UK-based Gambian poet and writer Sulayman Jeng has released his second and third books, The Unknown President and My Best Friend’s Daughter. The publications follow his debut novel, The Shadow of the Mansa, and continue his exploration of power, loyalty, family, and the challenges facing ordinary people in ccontemporary Africa.
Jeng was born and raised in Basse in The Gambia’s Upper River Region, worked as a teacher, and served in the Gambia Police Force before relocating to the United Kingdom. He now lives in the West Midlands, where he works as a registered manager of a children’s home in Dudley while pursuing his writing.
The Unknown President follows Sanku Jaiteh, an ordinary teacher and football organizer from Basse, who is unexpectedly chosen as an opposition party’s presidential candidate fighting a long-entrenched dictatorship. With no political wealth or powerful connections, Jaiteh is initially dismissed as an inexperienced outsider. His humility, sincerity, and close ties to ordinary citizens gradually turn his unlikely candidacy into a nationwide movement.
Set against political repression, electoral manipulation, and a divided opposition, the novel traces Jaiteh’s path from obscurity to the presidency and the even greater difficulties he faces once in office—corruption, institutional weaknesses, betrayal, and the tension between personal principles and the demands of power.
My Best Friend’s Daughter examines the strains on a decades-long friendship between Saloum Colley and Sulayman Jarju. The two men, who grew up together in The Gambia, studied in England, and built successful businesses, regard themselves as brothers. Their bond is tested when Jarju begins a romantic relationship with Colley’s adult daughter, Kodou, after she returns from London and Colley takes her on as his mentee. Despite their age difference and the close ties between the families, the relationship raises difficult questions about loyalty, parental authority, social expectations, and adults’ right to choose their own paths. Set in contemporary The Gambia, the novel explores love, family honor, generational differences, tradition, and the struggle to reconcile personal happiness with familial and societal obligations.
Together, the two novels reflect Jeng’s interest in the moral complexities of leadership and the tensions that arise when personal relationships collide with larger social forces. Through both works, the author examines how ordinary individuals navigate power, loyalty, and the competing demands of private and public life.
