Malamin Zakaria Jagana

Where His Journey Began

Malamin Zakaria Jagana was born in 1964 in Kedu Town, in the west of Sierra Leone, to his father Haj Zakaria Jagana and his mother Haja Sisi Kamara. His father worked as a gemstone trader, and it was within this family that his earliest sense of discipline and purpose began to take shape.

While still young, he was sent to live with his uncle, Haj Sheikh Hali Jagana, in the Upper River Region of The Gambia. It was there, until the age of fifteen, that he absorbed the religious and Soninke cultural values that would guide the rest of his life.

From Village Learning to Al-Azhar University

His education followed a long and deliberate path, carrying him through several countries and more than two decades of study before he began his own teaching career.

Turning Knowledge Into Leadership

On returning to The Gambia, Malamin Zakaria Jagana was appointed director of Simoudoughaty School now known as the Imam Malik Islamic Institute under the Simoudoughaty Association, a position he held for four years.

This early leadership role set the tone for a career that would combine classroom teaching with institutional responsibility, a balance he would carry through the rest of his working life.

Seven Years of Teaching and Preaching in Brooklyn

In 2000, he travelled to the United States, where he served as a teacher and preacher at the Abdur Rahman Mosque on Morris Street in Brooklyn, New York, for seven years.

This period placed him at the heart of a Gambian and West African diaspora community, where he continued his work of religious teaching and guidance far from home.

Back Home at the Imam Malik Islamic Institute

In late 2007, Malamin Zakaria Jagana returned to The Gambia and rejoined the Imam Malik Islamic Institute in Sukuta, where he has remained ever since.

There, he teaches religious and humanities subjects across the primary, middle, and secondary sections, while also serving as the institute's Director of Culture, Dawah, Guidance and Media — a role he has held since the same year.

Together, these two roles reflect the dual nature of his life's work: shaping students in the classroom, and shaping the wider cultural and religious life of the institute and its community.

Language, Administration & Outreach

His documented skills include teaching religious subjects and the Arabic language, school administration and organisational management, dawah, guidance and public speaking, and the preparation of cultural and media programmes.

He is also recognised for his ability to communicate across different cultures — a strength shaped by a life lived between Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Egypt, and the United States, and reflected in his fluency in Soninke, Arabic, English, and French.

A Journey Built on Knowledge and Service

The story of Malamin Zakaria Jagana is one of persistence — a childhood shaped across two countries, years of Qur'anic and fiqh study in village learning circles, and eleven years of formal study at one of the Islamic world's most respected universities.

That foundation has carried into decades of teaching, school leadership, preaching, and cultural guidance first in the Gambia, then in the United States, and now back home again at the Imam Malik Islamic Institute.

Through every stage, his path has reflected the words he holds closest: that knowledge is light, and that its purpose is to guide hearts and mend life.