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Subject:
From:
SUNTOU TOURAY <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:50:41 +0000
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Timely Baba. DK should have left no matter who persuade him.

--- On Tue, 26/8/08, Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Angry Laughter Revisited
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, 26 August, 2008, 11:21 PM

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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