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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------