RETURN OF AN ANGRY COBRA
By Baba Galleh Jallow


Our entire village was thrown into a dizzying frenzy of excitement. The
harvesting season was over and the young men had had the first few meals of
the new millet. Their sinews had been charged with renewed energy and vigour
and they could not wait to flex their muscles at the wrestling ring. They
cherished the opportunity to display their lagga dancing skills in front of
the village beauties and the beauties coming to watch from neighbouring
villages. This was the time that many love matches were made and once a
year, a new village beauty was named.
The wrestling arena had already been cleared on hard ground at the outskirts
of the village and a date set for the first bout when the news broke out:
Korr Yandeh, our village chief, had thrown out an open challenge to the
young men both in our village and surrounding villages. He had, he was
quoted as saying, realized that the young men now doubted his wrestling
prowess and went around bragging that they could throw him down. In his
youthful days, Korr Yandeh was a great wrestler nicknamed Nyangorr, the
cobra, on account of his fierce style of wrestling.
According to reports, the reigning village beauty, whom Korr Yandeh wanted
to make his sixth wife had told him about the bragging young men. When he
privately told the girl that he could throw any of those bragging blokes in
the ring, she had loudly laughed and clapped her hands and held her mouth
and seductively posed and rolled her eyes and asked him if he wanted to die.
Whereas Korr Yandeh, feeling angry and impatient, had immediately asked our
village crier to spread the news that he would wrestle any young man who
dared come forward on the appointed day.
Now, Korr Yandeh was a fearful guy in our little village. He was rumoured to
have not only great physical strength, but also great spiritual means. It
was said that if you made him angry, he could make one of his eyes red and
the other blue, just like a cat’s and look at you; and then that was the end
of you. It was also said that he could disappear into thin air in the face
of imminent danger and there were several stories on how he single-handedly
fought and killed man-eating lions, hyenas and tigers that used to terrorise
our village and surrounding villages.
That was long before we were born, but Korr Yandeh was still believed to be
possessed of unimaginable powers. How otherwise could he, at his age, keep
on marrying young girls at the rate of one every three years? He only had
five wives now because he had divorced so many others.
News of Korr Yandeh’s open challenge increased the excitement in our
village. Speculations abounded as to who would dare accept the feared
chief’s challenge. Many parents dissuaded their sons from venturing to
challenge the feared chief for fear that some harm could come to them. So
that as the appointed day drew near, it became increasingly unlikely that
any one would accept Korr Yandeh’s challenge. Sources close to the great
chief said the angry cobra was in very high spirits and was eager for a
challenger. He had, they said, vowed to break the back of any impudent young
man who dared to come forward. ‘An old ram does not look at the sky but
knows the position of the sun,’ he was reported as angrily warning.



_________________________________________________________________________
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------