Jackass that ate the corn - 25 Nov 2003

    A week ago early in the morning

while I was watering the garden Mr.

Demba Diao walked by like usual and

as is the custom of the Pulaar people,

greeted me with a cheery good morning.

Fifteen minutes later he comes storming

back and he wasn't very happy. Every

morning he walks out and inspects his

corn and watermelon fields. What had

happened during the night was that a

donkey got loose and ate a whole bunch

of his corn. Here, from August till January

everyone has to keep his animals on a

rope or under control. This is dictated

by the village Jarga (chief in the Pulaar language). 

The reason being to protect the crops.

    Well Demba my counterpart comes back, very

unhappily and says "A donkey ate a

whole section of corn in my field".

the whole village is up in arms as no

one knows or wants to admit which donkey

it was.I was perplexed to understand how he

knew it was a donkey. He said he could

tell by the droppings ... there were donkey

droppings and not cow or goat deposits.

What happens if they know who was

the bonehead who didn't tie up the animal

properly then they are responsible for

the damage. Till this day no one has

come forth with any information to the

where abouts of this jackass who eats

other people's corn in the night.

    Here is the description, face of a

donkey, gray complexion with a black

stripe running over the back from front

leg to front leg. Also about 4 ft. tall and

probably answers to the word 'baaba'

which means donkey in Pulaar. I would

imagine that it has a pretty big stomach

seeing as there was a lot of corn missing.

If you have any information regarding the

whereabouts of this corn-eating jackass

please call us at 1-800-Goundaga. We

can't give you any reward money cause

the jackass ate the corn he was going

to sell. But it would make Mr. Diao happy

and lay to rest the mystery.