Great warm up Baba, and I look forward to further installments


LJDarbo  

________________________________
 From: Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2013, 2:24
Subject: [G_L] When the White Man Left: Early Days
 

 
When the White Man Left: Early Daystre on
By Baba Galleh Jallow
We heard stories of the white man from our parents. We grew up listening to them talk about the white man and recounting how he had to leave. We thought we heard a tinge of regret and nostalgia in their voices as they talked of the white man. They were overawed at the white man’s greatness and how blessed he was by the great God Yallah. We heard them say that it was Yallah Himself who gave them this world and that we black people could only hope to have the next world if we worked hard enough for Yallah. We can never compete with the white man because he owned this world. He was never going to have any part of the next world. But as far as this world is concerned, ah, he can’t be rivaled! Mo moom Adina! Ataa mu Duniyaati! Kam jey Aduna!
Our parents did not talk so much about why or how the white man left. But the radio did. There were always songs on the radio that extolled the virtues of a great black man – one of our own – who drove the white man away and gave us our independence. We did not quite understand what independence meant but we could guess that it had to do with owning ourselves. We imagined that the white man must have owned us before. We could sense that the white man was somehow a very bad man who came and stole our land and made us slaves. And then they ruled over us with an iron fist for hundreds of years. And then this great black man came and drove him away. So the radio sang endless songs of praise to him. The songs sometimes called this great black man “the great peace.” At other times they called him lion, tiger, crocodile, the great blessing and many other great things. We heard songs in the morning, songs in the afternoon, and songs at night. And when
 the radio spoke of the things that were happening in distant places, they always started by talking about some great thing or the other said by this great black man and some wise words or the other spoken of this great black man. It was as if this great black man was always saying wise things which we did not quite understand but which sounded wise anyway. Every day, his name was repeated on the radio more than a hundred times. Each newscast was started with the mantra His Excellency the President Alhaji Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker has said that . . . This mantra was repeated anytime reference was made to him, which was a lot of times. It became so common that we all thought that was how things were done in this world. It was unthinkable not to start every news broadcast with His Excellency the President Alhaji Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker has said that . . . . We imagined that Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker must be very busy having to say all those
 things. But then it struck us as strange that Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker was never reported as doing anything, just saying something or the other. In any case, we just listened and wondered because that seemed to be the natural thing to do. And well, we felt confused but somehow proud that we had this great black man who was always saying something as our leader.
As we grew older, we joined the great crowds that welcomed His Excellency the President Alhaji Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker when he visited our village on his yearly Meet the Poor Man’s Tour. We enjoyed the drumming and dancing and the waving of flags and great running and shouting that filled our village. And we went to see this great man, waving his white handkerchief, wearing flowing white robes, a small white cap on his head, a white pair of glasses perched majestically on his nose and we joined the multitudes wiggling their waists and thrusting their butts this way and that, this way and that to the accompaniment of the talking drums and seyruba. We heard it said that if the great man removed his glasses and looked you straight in the eyes, you would die. He was the man who single-handedly drove away the evil white man and gave us our independence. We learnt to recognize his voice when he spoke on the radio on Independence Day. He always spoke
 about the same things. “You must love your leader and your country.  You must tie your waists with iron ropes and work like horses for your country. You must be unquestionably loyal to your leader who God chose for you.” He asked us young people to work hard on our farms so that our country could move forward. We were sometimes confused by all the things he said. For instance, he always said that the future was in our hands, even though we were not holding any future in our hands. How could we hold the future in our hands when it was not yet there? We did not understand how a country could move forward if it had no feet and no eyes with which to see. But our teachers at school would repeat the great man’s advice at assembly every Monday and Friday, and have us sing “Biggerface Joker is our lea-der and we shall not be fooled!” On Independence Day we all wore our shiny uniforms and marched at school, left right, left right, left right. When the
 bandmaster shouted e-e-eyes right! we all turned our faces right to look at the important men sitting on the stage as we sang Biggerface Joker is our lea-der we shall not be fooled, even though Biggerface Joker was never there! We grew up singing this song and listening to all the talk about the great virtues of Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker and the need to obey our leaders and be grateful to Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker for driving the white man away. And we grew up listening to our parents talk about the white man and how great he was and how the Great God Yallah had given him this world and how he could not be rivaled. We wondered what the white man looked like until we saw him at the cinema. And we started learning a great deal about him and his great powers. We were amazed to hear him speak as if from his nose!
Later in life, we were mighty surprised and somehow dismayed to learn that Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker did not actually drive the white man away. The white man actually left on his own terms. There was never any fight between Sir Biggerface Joker and the white man. In fact, it was the white man who groomed Sir Bodyfat Joker, taught him what to say and how to say it, and installed him as our leader. We learnt that Sir Bodyfat Joker was still deeply loyal to the white man and that in fact, the white man regularly gave him lots of money to buy rice and build roads and hospitals and other amenities for our poor parents and us children. In fact, it was because he was such a good boy that the white man crowned him sir. The true story was that the white man had grown tired of us. We had become more of a burden than anything else and he had come to have little need of our meager resources. He was therefore happy to give us our so-called independence when Sir
 Bodyfat Joker and others asked for it. Their only condition was that he – the white man – was to determine who would become our leader. It had to be a man they could entirely trust to be a good boy of Empire, a loyal servant of the great white queen who would never give the country to the evil red men of the East. But of course our parents did not know this complicated story and so our praise singers continued to hail Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker as the great lion who single-handedly fought and drove the white man away and gave us our freedom. And we continued to sing “Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker is our leader and we shall not be fooled!” In those early days, everyone repeated Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker’s favorite saying that it was time for work because we now owned ourselves! And so we children gaily sang ligaaye jotna, dokuwo seeta, nyapati nyololi etc!
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