IGWEBUIKE: African Journal of Arts and Humanities

This paper tackles the little discussed issue of interracial sexual liaisons in colonial Gambia. In the case study of Fatoo Khan, I seek to underscore how an illiterate and rustic middle age woman stole the heart (and head!) of the most powerful British colonial servant in the North Bank province of The Gambia Protectorate. I also seek to understand how this tryst was used by Fatoo to contest the colonial power structure, especially the wanton powers of the district chief of Upper Saloum, located in the Central Region of the Gambia. Contestation of power and influence was one of the ramifications of the sex scandal. From my research, I have also discovered that Fatoo?s chutzpah was dictated by culture, tradition and literacy. I seek to trace the strange career of an ordinary woman, Fatoo Khan (c.1880-1940) who lived in the Gambia protectorate at the height of British colonial rule in the 1920s. She used charm, wit and a bit of literacy and culture to wield and peddle influence in the upper echelons of the European dominated colonial state. Our character latched onto the complex Gambian culture of the extended family to develop and maintain iron cast relationship with British Divisional Commissioners, and have access to power which no woman had in colonial Gambia at this time

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