/2025

59 Percent of the $6,500 Raised in Six Weeks

Here are ten of the fifteen Gambian Scholars for the 2025-2026 academic year. We extend a special recognition to Abastou Dem, who graduated this year, thanks to the generous financial support from POH readers like you.

www.pohgep.net/donate