By Kebba S. Juwara
Bo’raay dingo
Bo’raay dingo: A spirit that possesses unborn babies and replaces their human souls. After birth, they leave the body after a few weeks, months, or year, leaving the baby soul-less (dead). When the mother conceives again, they return for the same cycle.
The condition of Duta embodies the adage that no grip on power remains forever. For so long he has maltreated the Bo’raay dingos; for so long he has banished them. “His name pierces terror in their hearts;” people would say. Duta inherited this supernatural power from his father who also got it from his father. It has been transmitted for generations unend. But was it wise to centre your marabout work on fighting Bo’raay dingos: One who finds solace in dying and coming back? One that enjoys inflicting pain on its human mother, and just when she sighs relief, it strikes her with another pain. Who fights such a creature? But this was not Duta’s choice. It was inheritance, a family occupation.
In the last three weeks, Duta has seen in verbatim what he foresaw in his vision many times; that these Bo’raay dingos that he specialized in killing will one day end him and his family. The Bo’raay dingos can be removed from a human body, but cannot be killed. They hide in big baobab trees, and return to the wombs of their human mothers for another round of futile pregnancy.
His two daughters fell ill overnight and none of them saw the dawn of the morning. As the people went to bury them, the sun and moon eclipsed and a dark shadow with trembling and deafening sound casted over the village. By the time the place cleared, the people hurriedly buried the two girls fearing another misfortune may befall them.
As soon as the eclipse passed, it did not take a moment long enough to boil two eggs when another news broke out. Duta’s only son, Alako fell victim to the same cruel fate. His neck swelled; a grotesque, another testament to the Bo’raay dingos' power, and in a final agonizing moment, his throat burst open, silencing his cries forever.
However, none of these were anywhere close to what was left on the way for Duta. The Bo’raay dingos had a master plan against him. Well-thought out and laid. They did not want to kill him directly. That would be too simple and unsatisfactory as revenge for the number of Bo’raay dingos he subjected to severe pain. Duta used various ways to expel Bo’raay dingos from the bodies they occupied. Some, he pierces a red burning steel into the chest of the child or baby until the Bo’raay dingo succumbs and leaves. Some, he soaks them in a pepper solution after cutting the skin with razors multiple times.
The Bo’raay dingos lined up with their weapons waiting for their revenge on him. They will pay back in his dream, and he will feel the pain in real life. The Bo’raay dingos will hold his eyes back when he wants to wake up. Knowing fully well what lies ahead of him, Duta refused to sleep. But what can he do? He is not an ant. There are two things every water drinker cannot fight; old age and sleep.
Duta drank all solutions to keep his eyes open; He constantly chewed cola nuts to keep him awake. He spends most of his time inside the river with his legs dipped in the water and sitting on his wooden stool, so that sleep will not overcome him. The immortal impatient revengeful Bo’raay dingos wait in ambush for him. It is quite a battle no ordinary man can fathom. To most people, the Bo’raay dingos die when Duta is done with them but you cannot remove darkness from the night. Bo’raay dingos are death and they are life. They give nothing, and take everything.
After fighting for several weeks and days, finally, the doom’s day, the day of reckoning dawned. He finally lost his grip on awakeness and a dark abyss of slumber took over him. It was a precise moment of transition before he opened his eyes into his dream. Perhaps, teleported into the Bo’raay dingos’ realm, he knew he was in the torture chambers of the Bo’raay dingos. Each Bo’raay dingo he saw, he remembers. He remembers well that he inflicted pain on them. He sees vengeance in their hearts, blood in their eyes, and the very weapon he used in killing each, in their hands.
The rooms were dim but good enough to see clearly. Dashes of blood stains can be seen on the walls. The air was intense with smoke and the smell of burning flesh. There was also a strong smell of blood. He became conscious of himself in the dream and knew what awaited him.
As he looked on, the Bo’raay dingos came lurking down on him. The first one was his very first victim. This one’s human mother had given birth to her seven times. In all these comings, it dies on the seventh day when people would be gathering for the naming ceremony. It inflicted a lot of pain on its human mother. When its human mother came to Duta’s shrine, Duta tied the baby on its legs and tied it on a pole and lit fire underneath it. The smoke forcefully suffocated the baby and with it, the Bo’raay dingo. It had been smoked with that smoke and got stunned from it. Ever since, the Bo’raay dingo remained stunned and thus, unable to go and interfere with another pregnancy. By this, its human mother bore children which survived. On this day, he also comes with joy to avenge his past fate.
All the Bo’raay dingo made a never-ending straight line. Each came with its own weapon with which Duta removed them from the baby they possessed.
Duta knew what exactly lay ahead of him, but somehow hoped for a miracle. But he was going to need more than a miracle to avert the horrific fate he designed for himself. Turning around in fear, he saw the Bo’raay dingo he drowned in the river. Its nose is still releasing water. Its eyes are red and full of anger. Not so far from it, is another Bo’raay dingo he smoked. He lit fire, placed a lot of half dried leaves on it and when it began to give out smoke, he placed a big blanket on it and forced the Bo’raay dingo in it. It cried to its death. This Bo’raay dingo too came with its bundle of half dried leaves, fully ready for revenge.
The line of the Bo’raay dingos stretched all the way to where Duta's sight ends- A testament of his lifelong massacre on these creatures. He thought to himself that he was only helping poor women who these Bo’raay dingos torment. But the Bo’raay dingos are seeing something different. To them, this is their nature, and no man should interfere in their way of life.
They came upon him slowly but surely. In his real life where he seemed to be sleeping, the consequences were already getting manifested in him. The tide had retreated and Duta fell from his stool onto the wet mud. Already in a monstrous slumber, he couldn't feel himself anywhere apart from the dream.
The Bo’raay dingos came and held him. Even in this moment of revenge, they feared him, but the insatiable desire for revenge was too devilish for any fear to shroud. They got him on his legs and dragged him on his back. When they got to their real torture chamber, the Bo’raay dingos again formed a line and each came with its weapon towards him.
The first Bo’raay dingo carried a boiling pot of water containing a mixture of roots and leaves as a solution. They laid him on his back and slowly poured the boiling solution on his face as he had done to the Bo’raay dingo.
However, instead of his face burning and disorienting, the boiling water only served him pain.
Then he saw the next Bo’raay dingo coming with a knife. He knew exactly what that meant, his skin will be sliced and an explosive powder will be applied on it. He would then be hung over a blazing fire for as long as he had done it to the Bo’raay dingo. Behind this Bo’raay dingo is another one with a knife. He remembered how he used the knife to cut through the chest of the Bo’raay dingo to reap its heart and bury it in the bottom of an old well.
Behind this Bo’raay dingo stood another one with dry mud still stuck in its nostrils. Duta used mud to block the nostrils of this Bo’raay dingo thereby suffocating it. Its eyes were red and a wicked line of blood vessel ran through it.
Duta's fate is sealed. He would be sleeping but feeling all the pain. And when he wakes up, he will bear the pain of the whip of revenge for the rest of his miserable life. He would be the last of his family. The entire clan will be cleared in his very lifetime.
Kebba S Juwara was born in Sanjal Kani Kunda Suba, Upper Badibu, North Bank Region of the Gambia. He attended St. Peter's Technical High School. After his graduation in 2015, he got admission to The Gambia College where he majored English Language and Agriculture.
After his graduation from The Gambia College, Kebba taught both English Language and Literature.
In 2022, Kebba published his first poetry collection, entitled; "Spilt Beans". This was followed by a novella, "Mr. Corrupt’s Son" in January 2023, and another poetry collection, "An Obelisk for Grandpa" in December 2023. Later in 2024, his novel titled "Before the Rapine" was published by Ukiyoto Publishing abroad.
Kebba is also the only Gambian to secure a place in the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival and Memorial Anthology and Wicked Shadow Press' anthology of short stories in 2024.
Kebba’s Submission to the WAY OF LIGHT POETRY MAGAZINE won the title of the publication and thus, his poem, MY INSPIRATION becomes the title of the publication. He also won third place in the International Open University's Global Poetry Competition.