SWEAT IS INVISIBLE IN THE RAIN
Sweat is Invisible in the Rain is a memoir of living in two homes, one on either side of the Atlantic. Cherno Njie describes his childhood and youth in Banjul, the capital of the small African country of The Gambia, and his later life after moving to the United States in the 1980s to earn his university degree. The Njie family compound was an idyllic home: brothers and sisters, uncles and aunties, friends and strangers. Cherno tells how he carried the memories of his home and the lessons of his mother and father to Austin, Texas, where he studied at the University of Texas at Austin. His life and successful career in Texas, though far from Gambia, was nevertheless rooted in that country. After the Gambian elections of 2011, which long-standing president Yahya Jammeh allegedly won, he explains his growing resolve at the time to contribute to Jammeh’s defeat. This came to a head when he participated in a coup plot that failed on December 30th, 2014. Njie gives his side of the story, his account of the coup, and what has since happened. Though Sweat is Invisible in the Rain is a story of two homes, it is a story of one life. Cherno Njie is an Austin-based real estate developer, investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He was born in Banjul, The Gambia when the city was still called Bathurst. After growing up and working in The Gambia, he moved to Texas for his university education and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Afterward, he began his now twenty-five-year career both as a state official at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and in the private sector as President of Songhai Development Company. In 2014 he was involved in the failed attempt to depose then Gambian President Yahya Jammeh. Upon his return to the United States, he was arrested and convicted of violating the Neutrality Act of 1794. He now lives freely in Austin with his wife and children.
