Don’t Judge Me (Gambian Elite’s Deep Thoughts)

devil-clip-art
Sympathy for Devil Series: Gambian elites looking after number 1

By Suntou Touray

All the tyrant’s elites and all his hangers on

They cannot be anything without him

Their labours from top universities are meaningless without him

They cannot do even menial jobs

They cannot go unnoticed!

Imagine them sitting in Hagan Street every morning not knowing what to do?

Imagine them seeing their colleagues appearing on GRTS, with fine suits, and tie?

With grand portfolios, imagine them seeing that?

They want to enjoy life:

The good food ‘Afra FM calling’ fine wines

Foreign beer on the secluded streets bars of Serrekunda

Fine ladies in hotel lobbies, supermarket shopping and occasional stray eyes to

sophisticated women, the bold and arrogant walk to their cars’

How can they forfeit all that, the endless battle, hell no!

All the tyrant’s elites and the entire hangers on

It is not easy they decried

They worked hard to get 1st or 2nd degree

Yes their sound judgement tells them, the system is not reliable

Remember Nana Ann-Why-Johnson

Remember, Dr Allabouts

Remember all the former Top PPP technocrats

What do they do? People should stop blaming them for choosing

Comfort this way.

Just look at the ones with PhDs, they are no better

It is a big thing they attain that level, but even they are no different

They cannot attain higher education, civilised understanding of life and then reduce themselves to nothingness! What for?

They’re interested in being someone, in this system or even worst

They will do as the tyrant wants, they will disregard all their qualifications and superior reasoning

They will conform to the system, albeit a fraudulent and unpredictable high seas

They careless about you judgmental scribes

This is their life, they argued that, it is lived once; no tyrant or dictator will upset that.

Call them anything: compromised, a sycophant, sell out, prostitute or nincompoops

They don’t really care, for their conscience has gone to sleep and never wakes up

At the end they’re people found under the tyrant’s stinking armpits,

with GRTS as the bragging tool. Seen by all and sundry.

(Sympathy for the devils series)

Ends

6 Comments

  1. Mr Touray, you have no idea what it means to be outside the influential circle here in Gambia. Your life stand still. All you said is true. But it is easier may be on the other side.

  2. And you have judged us. Mouths to feed thank you.

  3. Bro just saw this poem on fb. We cannot all abandon the ‘system’. I never partake in enabling the dictatorship. Never been to Kanilai. Not all of us are devils.

  4. Why trust the sword brutally at “Hagan street”?

  5. I work in the 1st Republic and 2nd Republic. The older generation maintain discipline and dedication whilst younger people want wealth and position on a plate. This is why they frequent Kanilia for recognition

  6. Wrong to stereotype, caricature, ridicule and scapegoating ALL Jammeh/APRC regime elites and enablers as city based (for “Imagine them sitting in Hagan Street every morning not knowing what to do?”) or Greater Banjul products (dramatising the urban lifestyle); in poem!

    The prose is well written and am not very impressed with writer’s prejudicial political thoughts because its poisonous to community; in my opinion. WHY SCAPEGOATING ON THOSE WHO ARE URBAN BASED?