By Alagie Saidy-Barrow
Ordinarily, I am not qualified to review anyone’s book, more so, a book written by someone whose writing I grew up admiring. But given that the writer is a Badibunka and the book extols the elders of my Badibu, I take the liberty of sharing my thoughts on the book.
If you are familiar with the joking relationship between Baddibu and Kiang, then you know that few things hurt someone born in beautiful Kiang more than having to reminisce about any town in Baddibu. Unfortunately for me, Dr Baba Galleh Jallow’s Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang – the sobriquet used for Farafenni – evokes memories of a familiar homeland I have never stopped longing for.
No, Chaku Bantang is not my homeland (God forbid) but through Baba’s compendium on Farafenni’s departed elders, accompanied by narrations of his childhood, I am transported to my childhood and the many elders I knew while growing up in my hometown of Bundung. And for anyone who grew up in a close-knit community where everyone was related, Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang will have you reminiscing about your childhood and the many patriarchs of each compound.
On April 1, 2024, Baba received the distressing news of Pa Barra Saine’s passing, and while he knows many other notable elders of Chaku who had since joined the ancestors, the passing of Pa Barra Saine triggered a flood of memories of the many elders of Farafenni who once loomed large in the community. In paying tribute to the great Pa Barra Saine, Baba realised that there were many other great giants of Chaku Bantang. This realisation opened the floodgates of memories about other elders residing in different parts of Chaku Bantang, all very different, all towering giants in their own rights, yet all so similar in many other ways.
The giant elders of Chaku Bantang all shared certain characteristics: community, purpose, family, responsibility, and kindness. That sense of responsibility was evident in Pa Alhagie Bakary Isatou Dibba’s insistence that Baba be returned to school after his father stopped him from attending school. That sense of responsibility was also evident in Pa Alhagie Alieu Touray’s “harassment” of Baba’s father, insisting that he be allowed back in school. These elders understood that raising a child was a community affair.
In twenty-two short chapters, each mentioning many elders and some younger adults, Baba takes us on a journey through the socio-cultural milieu that was the essence of our dear Gambia. From spraying perfumes all over their body to attract girls to sneaking out to the Cinema, Baba does not only remind us of the olden times of Farafenni, but in memorialising the elders Chaku Bantang and the values they exude, he captures the cultural spirit of days long gone by. Baba acknowledges that while he did not mention many women in his accounts, that is not because they were not instrumental in the community. Rather, his interactions with elderly women were inhibited by the mores of society. Baba shares a bit about his mother and how instrumental she was in shaping him into the person he is. A few other older women of note close the book in two chapters called Queen Mothers’ 1 and Queen Mothers’ 2.
I first visited Farafenni in 2019, and incidentally, the home I stayed in happens to be the home of Pa Alhagie Barra Saine, the very first giant of an elder that Baba memorialised in Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang. During my two-night stay, I visited two other clans, the Dibbas and the Hydaras, where my host has family members. As is obvious in the Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang, the definition of family goes beyond consanguinity. Family was anyone who lived in your community. Looking back on that visit, I wish I had met Pa Barra Saine to share in his joviality. I wish I had met Pa Sheriff Hydara to stretch my hands and receive his prayers. Even though my visit was decades after Baba’s childhood, what immediately stood out for me was the town’s ethnic diversity, which is reflected in the many elders Baba memorialised in Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang and environs.
Baba’s Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang also had me wondering how the town has evolved and if that sense of community still holds. I have been known to wander around Bundung in search of the Bundung I used to know. Reading Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang, I wondered if Baba also does the same. If you are a citizen of Chaku Bantang or once called an old Gambian town a home, Baba’s Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang will leave you reminiscing about your old town. It is as much a historical narrative as it is a lesson on what Gambia used to be and ought to be.
Gentle Giants of Chaku Bantang is now available at Timbooktoo bookshop in Bakau, and I am buying ten copies for the first ten Badibunkas to ask for a copy!