Mawdo
This is better than George Orwell's Animal Farm. This is like fiction but it is reality done with literary brilliance. Jarama ang ko Mawdo tigi
Muhammad Bai Drammeh
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On Sat, 31/12/16, Baba Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Subject: [G_L] Smiling Forest Revisited - 19
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, 31 December, 2016, 18:36
Chapter
Nineteen
How Loony admitted
defeat then insisted that
he was in fact the winner
The animals of Smiling
Forest could not believe their
ears or eyes as they listened and watched General Loony
admit defeat on national
radio and television. They held their mouths and wiped tears
of joy and shock
from their eyes as they listened and watched the fox who had
described himself as
invincible and threatened to rule them for a billion years
humbly concede
defeat and promise to retire peacefully to his home village
to become a
champion farmer. Surely, this could not be real? Surely,
this could not
possibly be happening? The animals watched and listened,
their hearts beating
like a thousand drums in their chests as the defeated Loony,
looking tired and
broken, delivered his unprecedented admission of
defeat.
“You animals have
spoken,” Loony cackled through his
horse’s mouth, revealing his large teeth. “Through you
the Great God Yallah has
spoken. I can hear the voice of the Great God Yallah saying
Loony, this is it; your
time is up. I happily submit to our will and the will of the
Great God Yallah.
I admit defeat and I will never question the decision of the
Great God Yallah or
go against the will of you, the animals of Smiling Forest. I
admit defeat
because our system is rig-proof and the best and most
transparent in the world.”
Loony let out a plaintive yelp of defeat and bared his teeth
in a futile
attempt to smile and hide his pain. He went on to say how
much he loved the
animals of Smiling Forest, how much he loved the female
animals and the young
animals in particular, because without the female animals
and the young
animals, he would have been a total failure. “I love you
all and I will even die
for you,” he whimpered, “and I thank you all for loving
me back.”
“I have been your ruler
for 22 years. But after 22 years
the Great God Yallah has finally spoken,” he cackled,
struggling to hold back his
tears. “After 22 years I am now defeated. You animals say
you want another
ruler and now you have another ruler. I am no longer your
ruler. I came 22
years ago on the sixth day of the week in the seventh month.
I go 22 years
later on the sixth day of the week in the 12th
month. 22, 22, six,
six. That means the Great God Yallah has spoken and this is
destiny and I will
never question the will of the Great God Yallah. I know that
the contest was
totally free and fair because our wrestling system is
rig-proof and no one has
ever cheated and no one can ever cheat. So I am happy to
accept defeat because
our system is open and fair and I do not want to contest the
will of the Great
God Yallah. I was thrown down before you all. And to those
of you who were in
my government, if you have no job do not cry. You can come
to my home village
and become a farmer like me because I will become a champion
farmer. It’s a mad
day.”
Loony rattled on and on
about how the Great God Yallah
had spoken and how as a total devotee and servant of the
Great God Yallah whom
alone he feared, he would never contest his defeat. The
animals could see that
Loony was severely confused. Several times he ended his
rambling rant and stood
up as if to leave only to sit back down and start rambling
again. It seemed as
if the throne was so sweet to his backside that he
couldn’t bear not to sit on it,
for just one last time, one last time.
Finally, after a long and
rambling rant, Loony’s speech
was over. At the same time, Smiling Forest erupted in the
wildest jubilations
the animals had ever seen. Large crowds of animals drove
their cars in the
streets honking their horns, doing the V for victory sign,
and shouting “down
with Loony!” at the top of their voices. Even the armed
foxes joined the
jubilations, celebrating the fall of the wicked fox that had
ruled them with an
iron fist for 22 long years. Loony was devastated to see how
happy the animals
were that he had been defeated and would no longer be their
ruler. He was
devastated to see animals climb tall buildings and rip to
pieces large posters
bearing his ugly face. He was devastated to see animals cast
his images to the
ground and dance on his face, stamping on it, wiggling their
butts and even
doing the unthinkable on his face. He was devastated to be
forced to see and
admit for the first time in 22 years that so many animals in
Smiling Forest
were sick and tired of him and were so happy to see him go.
His amazement
turned to crippling fear as word spread that the incoming
government was in
fact going to arrest and have him prosecuted for all the
horrendous crimes he
had committed over the past 22 years. Even though this was
not the official
position of the incoming government, Loony was scared out of
his wits. He was
so scared that his large tail shrunk and the hair fell off
his ears. Then
suddenly, it occurred to him that he could use this as an
excuse to insist that
the contest wasn’t fair and that he was in fact the winner
of the wrestling
contest because the referee cheated for his opponent.
Exactly one week after
accepting defeat and congratulating
the winner whom he described as the new ruler of Smiling
Forest, Loony summoned
national radio and television to his palace to announce that
he totally
rejected the outcome of the wrestling contest and that he
was no longer
stepping down because he was in fact the winner.
“Last week I told you
that I was defeated. Today I am
telling you that I was not defeated,” he thundered to the
stupefied amazement
of the animals. “Today I tell you that I totally reject
the outcome of the
contest and nullify the victory of my opponent because it
was never a victory.
My agents have done their investigations and we have found
cheating and
anomalies, and we have found that the referee cheated for my
opponent. We know
that when the dust was high and no one was looking, the
referees jumped into
the fray and pulled my legs and grabbed my neck so that my
opponent could throw
me down. I felt them pull my legs and I felt their claws on
my neck but I
thought it was just my opponent. Moreover, some of the
animals, over 300, 000 of
them were not allowed to support me. They were told the big
lie that I had already
been thrown down and there was no need for them to come. So
I am not accepting
any damn defeat and if you don’t like it you can go to
hell. I command all of
you to go right back and prepare for a new contest. I will
appoint new
God-fearing referees and I will engage my opponent again. I
am doing this because
I was cheated of my victory by referees who did not fear the
Great God Yallah
and were cheats and liars. I am never stepping down and I
will continue to rule
this forest for a billion years. I fear no one and I am
invincible. If you don’t
like it you can go to hell!”
Loony’s strange
declaration poured cold water on the
hopes and spirits of the animals. There was a universal
groan and a moan, and
shrill cries of utter disbelief at Loony’s strange action.
He had promised to
hand over power the following month, and he would be the
legitimate ruler of
Smiling Forest until that date. Now, he threatened to
continue ruling the
animals again, whether they liked it or not, and in the
process, he could bring
about violent conflict in Smiling Forest. The animals could
not help remember
Loony’s many boasts that no one could ever defeat him in
Smiling Forest and that
even if someone threw him down, he would never step down
from power because he
personally owned Smiling Forest and the lives of all the
animals of Smiling
Forest. It appeared that Loony was indeed determined to rule
them for a billion
years even if it meant violence and loss of life and limb in
Smiling Forest.
Loony followed up his threats by deploying heavily armed
foxes all over Smiling
Forest were they set up road blocks and mounted sand bags as
if in readiness
for combat. Loony expected the animals to come out in
protest so that he could
crush them all with rapid gun fire, arrest the victor and
all his team for
inciting the protests, kill or thrown them into jail and sit
calmly back to
continue ruling Smiling Forest with total impunity. But the
animals did not
come out to protest. They simply ignored the armed foxes and
went calmly about
their daily activities. And so Loony’s evil plot was
foiled and suffered a
still birth. Rather than go out to protest, the animals used
their voices like
never before to ask Loony to step down from power and to let
him know in no
uncertain terms that they were taking their forest
back.
Loony was dumbstruck to
see the very outspoken reactions
of the animals. All kinds of animal groups put out
statements condemning Loony’s
about face, rejecting his claims of victory, and asking him
to just step down
and hand over power to the winner. From student groups to
lecturers’ groups,
doctors, nurses, businesses, journalists, lawyers,
pharmacists and other
professionals, everyone came out and asked Loony to step
down. “We are sick and
tired of your callous brutality!” they shouted. “We
don’t want you anymore! Leave
us in peace! We want our forest and our lives back! Go away!
If you don’t go we
will refuse to work!” It was clear that no animal feared
Loony or his notorious
Mental Surveillance Unit, or his armed foxes anymore. The
animals had tasted
power and they were now going to make sure that Loony felt
the weight of their
muscles.
The animals of Smiling
Forest were so happy to see that everyone
in the world supported their calls for Loony to step down.
Messages of
congratulation to the winner poured in from all over the
world, from the
distant forests of the red animals and the brown animals, to
the forests of the
beard and turbaned animals whom Loony considered his closest
allies. Even Vulad
da Pudding, the callous dictator of the red forest of Rizzi
congratulated the
winner. Everyone put out statements asking Loony to respect
the will of the
animals of Smiling Forest and step down from power. The
association of
neighboring forests sent high level envoys to talk to Loony,
but Loony rejected
their appeals and mediation, declaring that no power on
earth could tell him
what to do in his personal forest. “I own this forest and
I will rule this
forest forever and no power in the world can make me change
my mind. I won the
contest. The referees were thieves and cheated for my
opponent. I must have a
re-match because I have rejected and totally annulled the
declared results of
the past contest. So let no one tell me what to do or to
step down!” he
insisted fuming at the nose and mouth.
Having failed to convince
him to step down peacefully,
the association of neighboring forests decided that they
were going to send in
an intervention force to remove Loony by force if he refused
to respect the
will of the Great God Yallah and the animals of Smiling
Forest. Their position
was supported by the universal association of world animals
and all forests
across the world. Loony remained defiant, too scared to
imagine himself as an
ordinary fox again. “I will fight courageously,
patriotically and win,” he
cackled, trembling in fear, fear of being known for the
coward he actually was.
Loony transported his own family to safety in the distant
forest of Miriki
where he owned a multi-million dollar mansion and dug his
heels in. He ordered
the armed foxes to be in a heightened state of alert, threw
off his flowing
white robes, and now prowled angrily around within the walls
of his palace in military
fatigues to demonstrate his manliness. As
the sun set on the last day of Loony’s last year in power,
the animals of
Smiling Forest remained hostage to the evil greed of the mad
fox. Across the
once peaceful Forest, families worried and prayed for peace.
They wondered just
how Loony would get out of power, for that was the only
option left to him. A
few speculated that he would negotiate his way into exile in
a distant forest.
Most animals however, believed that Loony would not go
voluntarily. They believed
that the most likely end to the saga of the mad fox in power
is that one, his
own armed foxes would forcefully grab and drag him out of
power, or two, that
the association of neighboring foxes will send in troops
that will forcefully
flush him out by either capturing him alive or shooting him
dead. Either way,
it would be good riddance for the long-oppressed animals of
Smiling Forest.
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