Gbanabom Hallowell was a Sierra Leonean writer, journalist and professor. Born Elvis Jacob Hallowell in 1965, he got his first degree from the Milton Margai Teachers College (now Milton Margai College of Education), where he studied English. He later went on to Vermont College of The Union Institute & University in the USA, where he got his MFA in Writing. He published Drumbeats of War; A Little After Dawn; My Immigrant Blood; and Manscape in the Sierra: New and Collected Poems 1991-2011, among other poetry collections. He also published many plays and novels, including A Case of Four Pillows and The Road to Kaibara. Professor Hallowell also briefly served as Sierra Leone’s Direct General of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation.
He was truly one of Sierra Leone’s literary heroes and served as a mentor to many writers and journalists. His death was announced on September 20th and we are thankful to these writers who shared their tributes to him with us.
Philip Foday Yamba Thulla, (PhD) Director, Institute of Languages & Cultural Studies (INSLACS), Njala University.
Late Dr Gbanabom Hallowell led an accomplished life, guiding many in the art of writing. His 'The Dining Table' still lingers in the minds of pupils who read it for WASSCE. He will be sorely missed and happily reinvented by the SWF members. RIP, mentor.
Elizabeth LA. Kamara, Fourah Bay College & Sierra Leone Writers Forum
It is so hard to say goodbye to someone larger than life. It is hard to say goodbye to someone with such an overabundance of exuberance. If words could bring Prof. Gbanabom Hallowell back to life, what would we not say? What will we not write? Ah, death! You take oh!
Prof. Hallowell was one of Sierra Leone’s greatest illustrious literary minds. He was a catcher and tamer of words - he could bend, mould and stitch words into anything - into poems, plays, essays, articles, short stories, and novels. He was in love with all the genres of literature (especially poetry which first stole his heart) and published over twenty works. Even on his sick bed, he kept asking about his manuscripts. One of them, The Devil in the Mail, was published two or three months ago. His publisher and other writing community friends were planning to launch it when the greedy fingers of death snatched him.
I have known Prof. Hallowell for about 34 years now. He taught me briefly at the Annie Walsh Memorial School. I lost touch with him after that, but our paths crossed again in 2012/13 during a book launch programme, and since that time, we became a staple in each other’s life. We have worked on a few writing projects, and he was once my colleague at Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone.
Prof. Hallowell was a people person and loved nothing better than to have people and poetry around him. He also delighted in providing opportunities for his mentees and friends to write and shine.
He was one of the shoulders on which I stood and was also one of those that encouraged me to write poems and reviews. He was always eager to provide mentorship for budding writers, and his humour was contagious.
When illness struck him in 2020, we all thought he would pull through. We never knew that it would last so long or that he would never recover. Whenever we visited him, it wasn’t easy to hold back tears. It humbled us to perceive an eloquent, vocal, exuberant personality now caged by sickness. It depressed us to see Prof. Gbanabom, who had hitherto tamed words into servitude, now at the mercy of words - words that were full to the brim in his mind, and yet, he lacked the wherewithal to string them into coherent sentences. Despite this, he hardly lost his buoyancy.
On that fateful Tuesday, when I heard that his situation was critical, little did I realize that two hours later, Prof. Hallowell would dust his feet and leave this problematic world in our hands.
Ah Prof, you na bin porsin. You touched and transformed many lives. You will live on for this, for all the books you have written and for all the things you have done.
Farewell, my dear teacher, mentor, friend, and cheerleader. May your soul rest in peace.
Moses Kelvin Fembeh, Managing Editor Heroes Media Newspaper.
I first met Prof. Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell through his works in 2012, which was after I read his collection, titled: "When Sierra Leone Was A Woman” and the "Dinning Table" which the latter talks about his experiences of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Since then, I became one of his secret admirers because his artistic nature was appealing to me. Prof Gbanabom was not only a veteran journalist and a literary guru but a mentor and a friend that one can easily confide in. It was difficult for one to meet with Prof. Gbanabom without him talking about poetry to him/her. He was very much familiar with poetry to the extent that even in his conversations with people, there were some mixtures of poetry.
I first had the opportunity to meet with him face-to-face in 2014 at his office, when he was the Director General of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC). He has been a few of the nicest men I have ever met in this literary journey. He was very approachable and had a sense of humour and very accommodating.
He was a member of the Sierra Leonean Writers Forum, a Forum he created with the sole aim of promoting writing and a platform for writers to meet, write and discuss national issues. I had the opportunity again to meet with him in person at his former Congo Water, Wellington residence in 2019, during the fifth memorial service for his late father Rev. Jacob Hallowell. It was there he introduced me to some of his family members like Mr. Prince Hallowell and others whose faces I could not remember and since then our relationship continued till his death on the 20 September 2022 at 7:39 p.m. in the presence of his niece, nephew (Alieu) & I. We started Prof's health challenge and we sadly ended up in tears.
Prof. Gbanabom Hallowell was offered a lecturing position at Tubman University in Liberia where the university gave him the title of Associate Professor of Literature and Drama. He got his appointment letter from the University in January 2020 and before his departure to Monrovia in February, of that same year, to take up his new assignment, I was the one he contacted to check for him for a ticket price and I did. I sent him the update, a few days later he messaged the Sierra Leone Writers Forum that he was travelling to Liberia and we joyfully bided him farewell and today we bid him farewell in tears.
Before his death, He continued to send more poems and updates about his new environment in Liberia. By July 2020 he stopped sending in poems and essays to the Sierra Leone Writers' forum but most of us thought that he was too busy with academic workloads, little did we know about his health condition at the time. By September of that same year, he was sent back home to seek medical attention.
However, the message of his illness was told by Mrs. Elizabeth Kamara, Mr. Mohamed Sheriff & Mr. Oumar Farouk Sesay and a few others. When Prof. arrived in Freetown in September 2020, Mrs. Elizabeth Kamara author of "Stolen Laughter” told me to accompany her to pay a visit to Prof. Hallowell.
By January 2021 there was a committee was set up, including the following people: Prof. Osman Sankoh popularly known as Mallam O, Mr. Mohamed Sheriff, Mr. Oumar Farouk Sesay, Mr. Samuel Kargbo Esq, Ms. Samuella Conteh, Mrs. Annie Barrie, Prof. Patrick Muana, Dr. Abdullai Wallon Jalloh Mr. Ambrose Massaquoi, .Mr. Mohamed Gibril Sesay, Rev. Moses Kainwo and I as an intermediary between the association (SWF) and the family. The committee continued to be supportive throughout the late man's illnesses.
Prof. Osman Sankoh directed us to take the late man to Dr. Dan Yokey at Connaught hospital but since Doctor Dan had a stroke project for people suffering from strokes, he referred us to Dr. Thompson. Prof started treatment with Dr. Melvina Thompson in January 2021 and she (Dr. Melvina Thompson) referred us to Choithram hospital for X-rays and the results were out but with little favourable interpretation.
Later when the writers' association was planning to take another dimension, a special therapist in Ghana Dr Patrick Bankah advised that we do an MRI of the brain test in Freetown. We went to EcoMed where the MRI test was done and Dr. Bankah ordered the MRI test results to be sent to Ghana, which we did as directed. It was truly unbelievable when Alieu and the young woman who happened to be Prof's., niece called me and said "Moses cam see Doc e done die, Doc done die." Since I was a bit sceptical about it, I said to them "NO, he is not dead, let's give him some time." Yet, I didn't believe it and I had to tell Alieu to stop calling family members but it was not too long before we had to call an experienced person from the neighbourhood to testify to us about Prof.’s health and the response from the neighbour was "let thy will be done".
Indeed Prof., let thy will be done, as you joined your ancestors rest assured that your impartation and the great books you left behind, shall live after you.
And to you, our established writers, both home and abroad and young aspiring writers, hold your pen tightly for it shall live after you.
Our literary guru is gone. Prof. Hallowell, sleep on, sleep on, our dear beloved HERO; take your rest.
May his soul Rest In Peace and may his legacy live on.