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Sheriff Mustapha Dibba

Gambian politician (1937–2008)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ2278295 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sheriff Mustapha Dibba (10 January 1937 – 2 June 2008) was a Gambian politician who was the 1st Vice-President of the Gambia from 1970 to 1972 and the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Gambia from 2002 to 2006. He was also the founding leader of the National Convention Party (NCP).

Early life and education

Dibba was the son of Mustapha Dibba, a Mandinka chief and farmer. His father would later become the district chief of Central Baddibu in 1967. He was born in Salikene, Central Baddibu in January 1937.

Dibba was educated at Armitage High School and then at the Methodist Boys High School in Bathurst from 1955 to 1957. He briefly worked as a clerk for the United Africa Company before resigning in 1959 to work for the recently formed People's Progressive Party (PPP). He organized the party's youth wing and was elected to the House of Representatives as representative for the Central Baddibu constituency in the 1962 election. After the 1966 elections, he was appointed Minister of Works and Communications and replaced Sheriff Sisay as Minister of Finance of the Gambia in December 1967.

Vice presidency (1970–1972)

When Gambia became a republic after the 1970 referendum, Dibba was appointed as the Gambia's first vice president and continued to serve as finance minister.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sheriff Mustapha Dibba” is gambian politician (1937–2008). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sheriff, Mustapha and Dibba, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 2008, 1970, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1937-01-10. For this dossier, Sheriff, Mustapha and Dibba is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “gambian politician (1937–2008)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2278295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937, 2008, 1970 and 1972.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sheriff Mustapha Dibba”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sheriff Mustapha Dibba primary sources, Sheriff Mustapha Dibba archive and Sheriff research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sheriff Mustapha Dibba”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sheriff Mustapha Dibba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.