Prince,
Of course, "Lamin Ceesay" or "Lams Ceesay" is the new nom de guerre of Essa
Bokarr Sey - our newly DEMOTED Ambassador to Taiwan. Unbeknownst to Essa, i
deliberately paraded his DEMOTION just to kick him in the guts so he will
resort to mouthing obscenities and the rest of the mumbo jumbo he is so fond
of rambling when he is feeling psychotic. You see of all the APRC operatives,
Essa, arguably, has the worst form of ACUTE INFERIORITY COMPLEX psychiatrists
would ever prescribe for anyone. Perhaps the only individual that can rival
him for that crown would have to be Jammeh himself. That in itself should
help explain why Essa and Jammeh are such close buddies....birds of the same
feather, as the adage goes, will invariably stick together! Thus i calculated
in my mind that if i dared make mention of Essa's DEMOTION - from being
Gambia's Ambassador to France to the lowly post of Ambassador to Taipei - he
would go beserk and say things that will ultimately unmask him. And boy did
my calculation get it so right!
Most importantly, his reaction merely helped confirm to me a story of friend
mine once told me about Essa Bokarr Sey. This friend of mine - as it happens,
a distant relative of Essa's - told me that subsequent to Essa's appointment
as Gambia's new ambassador to France, the first thing he did was to divorce
his first wife of many years with whom he had some children. What was this
poor woman's crime - if any? Her crime, as it happened, turned out to be one
of perception: that she wasn't of the right pedigree or stock to partner an
ambassador. See, Essa reckoned that this woman is an unrefined commoner who
wouldn't fit into the role of an ambassador's wife and or properly help him
carry out his ambassadorial chores which, of course, includes entertaining
the creme de la creme of your host nation and the diplomatic corps of that
country. In a nutshell, Essa thought that his old wife is what we would call
in Gambian slang a "local" - any Gambian knows how socially condescending and
dismissive this social parlance can be, especially as it relates to "class"
and status in society. How this woman could be an unrefined commoner without
class, i never fully fathomed. Or rather, i never bothered to ask my friend.
A speculation, therefore, is well in order. It may well be the case that
Essa's first marriage was a traditionally arranged one with a native of
Kuntaya who in his imagination doesn't fit into the class category of
sophistication and refinement; qualities he seemed to believe an ambassador
couldn't do without in a wife. But i suspect - gauging by Essa's behaviour
and utterances here and elsewhere - that there is more to this than our
nouveau elite or "joegbu ess" told his friends and family. Perhaps, Essa was
merely trying to short-cut or hide his OWN shortcomings as a "local" who
would find it difficult to mingle in the sophisticated milieu of French
diplomatic and social life? Anyone familiar with French hauteur, snooty
elitism and snobbery, especially as they relate to their so-called
sophistication in food and wine, would perhaps understand "local" boy Essa's
fidgety apprehensions about life in France as an ambassador without the
"proper" companion to groom him. In the event, Essa divorced this poor woman
and went head-hunting for a more refined and sophisticated woman to help him
socialise and organise his new life as ambassador of the Gambia to the Champs
D' Elyss. Essa i can confirm has found his refined and sophisticated new
woman and they are happily married. I wonder whether our Essa is now paying
the appropriate alimony to the "local" woman he left for the refined and
sophisticated woman he is currently with.
We pause here to speculate whether with the new Madam Sey in attendance, Essa
had succeeded in waltzing or fox-trotting his way into French society and its
diplomatic corps? Whether now our "joegbu ess" or nouveau elite can hum
Chopin's "Nocturne" or Rameau's "Castor et Pollux" or Claude Debussy's
"Preludes" as he reads his daily "Le Figaro", whilst the cultured Madame Sey
hones her French cuisine skills in the kitchen? Whether Essa has now been
taught the "proper" table manners, social etiquettes and how to appropriately
toast his hosts? In short, has Essa's new acquisition "civilised" him enough
to call himself a refined and sophisticated gentleman? I pray this is the
case. For if you can abruptly end a long term relationship on the stupid
premise that the woman who mothered your children is an unrefined commoner,
then to that individual, women are mere acquisitions to be purchased and sold
when they are past their use. Perhaps, the Sisterhood, in light of my
revelations, would want to take Essa to task?
More to the point, those who know Essa well shouldn't have been caught aback
when he ditched his "local" woman for one with social status. I learn that
soon after the AFPRC took over and Essa was rewarded for being a comedian in
residence at the Jammeh State House, first thing he pondered about was to
move to the Fajarahome from his modest LatriKunda. Now, he thought moving to
the Fajara from his modest home in LatriKunda would enhance his social status
because he is one of those class obsessed Gambians who seem to think that
anyone living in Fajara is high up in the social ladder. Thus our Essa went
to live in Fajara and nowadays, he seems to imagine and indeed, persuading
himself that he is a different Essa now. So in his mind, he is no longer the
"local" boy from Kuntaya. In his dreams - maybe.
I repeat this sad story of Essa's not out of malice but to tell a moral
narrative in the AFPRC/APRC story which we take for granted: the extent to
which inferiority complex and class warfare were, amongst others, a factor in
the July 22nd Coup. In essence, this story is a reminder to all and sundry
how a group of low-lives stole power in the Gambia in name of rectifying past
wrongs only to institutionalise such wrongs; and helped worsen such wrongs
and in effect made them a way of life in the Gambia by wasting our scarce
resources on profligacies that they think will help them square with imagined
class status. We tend to under-estimate the ripples of class obsession,
warfare and rhetoric inherent in the so-called July 22nd "revolution". Then
again, we ignore the class strands of July 22nd at our own perils.
Essa Bokarr Sey:
As per your comment that Taipei has more geopolitical clout than Paris, only
the uninitiated in geopolitics would utter such nonsense. Perhaps, in the
cheque-book diplomacy - that is the cornerstone of your gov't's foreign
policy - Taipei carries more geopolitical weight than Paris by virtue of the
fact that Taipei is trying to buy herself international recognition whereas
Paris has no such clamouring. But in the real world of the teutonic shifts of
geopolitical manouevring and out-manouevring, Taipei is a poodle compared to
Paris' Rottweiler stature. I hope i have helped you with your ignorant
query.
Essa, mouth as many obscenities as you can as it will never corrode this
fundamental moral truth: you will always be an oaf afflicted with acute
inferiority complex. Buying yourself a house in Fajara or marrying into a
family you think has the right social status will never corrode this truth. I
will, however, concede that try is all you can do. So keep trying ole boy.
Just remember that you will always be the same Essa Bokarr Sey from Kuntaya.
No amount of social and artificial grooming and ill-gotten gains can alter
this fact. There is simply no corner too dark for you to hide from yourself.
Hamjatta Kanteh
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