Sengan was the most popular youth in the village. He organized most of
the social and sport activities. He was not athlectic but had very good looks.
The young girls in the village found him very attractive. They all competed
for his attention and at one point he had up to three girl friends. The
funniest thing, though, was that all the girls knew each other and were friends.
Sengan saw the girls only when they met in the dusty and sandy streets of the
village, or at the social and sport events organized by the youths. Sengan had no
intimate relations with the girls. The love escapades and amorous encounters,
the touching and groping, the hugging and kissing took place only in the dark
and in shadowy street corners; and in the outskirts of the village behind
trees and tall grasses.

       Sengan was enthused when he found out that Musukuta was secretly in
love with him. Musukuta was the most beautiful girl in the village. She was
indifferent to the attention she generated and sometimes stood aloof. While most
of the girls were eager to court friendship with the boys, Musukuta was
deliberate in her choices. She went after the most popular youth in the village. At
the village stream all the girls would gather around her, and they seek her
approval to either respond or ignore an expressed interest from a boy. The boys
directed their favors to her if they wanted to court any girl.

        Many a time as Sengan trudged in and out of Musukuta's compound to
meet Ma Binta, her mother, who was the president of women's garden project that
he founded, Musukuta always exchanged curious but exciting looks with him.
They developed a mutual interest for each other. They became close friends. When
Musukuta passed that neatly folded piece of paper to him at the village
stream, Sengan became more bold and assertive in expressing his love to her.

        Musukuta seldom visited Sengan at his house. They always met outside
her compound in the evening, and sometimes they took a long walk to the
village stream. One evening, as the clouds gathered and the thunder roared, Sengan
lured Musukuta to his bedroom. As first she was scared and appeared fidgety.
She would not sit on his bed. Sengan stood with her at a corner in the room; he
kissed and fondled her passionately. Musukuta repeatedly pleaded with him to
stop, and with a very strong resolved she gently pushed him away.

      "I have to leave. Take me home now," she said.

      Without saying a word, Sengan led her outside the room and into the
dark and cloudy night. They kept quiet on the short walk to her house, and at the
verandah of the house he lightly kissed her on the cheek. Musukuta slowly
turned her head around and mischievously looked at him. With a long grin on her
face, she smiled.

       "You know Satan almost overcome you tonight. What would have happened
if you..." She didn't complete the question.

       Without thinking hard, Sengan said:

        "I will marry you."

         "I know that is what you will say." Musukuta planted a big kiss on
his lips and dissappeared into the house.


                                                        *



      Sengan was so excited with the proposed night dance at the Mangoro
house. This was another opportunity to meet and cuddle with Musukuta the whole
night long. The night dances had become quite frequent, and most of the time were
organized at the spur of the moment. When Lang Kinteh, the prominent taxi
driver at Kinteh Kunda bought a record turntable, the youths turned to him
whenever they wanted to organize a dance. Sometimes it took a lot of coaxing before
Lang would part with his record turntable. Besides displacing the small group
who gathered at Lang's sparse living room each and every night, and soulfully
listened to the Mbembia Jazz band records, Lang's turntable was very, very
close to his heart.

       The Mangoro house, the decrepit mud building in that compound
clustered with mango trees at the outskirts of the village, became the rendezvous for
the night dance.

        "Make sure that when you bring back the turntable that nothing is
wrong with it," Lang said.

        "It is under my responsibility, Lang," Sengan said. "Be rest assured
that I will bring it back in the same condition that you are giving it to us."

       "All right! all right! get out of my sight you naughty boys," Lang
said. He dismissed the sweet-talking group who came to borrow his turntable.
Sengan clutched the record turntable under his armpit and headed to the Mangoro
house.

      At the Mangoro house all inhibitions were let loose. The house was
illuminated with candles and hurricane lamps. The dancing room was lit with
candles. When a soul record was played, the candles were easily snuffed out and the
room set in complete darkness. This was the highlight of the night. Sengan and
Musukuta were at a corner in the room, tightly locked in each other's arms,
as the soothing voice of Marvin Gaye lulled them to sleep. Their eyes were
closed. At the first crow of the cock, Sengan sneaked Musukuta back into her house
before her father woke up and realized that she was not at home.

       The night dances at the Mangoro house were the monotonous routine to
which the youths engaged their boring love relationships. This was all they
had. Everything changed when Maimuna moved to the village from Banjul.


                                                       *


       With her short mini skirts, her snake-like sexy eyes and bleached
light skin, Maimuna was an instant attraction to the spellbound eyes of the
youths. With her carefree attitude and flare for the outrageous, Maimuna entered the
village scene with a storm. She dazzled the youths with her beauty and she
provocated the attention of the elder folks in her sleazy dresses as she walked
past them at the Bantaba. Everybody was talking about her. She brought to the
village a level of sophistication that was previously unknown. One after the
other, she wide opened the eyes of the young virtuous village girls. Maimuna
introduced them to their first serious love relations. She also brought with her
a coterie of flamboyant young men from the city who invaded the sleepy
village like locust on a corn field.

       Maimuna's compound was now the meeting place for all the young girls
in the village. It was at her compound that the trendy young men from the city
started to date with the village girls. Soon the girls started to explore life
outside the village. They went with their new boyfriends to visit nightclubs
and other night spots in the city. The village youths were very angry and
treated the girls with utter contempt. The night dances at the Mangoro house
became a thing of the past; the village girls shunned all invitations to grace such
dances with their presence. The youths became spectators who watched
helplessly, as the girls they wrestled and kissed and fondled at the village stream,
engaged in steamy love affairs with strangers.

      It was at Maimuna's compound, and with her constant nudgings, that
Musukuta became enamored with this handsome young man with the dreadlocks. His
name was Babs.

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