Mawdo

This is better than George Orwell's Animal Farm. This is like fiction but it is reality done with literary brilliance. Jarama ang ko Mawdo tigi


Muhammad Bai Drammeh

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On Sat, 31/12/16, Baba Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

 Subject: [G_L] Smiling Forest Revisited - 19
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Date: Saturday, 31 December, 2016, 18:36
 
 
 
 Chapter
 Nineteen
 
 
 How Loony admitted
 defeat then insisted that
 he was in fact the winner
 
 
 The animals of Smiling
 Forest could not believe their
 ears or eyes as they listened and watched General Loony
 admit defeat on national
 radio and television. They held their mouths and wiped tears
 of joy and shock
 from their eyes as they listened and watched the fox who had
 described himself as
 invincible and threatened to rule them for a billion years
 humbly concede
 defeat and promise to retire peacefully to his home village
 to become a
 champion farmer. Surely, this could not be real? Surely,
 this could not
 possibly be happening? The animals watched and listened,
 their hearts beating
 like a thousand drums in their chests as the defeated Loony,
 looking tired and
 broken, delivered his unprecedented admission of
 defeat.
 
 
 “You animals have
 spoken,” Loony cackled through his
 horse’s mouth, revealing his large teeth. “Through you
 the Great God Yallah has
 spoken. I can hear the voice of the Great God Yallah saying
 Loony, this is it; your
 time is up. I happily submit to our will and the will of the
 Great God Yallah.
 I admit defeat and I will never question the decision of the
 Great God Yallah or
 go against the will of you, the animals of Smiling Forest. I
 admit defeat
 because our system is rig-proof and the best and most
 transparent in the world.”
 Loony let out a plaintive yelp of defeat and bared his teeth
 in a futile
 attempt to smile and hide his pain. He went on to say how
 much he loved the
 animals of Smiling Forest, how much he loved the female
 animals and the young
 animals in particular, because without the female animals
 and the young
 animals, he would have been a total failure. “I love you
 all and I will even die
 for you,” he whimpered, “and I thank you all for loving
 me back.”
 
 
 “I have been your ruler
 for 22 years. But after 22 years
 the Great God Yallah has finally spoken,” he cackled,
 struggling to hold back his
 tears. “After 22 years I am now defeated. You animals say
 you want another
 ruler and now you have another ruler. I am no longer your
 ruler. I came 22
 years ago on the sixth day of the week in the seventh month.
 I go 22 years
 later on the sixth day of the week in the 12th
 month. 22, 22, six,
 six. That means the Great God Yallah has spoken and this is
 destiny and I will
 never question the will of the Great God Yallah. I know that
 the contest was
 totally free and fair because our wrestling system is
 rig-proof and no one has
 ever cheated and no one can ever cheat. So I am happy to
 accept defeat because
 our system is open and fair and I do not want to contest the
 will of the Great
 God Yallah. I was thrown down before you all. And to those
 of you who were in
 my government, if you have no job do not cry. You can come
 to my home village
 and become a farmer like me because I will become a champion
 farmer. It’s a mad
 day.” 
 
 
 Loony rattled on and on
 about how the Great God Yallah
 had spoken and how as a total devotee and servant of the
 Great God Yallah whom
 alone he feared, he would never contest his defeat. The
 animals could see that
 Loony was severely confused. Several times he ended his
 rambling rant and stood
 up as if to leave only to sit back down and start rambling
 again. It seemed as
 if the throne was so sweet to his backside that he
 couldn’t bear not to sit on it,
 for just one last time, one last time. 
 
 
 Finally, after a long and
 rambling rant, Loony’s speech
 was over. At the same time, Smiling Forest erupted in the
 wildest jubilations
 the animals had ever seen. Large crowds of animals drove
 their cars in the
 streets honking their horns, doing the V for victory sign,
 and shouting “down
 with Loony!” at the top of their voices. Even the armed
 foxes joined the
 jubilations, celebrating the fall of the wicked fox that had
 ruled them with an
 iron fist for 22 long years. Loony was devastated to see how
 happy the animals
 were that he had been defeated and would no longer be their
 ruler. He was
 devastated to see animals climb tall buildings and rip to
 pieces large posters
 bearing his ugly face. He was devastated to see animals cast
 his images to the
 ground and dance on his face, stamping on it, wiggling their
 butts and even
 doing the unthinkable on his face. He was devastated to be
 forced to see and
 admit for the first time in 22 years that so many animals in
 Smiling Forest
 were sick and tired of him and were so happy to see him go.
 His amazement
 turned to crippling fear as word spread that the incoming
 government was in
 fact going to arrest and have him prosecuted for all the
 horrendous crimes he
 had committed over the past 22 years. Even though this was
 not the official
 position of the incoming government, Loony was scared out of
 his wits. He was
 so scared that his large tail shrunk and the hair fell off
 his ears. Then
 suddenly, it occurred to him that he could use this as an
 excuse to insist that
 the contest wasn’t fair and that he was in fact the winner
 of the wrestling
 contest because the referee cheated for his opponent. 
 
 
 Exactly one week after
 accepting defeat and congratulating
 the winner whom he described as the new ruler of Smiling
 Forest, Loony summoned
 national radio and television to his palace to announce that
 he totally
 rejected the outcome of the wrestling contest and that he
 was no longer
 stepping down because he was in fact the winner.
 
 
 “Last week I told you
 that I was defeated. Today I am
 telling you that I was not defeated,” he thundered to the
 stupefied amazement
 of the animals. “Today I tell you that I totally reject
 the outcome of the
 contest and nullify the victory of my opponent because it
 was never a victory.
 My agents have done their investigations and we have found
 cheating and
 anomalies, and we have found that the referee cheated for my
 opponent. We know
 that when the dust was high and no one was looking, the
 referees jumped into
 the fray and pulled my legs and grabbed my neck so that my
 opponent could throw
 me down. I felt them pull my legs and I felt their claws on
 my neck but I
 thought it was just my opponent. Moreover, some of the
 animals, over 300, 000 of
 them were not allowed to support me. They were told the big
 lie that I had already
 been thrown down and there was no need for them to come. So
 I am not accepting
 any damn defeat and if you don’t like it you can go to
 hell. I command all of
 you to go right back and prepare for a new contest. I will
 appoint new
 God-fearing referees and I will engage my opponent again. I
 am doing this because
 I was cheated of my victory by referees who did not fear the
 Great God Yallah
 and were cheats and liars. I am never stepping down and I
 will continue to rule
 this forest for a billion years. I fear no one and I am
 invincible. If you don’t
 like it you can go to hell!”  
 
 
 Loony’s strange
 declaration poured cold water on the
 hopes and spirits of the animals. There was a universal
 groan and a moan, and
 shrill cries of utter disbelief at Loony’s strange action.
 He had promised to
 hand over power the following month, and he would be the
 legitimate ruler of
 Smiling Forest until that date. Now, he threatened to
 continue ruling the
 animals again, whether they liked it or not, and in the
 process, he could bring
 about violent conflict in Smiling Forest. The animals could
 not help remember
 Loony’s many boasts that no one could ever defeat him in
 Smiling Forest and that
 even if someone threw him down, he would never step down
 from power because he
 personally owned Smiling Forest and the lives of all the
 animals of Smiling
 Forest. It appeared that Loony was indeed determined to rule
 them for a billion
 years even if it meant violence and loss of life and limb in
 Smiling Forest.
 Loony followed up his threats by deploying heavily armed
 foxes all over Smiling
 Forest were they set up road blocks and mounted sand bags as
 if in readiness
 for combat. Loony expected the animals to come out in
 protest so that he could
 crush them all with rapid gun fire, arrest the victor and
 all his team for
 inciting the protests, kill or thrown them into jail and sit
 calmly back to
 continue ruling Smiling Forest with total impunity. But the
 animals did not
 come out to protest. They simply ignored the armed foxes and
 went calmly about
 their daily activities. And so Loony’s evil plot was
 foiled and suffered a
 still birth. Rather than go out to protest, the animals used
 their voices like
 never before to ask Loony to step down from power and to let
 him know in no
 uncertain terms that they were taking their forest
 back.
 
 
 Loony was dumbstruck to
 see the very outspoken reactions
 of the animals. All kinds of animal groups put out
 statements condemning Loony’s
 about face, rejecting his claims of victory, and asking him
 to just step down
 and hand over power to the winner. From student groups to
 lecturers’ groups,
 doctors, nurses, businesses, journalists, lawyers,
 pharmacists and other
 professionals, everyone came out and asked Loony to step
 down. “We are sick and
 tired of your callous brutality!” they shouted. “We
 don’t want you anymore! Leave
 us in peace! We want our forest and our lives back! Go away!
 If you don’t go we
 will refuse to work!” It was clear that no animal feared
 Loony or his notorious
 Mental Surveillance Unit, or his armed foxes anymore. The
 animals had tasted
 power and they were now going to make sure that Loony felt
 the weight of their
 muscles.  
 
 
 The animals of Smiling
 Forest were so happy to see that everyone
 in the world supported their calls for Loony to step down.
 Messages of
 congratulation to the winner poured in from all over the
 world, from the
 distant forests of the red animals and the brown animals, to
 the forests of the
 beard and turbaned animals whom Loony considered his closest
 allies. Even Vulad
 da Pudding, the callous dictator of the red forest of Rizzi
 congratulated the
 winner. Everyone put out statements asking Loony to respect
 the will of the
 animals of Smiling Forest and step down from power. The
 association of
 neighboring forests sent high level envoys to talk to Loony,
 but Loony rejected
 their appeals and mediation, declaring that no power on
 earth could tell him
 what to do in his personal forest. “I own this forest and
 I will rule this
 forest forever and no power in the world can make me change
 my mind. I won the
 contest. The referees were thieves and cheated for my
 opponent. I must have a
 re-match because I have rejected and totally annulled the
 declared results of
 the past contest. So let no one tell me what to do or to
 step down!” he
 insisted fuming at the nose and mouth.
 
 
 Having failed to convince
 him to step down peacefully,
 the association of neighboring forests decided that they
 were going to send in
 an intervention force to remove Loony by force if he refused
 to respect the
 will of the Great God Yallah and the animals of Smiling
 Forest. Their position
 was supported by the universal association of world animals
 and all forests
 across the world. Loony remained defiant, too scared to
 imagine himself as an
 ordinary fox again. “I will fight courageously,
 patriotically and win,” he
 cackled, trembling in fear, fear of being known for the
 coward he actually was.
 Loony transported his own family to safety in the distant
 forest of Miriki
 where he owned a multi-million dollar mansion and dug his
 heels in. He ordered
 the armed foxes to be in a heightened state of alert, threw
 off his flowing
 white robes, and now prowled angrily around within the walls
 of his palace in military
 fatigues to demonstrate his manliness.  As
 the sun set on the last day of Loony’s last year in power,
 the animals of
 Smiling Forest remained hostage to the evil greed of the mad
 fox. Across the
 once peaceful Forest, families worried and prayed for peace.
 They wondered just
 how Loony would get out of power, for that was the only
 option left to him. A
 few speculated that he would negotiate his way into exile in
 a distant forest.
 Most animals however, believed that Loony would not go
 voluntarily. They believed
 that the most likely end to the saga of the mad fox in power
 is that one, his
 own armed foxes would forcefully grab and drag him out of
 power, or two, that
 the association of neighboring foxes will send in troops
 that will forcefully
 flush him out by either capturing him alive or shooting him
 dead. Either way,
 it would be good riddance for the long-oppressed animals of
 Smiling Forest. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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