GAMWRITERS

A Krio Engagement and other stories, is the first Gambian collection of short stories published in 1987 in Banjul by BPMRU, under the pen name Nana Humasi. It is a book of 103 pages with illustration for each novel. This collection is composed of nine novels of which seven have already been published in the magazine West Africa. The novels deal with different subjects most of which depicting some of our Gambian social believes and culture. The vitality and daily excitement of the daily life of residents of Bathurst (Banjul) in their everyday life can be discovered in many of the stories. The first story, The Man Who Came To His Own Requiem, sets the story in December 1946. The freighter and passenger steamer, HMCS Lady Denham (named after the wife of Governor of the Gambia from 1928 to 1930, Sir E. Denham), will sink after colliding with another steamer, HMCS Vic 20 three miles above Nianimaru. There were no deaths but one of the passengers, Pa Alaba Roberts, was thought drowned when he was not found after three days and therefore his family offered the customary three day charity. It’s at this moment that Pa Alaba, who was not death, arrived in Bathurst when the people were at the requiem. The reaction of those who saw him was of fear and dread instead of joy, because as they were convinced Pa Alaba was death, what they believed they were seeing was his ghost. How will he arrive at being accepted by these people and especially his family who share the same sentiments with the others? The last story, Week-end in July recalls the attempted coup d’état of July 1981 and the fear, destruction, senseless deaths and the economic disaster it brought along.