Gainako Newspaper

................" In the weeks and months that followed his death people in the neighborhood and
..................beyond began to come forward with the revelations that He has indeed prophesied
..................his own departure from this world. While his prophecy was very cryptic at the time,
.................its meanings has suddenly dawn upon them revealing the truth for all eternity. "

It is often said in Gambian folklore that great waliu short for waliullah (an Arabic term for saint or
friend of God) are seldom recognized in our midst while they are alive. This statement is very poignant.
In a non-descript house not far from my neighborhood once lives a man. He lives a life with a great
simplicity that his worldly possession was just a few things. His name is Fanka Manneh. He always
carries an aura of mystical reverenced around him.

He was always dressed in a simple long white shirt "Kaftans", with a couple of beads across his neck.
He always wore open sandals shoes. He had long dread locks. He is a great preacher always preaching
people to repent and get ready for the coming of the messiah. He would implore the community to
avoid living a sinful life, to be humble with each other and gracious to God. This he would preach while
holding a framed poster of the prophet Jesus that he always carries around.

Some times he would be seen at the Serekunda market given sermons. Crowd would gather to listen to
his preaching. He had such great oratory skills that people always gravitate to his sermons.

Other days, He would commute to Albert market in Banjul during the week to preach to the sellers, the
customers and anyone that stops to listen. Then he would get into the sea and swim from the pier
behind the market all the way to the pier after the Public works department commonly called "wafee
Njago". He would float while continually chanting religious verses. This He does with such ease that
even veteran fishermen were perplexed in amazement. People especially those that happened to be at
the beach at the time used to gaze in awed at this marvel of a human being. It is said he actually float on
a cushion of air with minimal contact with the water. Some witnesses have even speculated that He in
fact floats on a shoal of fish that seems to gravitate around him. Such is the respect and reverence he
gain that they dubbed him "The Floating Prophet"

Every year on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, Fanka Manneh will visit every part of the
neighborhood, ringing a bell and a blowing a whistle proclaiming the moon has been sighted thus
marking beginning of the fast. In the days and weeks that followed, He would every morning during the
"Fajri" repeat the same thing reminding everyone that the hour is at hand. This he does every year on
the month of Ramadan for many years until his demise.

On the night He passed away, a strong wind blew across the land bringing heavy rain with thunder and
lightening. Local elders have it that this surely is a divine sign that the dearly departed was certainly a
"holy man". In the weeks and months that followed his death people in the neighborhood and beyond
began to come forward with the revelations that He has indeed prophesied his own departure from this
world. While his prophecy was very cryptic at the time, its meanings has suddenly dawn upon them
revealing the truth for all eternity.

Momodou Laama Jallow
North Carolina, USA
E-mail: eliyasou@yahoo.com

....Animal Farm Revisited
......................................Part II
..............................................By Baba Galleh Jallow....................Posted February 8th, 2007

Not even Moses the raven, who never tired of talking about the mysterious Sugar
Candy Mountain hidden beyond the distant clouds, failed to see that Napoleon had
become worse than Farmer Jones. Clearly, Farmer Jones did not change the rules at
every turn to suit his personal needs, nor did he drink so much beer and make so
much merry as Napoleon did now-a-days. Like Benjamin, Clover and Minimus,
Moses the raven could not fail to see that Napoleon now considered Animal Farm
his very own personal property and the animals nothing less than his personal slaves.

They had heard him say that he held the title deeds to Animal Farm; and over and above everything
else, they had seen him contradict all of the very rules he had decreed by trading with humans, sleeping
in beds, wearing Jones� flamboyant tails and ties, walking on two legs and wearing colorful ribbons to
his tail. Eventually, they had seen him abolish �Beasts of England� the anthem of the anti-Jones rebellion,
and change the name Animal Farm back to its original name, the Manor Farm. Thus, it was from Manor
Farm to Manor Farm. The wheel of fortune had gone full swing for the lower animals and in spite of
themselves, they increasingly saw through the gross inconsistency of Comrade Napoleon and his fellow
pigs. Happily, Squealer had grown so fat that he was fast losing his honey-coated voice and could now
only sing �Lort Naple is the beast�, a mispronouncement for which he once received a sharp slap and a
rebuke from one of Napoleon�s top dogs. Unhappily however, some of the lesser pigs and animals had
absolutely mastered the art of puppetry, their sole occupation in the course of time, being always to be
there when Napoleon delivered his flamboyant exhortations on the virtues of sacrifice and squealing and
shrieking and clapping and crying �poleon! at every turn.

Over the years, Napoleon had grown into one of the most flamboyant dandies in the world, far
outshining old farmer Jones and his cohorts in the art of flamboyance. He often appeared in public
smartly draped in multi-colored jeans, braces, a gold and silver pair of goggles perched on his nose,
and a group of his fierce dogs menacingly baring their teeth at the lower animals and ready to pounce on
anyone at Napoleon�s orders. At such occasions, Napoleon looked more like an overdressed peacock
surrounded by sunburnt vultures. Sometimes, he wore a great cow hide boubou and as an emblem of
his greatness, holding a piece of cow dung in one hand and a dead rat in the other. These objects, he
claimed, were the marks of his absolute invincibility. He was, he claimed, mandated to dress as he did
by his mysterious oracles in Neverland.

The animals received the greatest shock of their lives when Benjamin the donkey suddenly died of heart
attack. One dull gray morning, Muriel the goat had arrived breathless at Squealer�s door and reported
to him that Benjamin was dying. Come quickly, he implored Squealer. When two hours later Squealer
and his team of doctors arrived at Benjamin�s corner, the poor old donkey was long dead and stiff, his
legs half raised from the ground, an ugly grin seeming to mock the world. Roughly sprawled across his
dry hay bed, Benjamin�s carcass grinned at the buzzing files, a thick brown liquid oozing out of the sides
of his mouth onto the hay. Muriel the goat, Moses the raven, Fabru the frog and some other lower
animals sat despondently around in a semicircle, quietly regarding Squealer and his team of doctors as
they officiously peered at Benjamin�s corpse.

�It must be a big hole, eh,� Squealer observed at last, looking to the lower animals for agreement. �You
all must dig a big hole, for he was truly a mighty big fellow. I�m sure the Invincible Iron Leader will be
well pleased with Benjamin,� he added, noting that Benjamin�s death was another feather in the cap of
the Revolution, since it was the supreme sacrifice to lose one�s life in the service of the Invincible Iron
Leader, the Savior of the Animals, the Benevolent Guardian of the Lost, the Gallant Benefactor, the
Grand Master of Wisdom, the Doctor of All Ailments, Raiser of the Dead! He who had sacrificed his
own precious life to free the lower animals from the evil clutches of Snowball the pig and Farmer Jones.
As a mark of generosity, Squealer promised the other animals that he would prevail upon his Lordship,
the Invincible Iron Leader, to send a junior pig to attend Benjamin�s burial. In addition, he assured,
Benjamin would receive the posthumous decoration of the Most Hardworking Donkey and Loyal
Servant to the Invincible Iron Leader, His Most Honorable Excellency the Lord Pompoler and
Chairman of the Highest Supreme Council of Most Clever Pigs. As all pigs were equal, but some pigs
were more equal than others, Napoleon had created the Supreme Council of Pigs, to which less clever
and stupid pigs belonged; and the Highest Supreme Council of Most Clever Pigs, of which he was the
Supreme Chairpig, Master and Direct Controller and from which stupid pigs were strictly excluded. It
was this council that bestowed honors and titles on animals � deal or alive - considered, in Napoleon�s
estimation, to be deserving. Surely, Benjamin the donkey deserved consideration for decoration. He
was one of the old guard, one of those few remaining animals who had witnessed the historic Battle of
the Cowshed, when good old Farmer Jones was driven out.

But not all these honors could have pleased Benjamin, had he been alive to receive them. He had long
lost faith in the sincerity of Napoleon, who now insisted on being called the Invincible Iron Leader, in
appreciation of his immense benevolence towards the lower animals in his farm. In his last days on
earth, Benjamin had been a very sad and lonely donkey. He hardly spoke to anyone on the farm and
dutifully carted away his backbreaking loads of rock or the pulled heavy iron ploughs across swampy
rice fields. His last drop of faith plopped the day he saw Clover the horse caged and carted away by
the horse slaughterer and later that evening, heard Napoleon boasting that stupid Clover really deserved
to die. Clover, Napoleon boasted in his characteristic loudness, had become old and useless and was
more a liability to his farm than an asset. In spite of himself, Benjamin had openly wept when he heard
those cruel words and from that moment, he had felt the pain that eventually took his life.

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