And so We Live and Die
By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor
No sounds, no echoes; only an eerie deadly silence
Permeating the stillness of the dark mysterious night
Betraying dreadful mysteries of the dungeon of death
And as Mile 2 looms, still no one dares think or ask
Manlafi’s restless soul hovers in the empty blue void above
Brikama-Ba has finally given a son to eternal darkness
In the melancholic world of the dead his soul goes to rests
Manlafi Sanyang’s body in casket, his spirit is no more
Just yesterday, full of dreams and a world to conquer
Unaware what the dark, ominous eastern clouds portend
Hiding a monster’s insatiable lust for blood and death
And they struck him with a murderer’s baton and smiled
The world of perpetual darkness has snatched Manlafi
Just like all those innocent, brave dead so long ago
They looked in the eyes and struck him hard in the neck
Manlafi heaved once and said a little prayer to himself
Another mother’s anguish and a frustrated nation
As the monster’s deadly chokehold tightens the grip
A nation in peril and a people in perpetual paralysis
Helpless and hopeless, stalked by senseless death
Dreams of messianic powers eating the Kanilai monster
A nation perennially consumed by the agony of dying
The NIA’s agents of death somber, sadistic but gleeful
Unleashed unimaginable cruelty on a vanquished people
Today Manlafi Sanyang’s name but a fitting metaphor
Our lives turned into a nightmare that will not go away
So one by one we continue to die and wallow in misery
The ghosts of Sofanyama beckoning from beyond the bolong
As the spirits of Sanimentereng weep for a people in retreat
But the sons of Samba and Malanding and Jollof Njie wait
The end of agony will come like a prayer from the heavens
When we can finally avenge for our brothers long dead and gone
As we look east towards Numuyel and Kebbeh Kunda
Wondering how many more are buried in unknown graves
How painfully they must have died and gave up their souls
To a spineless monster in the vortex of a collapsing kingdom
We will weep for thee no more our beloved Gambia
And let the still, blue waters of Kambi bolong
take Manlafi’s spirit too
To a quite place of peace and eternal redemption
For there also rests the souls of Deyda, Koro, Daba and all our dead