Ebrima Touray
Ebrima Touray was born in the early 1970s in Gambia. He is one of twenty children and as the eldest male, he remains head of his family from a distance. He grew up in a rural environment and then after high school his desire to travel became a reality going first to Belgium, England and Czech Republic (where he had to learn Czech). This was followed by a brief stint in the Republic of Ireland before settling in Hull in 2000. Ebrima recalls meeting his wife in LA’s Nightclub, settling and having a family of four boys born and brought up in the city.
|
To go to the written transcription click on the box below
Transcription: Ebrima Touray Interview
Interview with Ebrima Touray
Interviewer: Jerome Whittingham
Date: 20 September 2016
JW: So first and foremost then can you introduce yourself to, to the listeners?
ET: Yeah. My name is Ebrahim Touray, originally from West Africa, Gambia.
JW: So, born in what year?
ET: I was born on 15 September 1972 in Gambia, in a village called Kinteh Kunda.
JW: Right. You told us the very date, 15 January. You’ll be expecting birthday cards, won’t you friend?
So tell me about your childhood. What was the place like where you grew up? How big’s your family? What friends did you have? That sort of thing.
ET: Well in Gambia - I have come from a very large family, because we are about, altogether, nearly twenty with the sisters and brothers. I have about, a few brothers. I have about… I am the elder brother, I’m the elder male in the family and in Africa originally it’s the father, the older person is the next of skin [sic] of everybody. If the father die, the next of skin [sic] is the elder boy, who takes over the, the family the compound. So I have about, nearly five younger brothers below me... Yeah.
JW: How much responsibility for their upbringing did you have then?
ET: I, when my dad, my dad died 2004, April. Since then I took over all my younger brothers, their school fees and other and the family. Everything about their food, everything. All by me. Yeah.
JW: So tell me about – the village or town where you grew up. What was that like?
ET: Yeah, It was a little village, Kinteh Kunda is historically, if you go back to, like, colonial era it was the second place, the colonies, the British people built a school in. Our school is the second school in the whole of the country, in Gambia, yeah. It is the oldest one, and – you have a lot of people from our village who went to school, anyway, because they have the opportunity because some people will have to travel miles to come to school over there.
JW: Yeah.
ET: Yeah. But presently – lots of surroundings have their schools anyway.
JW: So what was school like? Were you a bright kid?
ET: - Well I was alright. When I was young I wasn’t very this thing…about school. Because my dad, my father, didn’t go to school. Because my father was a… He only read the Koran – the Koran and things like that, and with reading the Koran you can have, you can cure people who were ill and other things, so many areas on that department [sic]…
JW: OK
ET: Which he did. But we didn’t do that because he sent everybody to school.
JW: So was faith a real part of your childhood?
ET: Yes.
JW: Yeah.
ET: Yes - ‘cos as well because my dad was there, but not any of us who follow his footstep, anyway, because we all went to school. Even though some of us don’t like school but he had to force everyone to go to school, because he didn’t go. His parents sent him to learn Koran and that, and so he knows that side and he helped a lot of people and they paid him while he was working for them as well. That’s why he bring all his family into…
JW: Would he have been – responsible for children’s education in the village if the school hadn’t been built?
ET: Well, yes. If there is no school there that means he had to send people far away to go to school, which the next one will have been about two mile to go to school, anyway.
JW: Yeah.
EY: Well, after that primary school some of us went to secondary school which is two miles off so you have to walk to go to school every day, but luckily for me I went to high school, so, it takes a long time but I got there. So I went into the capital and went to the high school over there -did my education over there.
JW: So when you were a very little boy, what were your aims in life? What were you wanting to be?
ET: Well, when I was a young man I want to be a rich man all the time, that’s what I thought. It’s not easy. When I grew up, I saw, I found that when I grew up. But in Gambia when we’re just kids – we don’t have all that television and other things. We create all the childhood things by ourselves. We make toy cars by our own hands. We make everything by ourselves anyway. So, and a lot of us, when you are young, you know when you go for, to take your parents’ cattle or sheep in the rainy season we go for that one, in the rainy season we go farming. Like crops like peanuts, and then help their mothers in the rice field, because we grow all our rice ourselves, and the peanuts us we grow them ourselves. At the end of the harvesting time, like, November, in the middle of November something like, so you go and put the peanuts all together and just separate the peanut and put them in the bags, and then go and sell them, and then you can run their family about, -some people that’s where they run their farm
JW: Would you describe that as a really tough, hardworking childhood?
ET: Yes, because you’ve got no choice. You have to do that because all your other mates, are as well. Because in Gambia you have two seasons, the dry season and the rainy season. So dry season is when kids can play about, but in the rainy season that’s where everybody goes to the farm. So you get up in the morning, you go to the farm to work, and, when that’s finished, when the rice are starting to get ready the birds go there and destroy the fields so the kids go over there to watch that for their parents as well. So more or less you work beside your parents most of your life before you finish school. Yeah.
JW: So you said your dream was to grow up to be a rich man. – How did you hope to achieve those riches?
ET: Well, when I grew up I felt found that it was just a dream, it was really hard. You’ve got to work really hard to get to that point. But, which I still trying. I’m not there yet, but still trying. But, when I was in high school, after I finished high school all my dreams changed a little bit because I wanted to travel
But - being the elder child so my dad is not very much rich, but a little bit, alright. So he said “OK, if you want to travel, whenever you want to go, I’ll support you, but I can’t do it all the time. You’ll have to choose, and then what I give you, that’s it. And so I have to help the other ones as well”. So I said “That’s fine” So my first travel was, I went to Belgium and that was 1990 when I went to Belgium to see one of my uncles in Antwerp. Then I went over there I stayed six month and came back. Then while I was in Belgium I was working, so my uncle was also giving me a few money, then I went back home. And, my dad said “What do you want to do?” and I said “I don’t know yet, but I think I want to travel again, but I’ll find out myself.” Then I went and look for a work in Gambia then one of my village brothers gave me a job as a summary clerk, you know, selling peanuts to the farms. So I did that for three months, selling there, so I make a bit of money there. So I add it to my money that was in Belgium, and - I kept that in the bank and forgot about it. ’95 October, I think October or August I came to England and I was living in Slough back then, I was in Slough, until, for two years.
JW: How come you ended up in Slough?
ET: Because when I came one of my friends lived in Slough, so I went over there.
JW: Yeah.
ET: So I was living in Slough with my friend until I stand on my two feet. By then between Gambia and England there was no visa. You only had to get an invitation, and then decide your port of entry at the airport. And then, after that, it came a few months later, they put a visa between Gambia and England. Then, I was lucky in that sense anyway. So - I stayed for two years then went back home. And I stayed for eight months and went to somewhere else. I went to Czech Republic - I went to see a friend over there as well so I was in Czech Republic for two years.
JW: -Yeah. Did they…
ET: I was working. That’s when I start secure job. I was working in a security firm, customer service in a casino called Happy Days. I was there for two years. But in Czech Republic, them years ’98 you cannot have a job in the Czech Republic until you speak the Czech language. It took me six months, but I finally managed to speak it, then I went and got work. I was working in a casino.
JW: So for…
ET: For a year and a half. Then I left, went back home again. I went back home, but while I was there I applied for a visa in Ireland, while I was in Czech Republic. So…
JW: Barriers, barriers seem to mean nothing to you.
ET: - Sometimes you find a lot of tough way while you’re going, but that’s life, you’ve got to, you’ve got to know how to deal with them at one point.
And then I went back home again for two weeks, then I went to Ireland. The Republic of Ireland. So I was in Ireland, I was there. I didn’t like it that much so I came over to Britain. I was - in London for that time, but it was too busy for me. Then I moved down here because one of my sisters lived down here. Then I stayed, I finally met my wife and then everything went, travelled no more.
JW: Right. So what’s your relationship with Africa now? Do you still feel African? Do you keep in touch? Do you ever long to go back?
ET: Well, as being the elder now, still now, they cannot do anything back home without consulting me. So I still have to make decisions in my father’s compound.
JW: Right.
ET: Anything they going to do they have to call me first. Even though my mother has to call me first before they do anything. Because, our country, the first child replace the father. So, they can’t do anything there without me, so I have to sort everything out.
JW: Does that mean at some point you'd end up back in the Gambia?
ET: Yes I think so yeah. But when I retire then I will be using half there and half here yeah. Me and the wife will do that anyway so but still now I go there every year if I can but now because I have a family get bigger it is too expensive so I go maybe every 3 or 4 years I go back. But I call my Mum every, every Sunday with this call, every Sunday I call her. If I don’t call her she will call me.
JW: So cast your mind back to the first day that you arrived in Hull. Yes, how, what were your feelings then about Hull, this city?
ET: Well, to tell you the truth when I first arrived in Hull by then the St Stephen’s wasn’t built, the bus station used to be down here. When I came because London the issues were crowdier [sic] and the first impression was when I took a taxi to go to the hotel when he told me the price I said to one of my men I said, phew this place is better because the price is to…than London you cannot afford to pay a taxi you have to walk so I said I can see myself going to live here but, it too early to say. So we came just at Christmas time, we spend the - whole Christmas - holiday period and then we went back.
Then finally decided, I told my sister I am going to move down here.
JW: How do you describe Hull to your family back in Gambia?
ET: Oh I describe since I came to Hull. Found it very - people are very nice, to me basically. Because you find a lot of people will have different views than me but my view about Hull was really good because I got everything in Hull. Yeah. Because Hull gave me everything, I got a wife, four kids so I can’t complain anything yeah.
JW: That’s good. How do you feel you’ve connected with the community in Hull, in fact can you describe what your community is?
ET: Well when I first came to Hull I was - I lived on Beverley Road while I was working in, oh no, I firstly live on - Victoria Avenue off Princes Avenue in a – on a bedsit. Then afterwards when working a little bit of money then I relocated to somewhere else on Beverley Road. So I was living on Beverley Road then when I finally met my wife I had to leave the bedsit now and move to a one bedroom house. Then I was in a one bedroom house and then my mother-in-law said OK you have to move with us so you can save money and have your own place.
Then our first Council house was on Twenty-First Avenue, we can, we moved to that area that’s where all my kids are born. And then I was in that council house for about five years and then my wife said can we buy the house and I said OK yeah we will buy the house and then we bought that house and then we was there for five years then sold the house then buy a bigger house because the family is getting bigger. And there was a two bedroom flat, house then we convert loft and older ones sleep over there.
But I was very lucky every neighbourhood I go I found a lot good neighbours anywhere on Twenty-First Avenue because I found one woman there she’s fantastic. I can never ask any good neighbour than that one. She helped me a lot, she helped my wife and she is a good neighbour. And then I moved to this other place as well I was very lucky I can class myself a lucky man yeah every neighbourhood I go I found it good.
JW: May I ask how you met your wife?
ET: Right. That’s very interesting. I met my wife in a nightclub called LA’s, yeah I can remember that was Friday night yeah and it was very interesting because LA’s got two floors and I came downstairs I was, I left my friends so I was downstairs so I met this girl downstairs. I said I am going up and she said oh I am going up as well because my friend is there. So I said alright. So we went up and she said this is my friend and I said oh this is my friend as well. So that was my future wife talking to my friends over there and - that’s why it got off from there.
JW: What changes have you seen in Hull since you’ve lived here?
ET: Well a lot. I didn’t - when I first came to Hull. Hull used to be - you can have a good night - you can have a good night out in Hull - you can go there’s of places where people used to come from - various areas when LA’s was open and - when the marina was also open before the council changed the marina to the flats because people used to come and a lot of B&Bs used to be full especially Bank Holidays so when I come down because I am very outgoing person … this is my sort of place to live then that was a number one priority which make me to stay.
Because I like to go to work then come back, weekends because I don’t work, I like to go out socialise with people , yeah so that’s my number one thing which I see in Hull. And - you can go out and have a good night. You don’t have to spend a lot of money even if you have no money nobody will know - whether you have or you don’t have so it’s pretty good.
JW: What of your African upbringing, your African culture have you shared with your British friends?
ET: Oh yes because since I started working at St Stephen’s, I took a few friends to Africa to see my country. Two years ago I took two of friends from work to back home I take them a lot of areas. Because Gambia has no wildlife and other things but is more or less a lot history there so you can take them to Kinteh Kunda where Kunta Kinte come from and then you can go to Fort James where all the slaves were kept before moving overseas, shipping over and a lot of different areas you can see.
JW: What were your friend’s expectations of, of Africa?
ET: Well at first because they have never been to Africa the, the judgement was is going to be very poor, and there’s going to be mud houses, mud huts, and I just left them to their own decisions I didn’t say anything I said well you will be up for a surprise because a Third World Country is poor but not everyone is poor and not in the way you putting us about. We’ll see, we’ll find out when we get there but.
Well, when we get there they seeing and they say oh yea it’s not like that they say. I say well it’s not but I say you find a lot of poverty - all basically all my friends said, they said well why is it people here are poor but still happy. I say well they think that if you don’t have that you cannot be happy. So that’s the thing, that’s the thing they couldn’t understand. Everyone they met or talked to, they are just smiling but they don’t have… I say yea well that’s how life is because they trying to change but because but they can’t do anything but that does not mean they cannot carry on their daily life.
JW: Have you noted any similarities between your community & your family back in the Gambia and life in the UK?
ET: Have I?
JW: Any similarities, I mean you just mentioned the difference between peoples attitude, any similarities do you think?
ET: Yes, some people in Hull here say - you find a lot of people who are lively. They don’t worry about what is what they don’t have but you know but that’s daily life. You cannot worry yourself about something you don’t have and you are just going to, I don’t how to say, you are just going to frustrate yourself. What you don’t have, you won’t have it. So you have to work yourself to get it but rather than not stress yourself over it.
JW: Do your children feel African in any way or are they much British Western?
ET: Yeah, my kids are both because my wife, because I am Muslim. My wife is Christian. But religion doesn’t come to our marriage anyway but my kids are Muslim. But I show them how to treat people I say treat people with respect and do unto others as others do unto you, that’s my motto and I also show them that but I also show them where I come from because I take them all the time to see, I show them my brothers, my sisters, my sister’s kids, my brother’s kids, my Mum, my step Mum.
I show them all and I show them where I grew up. I took them when we playing, where we go and what we do and what we play with. Even my kids saw one kid playing with no shoes on, he said why didn’t he have any shoes? I said well when I was young I sometimes do not put shoes on because my dad said I don’t have, I don’t pester him, I just leave him. But I said when you don’t have shoes, you pester me - he start laughing.
We make a joke about it but that’s the point, I am just trying to show them in life if you don’t have, it doesn’t mean life stop, life have to carry on so you have to work towards to get that thing. It doesn’t mean you have to stop there. That’s the way I teach them. I teach them about so many things about how African the culture is, how people, how you have to respect the elders, and other things like and how to talk to elders and the way how you are going to approach people.
JW: What are your expectations for children?
ET: They’re all very good yeah. I think I am winning but there you go. But sometimes when you have 2/3 kids not all of them will listen but I am getting there.
JW: But what about yourself, for the future cast your mind 10 /15 years ahead, will you still be in Hull?
ET: Yes, I going to be in Hull forever I think so yeah, yeah.
JW: What does it mean to you to be living in Wilberforce’s city?
ET: Well when I read about, tell I did not know anything about this, but when I read about the culture of Hull and how Hull was - becoming with the Black community and with African society and I, Hull was the whole Britain, I think Hull is number one about the black people to assist with the Black people.
If you look what the Wilberforce, William Wilberforce did for the Black people in the slave trade area and other things. I think that bring Hull to all West Africa and everywhere in the Black countries in the Africa in general.
JW: So what do you hope people will take from listening to your story and your journey?
ET: Well I think I start from a different angle and - became the other way I am, I got everything in Hull. I got a house. I got a wife. I got four boys - they all growing fine and - I think everything going pretty much fine for me the way I go, I think I dealt with people, I have a lot of friends – a lot of good people I know, and I think I am alright yeah.
JW: Ebrima it’s been really good to chat to you. Thanks for your time.
ET: No problem. You’re welcome. Thank you very much.
Interviewer: Jerome Whittingham
Date: 20 September 2016
JW: So first and foremost then can you introduce yourself to, to the listeners?
ET: Yeah. My name is Ebrahim Touray, originally from West Africa, Gambia.
JW: So, born in what year?
ET: I was born on 15 September 1972 in Gambia, in a village called Kinteh Kunda.
JW: Right. You told us the very date, 15 January. You’ll be expecting birthday cards, won’t you friend?
So tell me about your childhood. What was the place like where you grew up? How big’s your family? What friends did you have? That sort of thing.
ET: Well in Gambia - I have come from a very large family, because we are about, altogether, nearly twenty with the sisters and brothers. I have about, a few brothers. I have about… I am the elder brother, I’m the elder male in the family and in Africa originally it’s the father, the older person is the next of skin [sic] of everybody. If the father die, the next of skin [sic] is the elder boy, who takes over the, the family the compound. So I have about, nearly five younger brothers below me... Yeah.
JW: How much responsibility for their upbringing did you have then?
ET: I, when my dad, my dad died 2004, April. Since then I took over all my younger brothers, their school fees and other and the family. Everything about their food, everything. All by me. Yeah.
JW: So tell me about – the village or town where you grew up. What was that like?
ET: Yeah, It was a little village, Kinteh Kunda is historically, if you go back to, like, colonial era it was the second place, the colonies, the British people built a school in. Our school is the second school in the whole of the country, in Gambia, yeah. It is the oldest one, and – you have a lot of people from our village who went to school, anyway, because they have the opportunity because some people will have to travel miles to come to school over there.
JW: Yeah.
ET: Yeah. But presently – lots of surroundings have their schools anyway.
JW: So what was school like? Were you a bright kid?
ET: - Well I was alright. When I was young I wasn’t very this thing…about school. Because my dad, my father, didn’t go to school. Because my father was a… He only read the Koran – the Koran and things like that, and with reading the Koran you can have, you can cure people who were ill and other things, so many areas on that department [sic]…
JW: OK
ET: Which he did. But we didn’t do that because he sent everybody to school.
JW: So was faith a real part of your childhood?
ET: Yes.
JW: Yeah.
ET: Yes - ‘cos as well because my dad was there, but not any of us who follow his footstep, anyway, because we all went to school. Even though some of us don’t like school but he had to force everyone to go to school, because he didn’t go. His parents sent him to learn Koran and that, and so he knows that side and he helped a lot of people and they paid him while he was working for them as well. That’s why he bring all his family into…
JW: Would he have been – responsible for children’s education in the village if the school hadn’t been built?
ET: Well, yes. If there is no school there that means he had to send people far away to go to school, which the next one will have been about two mile to go to school, anyway.
JW: Yeah.
EY: Well, after that primary school some of us went to secondary school which is two miles off so you have to walk to go to school every day, but luckily for me I went to high school, so, it takes a long time but I got there. So I went into the capital and went to the high school over there -did my education over there.
JW: So when you were a very little boy, what were your aims in life? What were you wanting to be?
ET: Well, when I was a young man I want to be a rich man all the time, that’s what I thought. It’s not easy. When I grew up, I saw, I found that when I grew up. But in Gambia when we’re just kids – we don’t have all that television and other things. We create all the childhood things by ourselves. We make toy cars by our own hands. We make everything by ourselves anyway. So, and a lot of us, when you are young, you know when you go for, to take your parents’ cattle or sheep in the rainy season we go for that one, in the rainy season we go farming. Like crops like peanuts, and then help their mothers in the rice field, because we grow all our rice ourselves, and the peanuts us we grow them ourselves. At the end of the harvesting time, like, November, in the middle of November something like, so you go and put the peanuts all together and just separate the peanut and put them in the bags, and then go and sell them, and then you can run their family about, -some people that’s where they run their farm
JW: Would you describe that as a really tough, hardworking childhood?
ET: Yes, because you’ve got no choice. You have to do that because all your other mates, are as well. Because in Gambia you have two seasons, the dry season and the rainy season. So dry season is when kids can play about, but in the rainy season that’s where everybody goes to the farm. So you get up in the morning, you go to the farm to work, and, when that’s finished, when the rice are starting to get ready the birds go there and destroy the fields so the kids go over there to watch that for their parents as well. So more or less you work beside your parents most of your life before you finish school. Yeah.
JW: So you said your dream was to grow up to be a rich man. – How did you hope to achieve those riches?
ET: Well, when I grew up I felt found that it was just a dream, it was really hard. You’ve got to work really hard to get to that point. But, which I still trying. I’m not there yet, but still trying. But, when I was in high school, after I finished high school all my dreams changed a little bit because I wanted to travel
But - being the elder child so my dad is not very much rich, but a little bit, alright. So he said “OK, if you want to travel, whenever you want to go, I’ll support you, but I can’t do it all the time. You’ll have to choose, and then what I give you, that’s it. And so I have to help the other ones as well”. So I said “That’s fine” So my first travel was, I went to Belgium and that was 1990 when I went to Belgium to see one of my uncles in Antwerp. Then I went over there I stayed six month and came back. Then while I was in Belgium I was working, so my uncle was also giving me a few money, then I went back home. And, my dad said “What do you want to do?” and I said “I don’t know yet, but I think I want to travel again, but I’ll find out myself.” Then I went and look for a work in Gambia then one of my village brothers gave me a job as a summary clerk, you know, selling peanuts to the farms. So I did that for three months, selling there, so I make a bit of money there. So I add it to my money that was in Belgium, and - I kept that in the bank and forgot about it. ’95 October, I think October or August I came to England and I was living in Slough back then, I was in Slough, until, for two years.
JW: How come you ended up in Slough?
ET: Because when I came one of my friends lived in Slough, so I went over there.
JW: Yeah.
ET: So I was living in Slough with my friend until I stand on my two feet. By then between Gambia and England there was no visa. You only had to get an invitation, and then decide your port of entry at the airport. And then, after that, it came a few months later, they put a visa between Gambia and England. Then, I was lucky in that sense anyway. So - I stayed for two years then went back home. And I stayed for eight months and went to somewhere else. I went to Czech Republic - I went to see a friend over there as well so I was in Czech Republic for two years.
JW: -Yeah. Did they…
ET: I was working. That’s when I start secure job. I was working in a security firm, customer service in a casino called Happy Days. I was there for two years. But in Czech Republic, them years ’98 you cannot have a job in the Czech Republic until you speak the Czech language. It took me six months, but I finally managed to speak it, then I went and got work. I was working in a casino.
JW: So for…
ET: For a year and a half. Then I left, went back home again. I went back home, but while I was there I applied for a visa in Ireland, while I was in Czech Republic. So…
JW: Barriers, barriers seem to mean nothing to you.
ET: - Sometimes you find a lot of tough way while you’re going, but that’s life, you’ve got to, you’ve got to know how to deal with them at one point.
And then I went back home again for two weeks, then I went to Ireland. The Republic of Ireland. So I was in Ireland, I was there. I didn’t like it that much so I came over to Britain. I was - in London for that time, but it was too busy for me. Then I moved down here because one of my sisters lived down here. Then I stayed, I finally met my wife and then everything went, travelled no more.
JW: Right. So what’s your relationship with Africa now? Do you still feel African? Do you keep in touch? Do you ever long to go back?
ET: Well, as being the elder now, still now, they cannot do anything back home without consulting me. So I still have to make decisions in my father’s compound.
JW: Right.
ET: Anything they going to do they have to call me first. Even though my mother has to call me first before they do anything. Because, our country, the first child replace the father. So, they can’t do anything there without me, so I have to sort everything out.
JW: Does that mean at some point you'd end up back in the Gambia?
ET: Yes I think so yeah. But when I retire then I will be using half there and half here yeah. Me and the wife will do that anyway so but still now I go there every year if I can but now because I have a family get bigger it is too expensive so I go maybe every 3 or 4 years I go back. But I call my Mum every, every Sunday with this call, every Sunday I call her. If I don’t call her she will call me.
JW: So cast your mind back to the first day that you arrived in Hull. Yes, how, what were your feelings then about Hull, this city?
ET: Well, to tell you the truth when I first arrived in Hull by then the St Stephen’s wasn’t built, the bus station used to be down here. When I came because London the issues were crowdier [sic] and the first impression was when I took a taxi to go to the hotel when he told me the price I said to one of my men I said, phew this place is better because the price is to…than London you cannot afford to pay a taxi you have to walk so I said I can see myself going to live here but, it too early to say. So we came just at Christmas time, we spend the - whole Christmas - holiday period and then we went back.
Then finally decided, I told my sister I am going to move down here.
JW: How do you describe Hull to your family back in Gambia?
ET: Oh I describe since I came to Hull. Found it very - people are very nice, to me basically. Because you find a lot of people will have different views than me but my view about Hull was really good because I got everything in Hull. Yeah. Because Hull gave me everything, I got a wife, four kids so I can’t complain anything yeah.
JW: That’s good. How do you feel you’ve connected with the community in Hull, in fact can you describe what your community is?
ET: Well when I first came to Hull I was - I lived on Beverley Road while I was working in, oh no, I firstly live on - Victoria Avenue off Princes Avenue in a – on a bedsit. Then afterwards when working a little bit of money then I relocated to somewhere else on Beverley Road. So I was living on Beverley Road then when I finally met my wife I had to leave the bedsit now and move to a one bedroom house. Then I was in a one bedroom house and then my mother-in-law said OK you have to move with us so you can save money and have your own place.
Then our first Council house was on Twenty-First Avenue, we can, we moved to that area that’s where all my kids are born. And then I was in that council house for about five years and then my wife said can we buy the house and I said OK yeah we will buy the house and then we bought that house and then we was there for five years then sold the house then buy a bigger house because the family is getting bigger. And there was a two bedroom flat, house then we convert loft and older ones sleep over there.
But I was very lucky every neighbourhood I go I found a lot good neighbours anywhere on Twenty-First Avenue because I found one woman there she’s fantastic. I can never ask any good neighbour than that one. She helped me a lot, she helped my wife and she is a good neighbour. And then I moved to this other place as well I was very lucky I can class myself a lucky man yeah every neighbourhood I go I found it good.
JW: May I ask how you met your wife?
ET: Right. That’s very interesting. I met my wife in a nightclub called LA’s, yeah I can remember that was Friday night yeah and it was very interesting because LA’s got two floors and I came downstairs I was, I left my friends so I was downstairs so I met this girl downstairs. I said I am going up and she said oh I am going up as well because my friend is there. So I said alright. So we went up and she said this is my friend and I said oh this is my friend as well. So that was my future wife talking to my friends over there and - that’s why it got off from there.
JW: What changes have you seen in Hull since you’ve lived here?
ET: Well a lot. I didn’t - when I first came to Hull. Hull used to be - you can have a good night - you can have a good night out in Hull - you can go there’s of places where people used to come from - various areas when LA’s was open and - when the marina was also open before the council changed the marina to the flats because people used to come and a lot of B&Bs used to be full especially Bank Holidays so when I come down because I am very outgoing person … this is my sort of place to live then that was a number one priority which make me to stay.
Because I like to go to work then come back, weekends because I don’t work, I like to go out socialise with people , yeah so that’s my number one thing which I see in Hull. And - you can go out and have a good night. You don’t have to spend a lot of money even if you have no money nobody will know - whether you have or you don’t have so it’s pretty good.
JW: What of your African upbringing, your African culture have you shared with your British friends?
ET: Oh yes because since I started working at St Stephen’s, I took a few friends to Africa to see my country. Two years ago I took two of friends from work to back home I take them a lot of areas. Because Gambia has no wildlife and other things but is more or less a lot history there so you can take them to Kinteh Kunda where Kunta Kinte come from and then you can go to Fort James where all the slaves were kept before moving overseas, shipping over and a lot of different areas you can see.
JW: What were your friend’s expectations of, of Africa?
ET: Well at first because they have never been to Africa the, the judgement was is going to be very poor, and there’s going to be mud houses, mud huts, and I just left them to their own decisions I didn’t say anything I said well you will be up for a surprise because a Third World Country is poor but not everyone is poor and not in the way you putting us about. We’ll see, we’ll find out when we get there but.
Well, when we get there they seeing and they say oh yea it’s not like that they say. I say well it’s not but I say you find a lot of poverty - all basically all my friends said, they said well why is it people here are poor but still happy. I say well they think that if you don’t have that you cannot be happy. So that’s the thing, that’s the thing they couldn’t understand. Everyone they met or talked to, they are just smiling but they don’t have… I say yea well that’s how life is because they trying to change but because but they can’t do anything but that does not mean they cannot carry on their daily life.
JW: Have you noted any similarities between your community & your family back in the Gambia and life in the UK?
ET: Have I?
JW: Any similarities, I mean you just mentioned the difference between peoples attitude, any similarities do you think?
ET: Yes, some people in Hull here say - you find a lot of people who are lively. They don’t worry about what is what they don’t have but you know but that’s daily life. You cannot worry yourself about something you don’t have and you are just going to, I don’t how to say, you are just going to frustrate yourself. What you don’t have, you won’t have it. So you have to work yourself to get it but rather than not stress yourself over it.
JW: Do your children feel African in any way or are they much British Western?
ET: Yeah, my kids are both because my wife, because I am Muslim. My wife is Christian. But religion doesn’t come to our marriage anyway but my kids are Muslim. But I show them how to treat people I say treat people with respect and do unto others as others do unto you, that’s my motto and I also show them that but I also show them where I come from because I take them all the time to see, I show them my brothers, my sisters, my sister’s kids, my brother’s kids, my Mum, my step Mum.
I show them all and I show them where I grew up. I took them when we playing, where we go and what we do and what we play with. Even my kids saw one kid playing with no shoes on, he said why didn’t he have any shoes? I said well when I was young I sometimes do not put shoes on because my dad said I don’t have, I don’t pester him, I just leave him. But I said when you don’t have shoes, you pester me - he start laughing.
We make a joke about it but that’s the point, I am just trying to show them in life if you don’t have, it doesn’t mean life stop, life have to carry on so you have to work towards to get that thing. It doesn’t mean you have to stop there. That’s the way I teach them. I teach them about so many things about how African the culture is, how people, how you have to respect the elders, and other things like and how to talk to elders and the way how you are going to approach people.
JW: What are your expectations for children?
ET: They’re all very good yeah. I think I am winning but there you go. But sometimes when you have 2/3 kids not all of them will listen but I am getting there.
JW: But what about yourself, for the future cast your mind 10 /15 years ahead, will you still be in Hull?
ET: Yes, I going to be in Hull forever I think so yeah, yeah.
JW: What does it mean to you to be living in Wilberforce’s city?
ET: Well when I read about, tell I did not know anything about this, but when I read about the culture of Hull and how Hull was - becoming with the Black community and with African society and I, Hull was the whole Britain, I think Hull is number one about the black people to assist with the Black people.
If you look what the Wilberforce, William Wilberforce did for the Black people in the slave trade area and other things. I think that bring Hull to all West Africa and everywhere in the Black countries in the Africa in general.
JW: So what do you hope people will take from listening to your story and your journey?
ET: Well I think I start from a different angle and - became the other way I am, I got everything in Hull. I got a house. I got a wife. I got four boys - they all growing fine and - I think everything going pretty much fine for me the way I go, I think I dealt with people, I have a lot of friends – a lot of good people I know, and I think I am alright yeah.
JW: Ebrima it’s been really good to chat to you. Thanks for your time.
ET: No problem. You’re welcome. Thank you very much.