Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – Gambian author and publisher Cherno Omar Barry is set to publish a new historical novel titled The Grey Beret, a literary work that revisits the 22 years of military rule under former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh and the country’s ongoing search for justice and national reckoning.
According to promotional materials for the book, the novel is built around the events of 22 July 1994, when a group of soldiers led by then 29-year-old Lieutenant Jammeh crossed Denton Bridge and overthrew the government of former President Dawda Kairaba Jawara, ending nearly three decades of civilian rule.
The novel follows the aftermath of the coup and the authoritarian system that emerged during Jammeh’s 22-year rule while also exploring the work of the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission in documenting abuses committed during the period.
The book’s central figure, Lieutenant Amadou Sow, is described as a fictional composite inspired by documented testimony presented before the TRRC, particularly that of Lieutenant Amadou Suwareh. Other characters are similarly drawn from historical records, memoirs, court proceedings, and public testimonies.
The author says the novel relies heavily on documentary sources, including more than 17,000 pages of TRRC records, the commission’s criminal liability findings, the 2021 conviction of former AFPRC member Yankuba Touray for the murder of former Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, and the 2024 conviction in Switzerland of former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko.
The materials also reference the extradition of alleged Jungler member Sanna Manjang from Senegal in late 2025, as well as published memoirs and journalism from the Jammeh era.
“The record is complete. The reckoning is not,” reads the novel’s closing line, encapsulating what the publisher describes as the book’s central concern: the gap between documenting abuses and achieving accountability.
The 280-page novel spans 30 chapters and five parts, beginning with the events surrounding the 1994 coup and ending in post-Jammeh Gambia, where prosecutions linked to TRRC findings are still ongoing.
Promotional notes describe the work as “the first novel of literary ambition to attempt the full literary record of The Gambia under military rule,” positioning it alongside major African political novels such as Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and works by writers including Aminatta Forna and Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Themes explored in the novel include dictatorship, state violence, memory, transitional justice, complicity, and the role of families and journalists during periods of repression.
The publication materials note that the novel contains references to documented killings, torture, sexual violence, the murder of journalists, the killing of West African migrants, the 2009 witch hunts, and the execution of death-row inmates in 2012, though the author says these are handled with restraint and grounded in the public record.
Barry, who is based in Brusubi, is also expected to publish a companion non-fiction work titled Behind Bars later in 2026.
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