Dr. Jallow:
Great job on your enlightening pieces as always. As a constant writer, yours is both a norm and torch light to walk with. If not for the education that readers can take away from your continued activism, there is something called courage and awakening. One can find all of it in your write-ups.
Thanks & best wishes,
Yero.
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:02:54 -0800
Subject: [>-<] Man of Steel
Man of Steel
By Baba Galleh Jallow
Dr. Gumbogi Nyawuleng was an expert in the art of listening.
He could listen for many hours on end as people said things that could bring
down heaven and earth. He would keep a steady stare in his sober eyes and wear
the semblance of a smile on his generous lips; and he would assume the pose of
an iron man who neither rain nor thunder, nor indeed mighty earthquakes or
earth sweeping tsunamis could move an inch from his position. And he would
listen, listen and listen. People said of Dr. Nyawuleng that he was as patient
as a vulture: he could wait many hours and even days for his prey to collapse
and lie ready to be devoured. Then he would pounce and finish off the
unfortunate victim. Not that he was an evil guy; no; only that he was a man of
steel who would neither bend nor rust, nor indeed get tired of dealing with
issues he believed pertinent to the good of the common weal.
Gumbogi Nyawuleng was not a violent man by any stretch of
the imagination. He was gentle and soft-spoken and could not even hurt a fly.
He was indeed, a staunch proponent of peace and justice and it was according to
his philosophy of peaceful co-existence and truth that he displayed his
legendary patience and ability to listen as long as someone continued talking
to him. He was a man who prided himself in being a giant of impeccable and
incorruptible credentials, both academic and personal. Having graduated with a
Bachelor of Stares from the famous University of Blindsight-Upon-Whine, Dr.
Nyawuleng had gone on to snatch a Master of Smiles degree in Smooching
Techniques from the prestigious University of No Change and topped his
illustrious academic career with a PhD in Classic Tautology from the world
famous University of Nyefkorek. So the depth of Dr. Nyawuleng’s knowledge of
all matters worldly could never be questioned; neither could anyone raise a
single question about the fact that he was a philosopher like no other – past,
present and future.
But like any other member of the homo sapien species, and
regardless of what he chose to believe, Dr. Nyawuleng was a fallible creature
who occasionally made horrible mistakes and said things totally unworthy of his
learned self. For instance, at one point, Dr. Nyawuleng publicly declared that
he was always right and that whoever dared to criticize him must really be out
of their mind and must be dealt with severely. And because Dr. Nyawuleng
commanded certain powerful coercive instruments, structures and mechanisms,
those who ignored his warning soon found themselves in the proverbial hot soup.
There was once an impudent bloke who dared to gently advise Dr. Nyawuleng to
watch his step lest he hit his toe on a sharp object lying in the good doctor’s
pathway and thereby harm both himself and by extension, his extended family. At
this gentle piece of advice, Dr. Nyawuleng had the dude severely whipped at
every possible opportunity. The good doctor carried on his vendetta against the
well-meaning dude for so many years that he came to forget why he was having
the dude whipped some twenty years after his alleged crime. He now took to
accusing the dude of asking him to hit his toes against the sharp object and
cut his fingers when in fact, the reverse was the case. “There was this ignorant dude who asked me to
hit my toes against a sharp object and thereby cut my foot,” he liked to
recount in regrettable tones. “What he did not know was that I was not one to
ever hit my foot against a sharp object; and that my foot is always in my eyes;
and there’s plenty of evidence to prove my point.” It was clear that what
irritated Dr. Nyawuleng was not the advice per se, but the fact that the
impudent dude dared to tell him what to do or not to do. Did he not know that
he, Nyawuleng, was the holder of a PhD in Classic Tautology, in addition to a
Masters degree in Smooching Techniques and a Bachelors in Stares? How dared this
ignorant bloke pretend to know what Dr. Nyawuleng should do or not do?
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Dr. Nyawuleng was
that he disdained the act of writing. He always argued that as God had given
mankind natural faculties with which to hear and with which to speak, it was
utter blasphemy for people to leave those aside and use such fake instruments
like telephones, pens or papers to communicate. And so for that reason, Dr.
Nyawuleng would never touch a pen, a paper or even a keyboard. If he wanted something
put on paper or typed out, he would dictate to one of his many personal
secretaries and assistants. Rather, the good doctor horned his listening skills
and became the greatest listener ever known in the history of listening
techniques. He also sharpened his tongue on a daily basis just in case he
needed to explain something or respond to some important issue that touched on
matters of interest to his learned self. And that was why Dr. Nyawuleng soon
proved himself one of the best talkers ever known in the history of human
speech. “Listening and talking are two sides of the same bowl,” he would often
say. “And so he who is listened to must be prepared to listen in turn. That is
why I am such a good listener. And that is why I am such a good talker.”
And a good talker he was indeed, our famous Dr. Nyawuleng. Just
as he could listen for hours on end, so he could talk for hours on end. A man
of incredible energy, he never ran out of wind. Once in a while, he would pick
a topic on which he would shower his beams of knowledge by word of mouth. He
would assume his iron pose and launch into streams of learned discourse that
never failed to inspire and amaze his audience. He would clap his lips together
and flick his tongue and shake his cheeks as he carried endlessly on, not
stopping even for a sip of water. The words would rise from the depths of his
being and seamlessly pop out of his mouth in generous torrents of sometimes
flowery, sometimes thorny prose, depending on the nature of the topic he
addressed. Indeed, so great a talker was our good Dr. Nyawuleng that he soon
won the honorable and highly valued titles of Diyaamu, Hunduko and Bariwakh! And boy did he love those
titles! And did he love the utter awe with which he was regarded by his
listeners, some of whom, much to the chagrin of Dr. Nyawuleng, often listened
so long that they fell asleep. “One should not sleep when important matters of
life and death are being taught,” Dr. Nyawuleng would gently reprimand the
offending culprits. “When one who knows is talking, it is the duty of those who
do not know to listen for as long as it takes without falling asleep. If you
fall asleep, then that is nothing but a gross abdication of personal responsibility
that will not be condoned. It is a matter of integrity and principle.”
Of course, no artist could ever paint a complete picture of
Dr. Gumbogi Nyawuleng. Larger than life, he was a man of so many intricate
complexities that only the most ephemeral of representations may even be
contemplated. The ideas in his head are so numerous and so varied that in spite
of his unlimited eloquence he could only share a very tiny fraction of them
with his audiences. One could watch and paint certain aspects of his great and
learned personality, but one could by no means go beyond the surface of what was
evidently a vast and complex undergrowth of complex ideas and profound insights
into all aspects of human life that lodged deep inside Dr. Nyawuleng’s
brilliant mind. “You see, I can only teach you so much,” Dr. Nyawuleng liked to
say. “It is not easy to be so educated in so many ways of the world; it is even
harder to make people understand who do not aspire to certain lofty heights but
who choose to remain on the ground and engage in baseless allegations and
ill-conceived ruminations. You must always chew what you bite.” His spellbound
audience always greeted this trademark caveat with loud exclamations of Diyaamu! Hunduko! And Bariwakh! At
which point Dr. Gumbogi Nyawuleng would loudly gnash his teeth, flick his
tongue, shake his cheeks, and wear a distant look in his eyes to demonstrate
his unrivalled acumen. He was indeed, a man of steel – never bend, never rusty,
never wrong! Some even called him Ratahal, king of Talk.
_______________________________________________
Mail mailing list
[log in to unmask]
http://thegambiapostforum.com/mailman/listinfo/mail_thegambiapostforum.com
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤