I. M. Garba-Jahumpa

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Ibrahima Momodou Garba-Jahumpa (22 November 1912 – 4 September 1994) was a Gambian trade unionist and politician who served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Health, and Minister of Finance.

Born in Bathurst (now Banjul) into a Muslim Wolof family, he started school at the Mohammedan School and later attended St. Augustine's Secondary School on a government scholarship. He worked as a clerk, then became a teacher in 1936 and taught at the Mohammedan School until 1944.

Garba-Jahumpa began his political and union work under Edward Francis Small. He was Assistant Secretary of the Rate Payers’ Association in 1935 and Secretary of the Gambia Labour Union from 1942 to 1945. He attended the World Trade Union Conference in London in 1945 and took part in the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, representing the Gambia Labour Union.

In 1946 he helped revive the Bathurst Young Muslims Society and was elected to the Bathurst Town Council, where he served for many years and became chairman (mayor) in 1959. He also worked as a tutor and headmaster in the early 1950s. In 1951 he founded the Gambia Muslim Congress and was elected to the Legislative Council, later being re-elected in 1954 and becoming Minister of Agriculture (1954–1960).

In 1959 his party merged into the Democratic Congress Alliance (DCA), and he served as the DCA’s secretary-general. He campaigned for independence, which The Gambia achieved in 1965. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1966 for Bathurst South. In March 1968 he left his party and joined Dawda Jawara’s People’s Progressive Party, becoming Minister of Health. He was later appointed Minister of Finance in 1972 and held that post until his defeat in 1977.

Garba-Jahumpa died in Banjul on 4 September 1994. He was the father of Bala Garba Jahumpa and the father-in-law of Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay, both involved in politics. A street in Bakau New Town is named after him.