Mariama Khan

Mariama Khan (born 1977) is a Gambian filmmaker, poet, cultural activist and scholar. She teaches African history and civilization at Lehman College in New York.[1]

Life

Mariama Khan was born in 1977[2] to a Senegalese father and a Gambian mother. She grew up in Brikama New Town in the Kombo Central district of The Gambia.[1]

Khan started making short documentary films as a student of Henry Felt at Brandeis University. She made several documentaries in 2008-9. Sutura won a UNFPA award,[1] and The Journey Up The Hill was premiered at Cinekambiya International Film Festival in 2016.[3]

In the Gambia, Khan worked as deputy director of the Policy Analysis Unit in the Office of the President. President Yahya Jammeh appointed her secretary-general of Gambia's civil service in 2010, though the appointment only lasted a few months. She was then appointed permanent secretary at the Personnel Management Office.[2]

In 2018 she wrote a public letter to President Adama Barrow, in defence of Musa Batty,[4] one of five police officers charged with murder after the deaths of three young protestors at an anti-pollution rally in Faraba Banta.[5]

Books
  • Futa Toro: poetry, 2003
  • (with Bamba Khan) Juffureh : kissing you with hurting lips : poetry, 2004
  • (With Bamba Khan) Proverbs of the SeneGambia

Films
  • Sutura: Rape and Justice in Senegal
  • The Journey Up The Hill.

References
  1. Beti Ellerson, Mariama Khan, filmmaker, poet, cultural activist, scholar: Reflections on cinema culture in The Gambia, African Women in Cinema Blog, 20 July 2018.
  2. Saine, Abdoulaye S. (2012). Culture and Customs of Gambia. ABC-CLIO. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-313-35911-8.
  3. "Mariama Khan's THE JOURNEY UP THE HILL to be premiered at Cinekambiya International Film Festival". What's On Gambia. 4 May 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  4. Mariama Khan, Gambia: Open Letter to President Barrow - Do Not Frame UP ASP Musa Batty, Release Him and Get the True Killers, Freedom Newspaper, 20 June 2018
  5. Five Gambia police charged with activists' murders, news24, 29 June 2018.
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