LIFE IN OUR LITTLE TOWN – Part Two By Baba Galleh Jallow These silent ones were men and women of great wisdom and experience. However in our little town, survival, in our true sense of that word, demanded more than wisdom and experience. To be in the real swing of things and perfectly in line in our little town, you needed more brawn than brains, more muscle than experience. That was why our gentle Norpil Degalas and Fangkung Mofiseshs decided, at some sad point in time, to withdraw into the background and watch the never-ending drama in our little town with guarded interest. Once in a while, they groaned and sighed and shook their heads and sadly smiled, but otherwise remained very quiet. They were always misunderstood and no longer felt comfortable in our modern world of facts, facts and more hard undiluted facts. Then there were our great and famous intelligentsia, or in simpler jargon, the most intelligent ones of our little town. These were really the cream of the crowd, the pride of the peacock - the Liontalk Rathearts and Irondo Littlemoves, the Tarpet Honhabots and Gisyeb Yotals, the Foday Tulukilings and Londiti Nungfetengs. These our special folks were not only intellectually active, but also physically robust. Often times, they could be seen in their favourite tails and ties, their hippo-hide boots, their expensive Parker pens tucked proudly in their breast pockets, marching proudly up and down, up and down, a permanent smile on their slightly slanted lips, which gave them a rather frightening air of sophistication. This most popular group in our little town had all it took to be what they was. Young and smart and more than highly educated, they were the dream of every rising youngster and the scourge of every arrogant boaster. Arrogant alien boasters who came to our little town trying to show off their intellectual prowess were abruptly put in their places by these our highly learned folks. One statement or question and such boastful pseudo-scholars are left gaping and confused, gasping for breath and looking for an escape route. They could make our little town as uncomfortable as a blazing oven for any conceited boaster who came to our little town pretending to be master of some field of knowledge or the other. Such was the weight of their academic bazookas!!! The favourite past time of these our gentle learned folks was academic work and debate, reading and writing and complex analyses of subjects ranging for the advanced principles of sight-seeing to such simple (for them) subjects as parrotry, rabbitry and hostile gnashing and the principles of friendly cooing. Our common townsfolk never tired of hearing these sophisticated members of our little community expound their juicy theories, propound new ones, or dismantle some seemingly difficult theorem or other. Last but by no means the least, there were, in our little town, our sophisticated group of smarties. These were the Largehead Chickenbrains, the Big-Eye Littlesights, the Reyjef Tutihams, Kumaba Londitangs and Hamhami Mbedas, who claimed to be conversant with each and every topic on the face of the earth, even though they may not have been schooled in any particular field of knowledge. Quick to learn and quick to assimilate, they were also quick to read and quick to write. Quick to see just what was wrong and what was right in every move and step, every word and sigh within the four corners of our little town. That was why they were so greatly loved and honoured and considered special celebrities in our little town. That was why they were dubbed the ‘Proper Ones’, for truly speaking, no one could challenge them in the difficult art of telling right from wrong and in mapping out specific routes and patterns that must be strictly followed by the less endowed folks of our little town. To distinguish themselves from the less endowed of our common townsfolk, these our prominent word-bags and airy folks always wore their coats inside-out and would not run from either sun or rain. So that even if a mighty rainstorm found them walking at a certain pace, they would neither hasten their pace nor run for shelter. They dared the very elements themselves! They were the never-say-nevers, the gallant Bravehearts of our little town!!! _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------