The Sake Academy operates in collaboration with the Oh la la Academy with support from the Center for World Indigenous Studies (https://academy.ohlalaspa.com/) located on the Senegambia Highway, Banjul, the Gambia.

The Sake Academy serves the eight indigenous nations in Gambia. The purpose of the Academy is to develop leadership, promote empowerment and entrepreneurship through capacity building. Learners receive customized training in wellness, massage, skin care, body piercing, hair styles and makeup as well as traditional entrepreneurial management. Learners are aged 16 to 35 years and nine in ten are young women who take courses delivered in native languages and “hands-on skills” Non-literate learners receive specialized coaching in best practices and effective entrepreneurship strategies common in the traditional community markets. Learners are sponsored when the Sake Academy receives $1,000 to support one young person’s annual tuition. The majority of learners are from economically-challenged communities and benefit from support for transportation and classroom supplies.

The Center for World Indigenous Studies celebrates the Sake Academy and the work of Dr. Oley Njie as evidence of activist scholarship promoting self-directed advancement of peoples in the Gambia.