Essa S. Colley was born in 1962 in The Gambia. Upon completion of his secondary schooling in Sierra Leone, he worked briefly in The Gambia before travelling extensively in Europe as an artist. He holds a degree from the Arts Academy of Helsinki University, in Finland where he is presently residing. His only known book is entitled If I Am Right Or Wrong.

If I Am Right Or Wrong, published in 1993, is a short novel of 54 pages printed in UK with the author bearing all costs. The narrator Buka, locked up in prison for murder, takes the reader through an adventurous narration beginning from the time he knew Bob up to the time he murdered him in self defence. From his childhood in The Gambia to his professional days in Sierra Leone, he was bullied and tormented by the victim.