Dear Friends,
 
Below is a chapter from my small book, Angry Laughter. It is a parody of Sir Dawda's announcement at a PPP Congress in Mansa Konko at one point that he was planning on retirement from government. Loony the fox had barely started sneaking a greedy glance at the throne when this episode took place.
 
Baba
 
 
What Talkmuch Dolittle failed to see and how he administered a historic test of loyalty
 
Meanwhile, Talkmuch Dolittle nonchalantly ruled on. As the years dragged by, the aging king got increasingly divorced from the realities of the ordinary animals of Smiling Forest. A thick wall of sycophants surrounded and shielded him from the realities on the ground and fed him with multi-colored layers of convenient truths about the state of the common animals. Everything, they told him, was fine and dandy and that in fact, all the animals were ecstatic about the qualities of his great leadership. Some animals, they reported, had gone so far as to erect monuments in his honor to which they paid daily homage. He was now a god, ever right, above error.
 
The reality on the ground, however, was far from rosy. Living standards were falling at an alarming rate and government corruption and redundancy were rocketing at breakneck speed. Discontent over his apparent condoning of corruption among top government officials bred ever-increasing bitterness among the lower animals. Even traditionally quiet and apolitical animals like Toothy the boar, Samo the elephant and Momba the tortoise became disenchanted with the corruption-condoning policies of Talkmuch Dolittle. The fact that top officials that stole and were found guilty of public theft were simply re-deployed to other lucrative posts within the Smiling administration greatly angered the animals. A thick cloud of resentment shrouded the bright landscape of Smiling Forest.
 
Also, Talkmuch Dolittle had grown old and increasingly senile. He had been in power for far too long. The animals wanted a change of leadership and loudly gossiped about the fabled king who developed a sweet tooth for power and forgot his duties. And in spite of the fact that Talkmuch Dolittle became aware of talk about change of leadership, thanks to the likes of Cheku the parrot and Chokie the bush fowl, he never-the-less turned a blind eye and blind ear to all such noises and convinced himself that he knew what he was doing and that all the animals could do anyway was simply talk.
 
One year, to test the loyalty of the senior members of his government, Talkmuch Dolittle declared in one of his state of the forest addresses that he was going to step down in a few months. He had, he said, served Smiling Forest long enough and it was time to pass the baton of leadership on to a new younger generation of leaders. He had no doubt, he declared, that Smiling Forest had great animals who could take on the heavy mantle of leadership from his tired shoulders.
 
While this historic announcement was greeted with applause from the majority of common animals and a few top government officials, the greatest show was put up by a number of animals who declared that they were totally opposed to any such thing as retirement for the glorious leader. This pack, led by Chokie the bush fowl, loudly wept and wailed and pulled their hair and begged the great leader never to say such a thing again. Taking the stage, Chokie the bush fowl loudly wept and called Talkmuch Dolittle father. He dropped on his knees and begged the Great God Yallah to please change the great king’s mind. 
 
Saa the snake frantically hissed and wiggled and twisted and turned and loudly wept and cried “my lord, my lord, please lord don’t go!” Jumbo the peacock, generally quiet on account of his slow mind and overly preoccupied with oiling and brushing his beautiful feathers, plunged into a stinking pool of dirt and loudly wailed and dragged himself around, eventually falling into a frightening swoon that could not fail to catch the attention of the great king himself. 
 
Cheku the parrot wept so hard that he also swooned and had to be carried off the grounds for urgent medical attention. Tan the vulture, Barr the alligator, Njogi the owl, Bahi the crow and Sinbad the lizard all loudly wept and blew their noses and pulled their hair to demonstrate their grief at the monstrous prospect of the great king’s planned retirement. The myth that only Talkmuch Dolittle was capable of ruling Smiling Forest had long been propagated in the land, but that was the first time it was so strongly expressed. It was clear that many of the animals feared change.
 
In the light of such an outburst of passion, Talkmuch Dolittle announced that well, he had no choice but to succumb to the wishes of the patriotic animals of Smiling Forest to stay on and lead them unto more power and glory. A few days later, most of the animals who wept and begged him to stay on, including Chokie the bush fowl, Saa the snake and Jumbo the peacock were given big promotions while those animals that did not cry or that applauded his planned exit were demoted, marginalized or listed in the fabled Black Book, as opponents of the great king’s infallible philosophy of Sweaty-Sweaty.
 
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