By Dr Baba Galleh Jallow
Another one of Chaku’s other children who was almost always at the market was Oh. Oh’s name was Alhagie. He was perhaps in his mid to late thirties, a tall slim man with a dark complexion and what looked like a permanent anxious look on his face. Oh would smile sometimes, or laugh and engage people in conversation. But the look of confusion never left his lean face. He lived in Pa Sambujang Jagne’s compound, just to the north-west of the market, opposite Chaku Bantang cinema. I don’t know when Oh came to Chaku Bantang or where he was from. I just remember seeing him at the market for as long as I can recall.
Oh always wore a faded white haftan that had grown yellowish with time. He came to the market in the mornings and earned some little money helping people carry their loads, sometimes carrying the loads on his head, sometimes using the wheelbarrows of the market cleaners – people like Pa Ansumana and Pa Siaka. He used the wheelbarrows to help fishmongers transport loads of fish from the Kaur-Bamba Tenda junction into the market. In return, the fishmongers gave him something. Sometimes, Oh could be seen helping Pa Ansuman and others clean the market in the mornings and at the end of the day. He was a friendly man and could often be heard engaged in loud conversation with people around the market.
Oh was said to have memorized the entire Quran. Sometimes, he could be heard reciting verses from the Holy Book without looking at it. He also frequented the small mosque about a hundred meters south of the market on the street leading to Jigimarr, just fifty meters from our compound. Word had it that Oh lost his mind because he studied verses that were “too heavy” for his head. There was no way of confirming whether this was true or not. What we knew and saw was that Oh could recite long verses of the Quran without looking at it.
Some of Chaku’s other children did not like being told or called certain things or names. This was true of some of our ordinary folks too. There was a mechanic who hated being called Kerr Hambou for example, because a marabou scammed him of his life’s savings at a village of that name. There was another mechanic who hated being called Jeet (scorpion) because he had an unfortunate encounter with a scorpion. But these were normal people. Among Chaku’s other children, Gankal hated being called arrwatam, or derr bu toy, or potiti Jabou Saine. Pappa hated being told Pappa kai dahe ma (Pappa come and chase me). Oh for his part, hated being told tuuk! Tuuk is a Wolof expression of rebuke for what someone is doing. If an elder found us doing something wrong, they would loudly say tuuk, and we would stop it or scamper off. We never knew why Chaku’s other children hated the words they hated. Did it have something to do with their conditions? Speculations may abound but the real reasons may be hard to know. All we know is that they hated these words with passion, and they probably had good reasons for that. Life is full of strange stories.
However calm and happy Oh was, if you said tuuk to him, he flies into an uncontrollable rage, and rains curses and insults on you. He would angrily shout and stride around, cursing the person’s parents to no end. I did not see him hit anyone who called him tuuk, but the insults he threw at them were often worse than physical blows. But when he was not made angry, Oh was a friendly and hardworking guy. I wonder where he is now.
There was another one of Chaku’s other children we used to call Driver. Driver was a slim man of medium height, always well dressed in a shirt and pants, with a businesslike look on his face that was neither happy nor sad; just kind of passive and unbothered. If you were a resident of Chaku Bantang in those days, you would often see Driver walking briskly along the Bamba Tenda highway, driving his imaginary car. His hands were always on the steering wheel as he strode on the highway to or from the village of Bereto where he lived. He would be changing gears once in a while and when he arrived near the market in Chaku Bantang, he would swerve to the side of the road and park his imaginary car. Then he would walk leisurely into the market. When he emerged from the market, Driver would walk straight to the exact spot he parked his car, start the engine, and make a curve to head back to Bereto, just about a mile from Bamba Tenda. While no one else saw his car, Driver was certain that he was driving a car and would make all the moves associated with driving a car with the exception of hitting the brakes or pressing the accelerator with his feet. All his driving was done by hand.
Driver was a quiet fellow and we did not know of any name that he hated. He was a polite man and would always respond to our greetings when we called out Driver! So when we children saw him, we would shout Driver, and he would respond “waw nangen def?” I used to wonder why Driver imagined that he was driving a car. I thought he must have had a fascinating story, but there was no one to ask. Sometimes we could not help but wonder whatever happened to Driver in his past life, and whatever happened to Oh and all of Chaku’s other children we saw around.
And then there was the man we knew simply as Sam. Sam was a tall, well-built, dark-skinned man with a rather threatening countenance. The rags draped around his muscular body left him half-naked, and he was always scratching his forehead. Sometimes when you passed him by, Sam would say, “nko iteng sola five dalaso la?” (say, can you give me five dalasi?) Most of the time, Sam looked friendly, but sometimes he looked very angry and kept muttering to himself as he paced up and down the street. We did not know where Sam came from, but he was a regular presence in Chaku Bantang and we regarded him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. To this day, his words often ring in my mind, “nko iteng sola five dalaso la?” And his tall, strong physique is still visible in my mind’s eye. Sam too, did not have any name he hated that we knew of. And we did not know what Sam’s story was. We just woke up one day and saw him. I wonder what later happened to Sam.
