Konkorans!

*Ever since elementary school I've sufferred from the incurable problem of unintentionally changing between past and present tenses while writing a story. I'll try to edit this, but I'm also terrified of the power shutting off before I click "Publish Post."

Konkorans could probably be a character on Sesame Street if it weren’t for the whole machete-wielding, terrorizing villages thing. They look sort of like a cross between a yeti and a scarecrow. If you are hard of hearing, you will see one and run into your house. Otherwise, you will not wait until it is within eyesight to flee, you will hide at the sound of its screams, or the clanging of its machetes, or an urgently whispered rumor that the konkorans are at Camara Kunda now and will come here soon soon.


I, however, did not want to run. I had been in The Gambia for seven months and not seen even a glimpse of a konkoran and I did not want to gulp down my lunch, go to my house, lock the door, “not open it for anyone,” and miss the konkorans. I was especially anxious to see one because they’d been keeping me up at night with their wailing. So one Friday afternoon, while Neene, Fatou, Rugi, Mamadou and Pateh ran into the house, I kept sitting outside. Their friend Gaye also kept sitting outside. Neene yelled to Gaye from the house. He turns to me and says I’ve got to go into my house. I sigh. I obey.

Fortunately, if I stand on the cement block that’s been built into my pit latrine/ bathing area I can peer over my corrugate fence, so that’s what I do. I see that the neighbors were also peering over their fence. I see the konkorans approach, three of them. They're accompanied by herds of boys and young men, some of whom were part of the konkorans posse and clang sticks together and others who'd try to run as close to the konkoran as possible and not get hit. The konkorans, for their part, mostly walk but sometimes run, and sometimes stop and shake their head up and down while whacking the ground with their machetes. The konkorans don't come much closer and in my photos they all appear as tiny little reddish-brown dots. All in all, quite disappointing.

Finally Neene gives the all clear and I move outside. The konkorans reappear about ten minutes later, but they seem like they're sticking to the field so I'm allowed to stay outside. Then! A konkoran and his posse (including one of my 12th grade students shouting, “Busy, busy!”) approach our compound. Neene runs into my house and yells at me to follow. Again, I really don’t want to, but multiple people are yelling at me so I obey. But when I go into my house, Neene is nowhere in sight. My hut is a perfect circle. It is not big, and there are not many possessions. How does it lose a grown woman? I imagine that she must have left and run to her own house—then I spot her behind my bed, in the little curved gap between the bed and the wall, peeking out of the curtain. I leave my corrugate door open but I lock the screen door. A boy stands outside demanding 50 dalasi if I want a photo of the konkoran. I refuse.

Konkoran rumors: One Konkoran a few days ago took a bicycle and rode it to chase after someone. The Konkorans went to the police and got a paper that allows them “to beat you until you die” and if you tell the police, the police won’t do anything.

The next day I am told there will be nine, no twelve, no sixteen, no seventeen konkorans.

I absolutely refuse to miss this konkoran extravaganza so I tell my host family that when the konkorans arrive I’ll go to Julia’s compound because Julia is not scared and I am not scared and we will sit outside and watch the konkorans. Neene laughs, but accepts. I told her Julia has sat outside before when the konkorans came, so maybe Neene thinks Julia’s got some sort of konkoran-deflecting powers.

After lunch Neene tells me I must go over to the Njie compound (where Julia lives) NOW. I ask her if the konkorans are coming. She says yes. I tell her I do not see or hear the konkorans. She says if I wait until I see or hear them, it will be too late—they will chase after me.

The first konkoran is spotted approaching the Njie compound and everyone dashes inside. Julia and I are told we must go inside, too, because Julia is still finishing her lunch and if the konkorans see the food, they will take it. But later we return outside and more konkorans pass by and we don’t dash inside every time and for five dalasi a konkoran walks into the compound and doesn’t threaten anyone and I take a few photos of him, which I will post if the internet ever starts working and the power doesn’t randomly shut off again.