Convoy

Heading home after spending a lovely day exploring an eco-tourism resort (more on that in an upcoming blog entry), the four of us – dusty and hot – in the back seat fall in and out of sleep. Suddenly, we are awakened from our half nap by shocking sirens – the first I’ve heard in the Gambia – and speeding cars. Ours quickly pulls to the side of the road; so do all the other “regular” cars on the street. From the distance I can make out two bodies perched over each car with a siren (about four of them); as they get closer, I see the men on the vehicles are carrying machine guns. Then, a brand-new, extra-large black Infiniti SUV approaches, followed by another Land Rover with sirens and armed guards, and this is followed by a black Hummer stretch-limo + pick-up bed in the back of the limo. Then, another armed car + siren; and a final black Hummer, and then a whole slew of speeding, sirened, cars with ominous-looking young, armed men over their rooftops, driving wildly on both sides of the road.

We’ve just witnessed the President’s convoy. Later in the evening I heard that people and livestock crossing the street, and others in cars that didn’t pull over quickly enough, have been killed by past convoys.

The massive armed convoy belies the fact that this is a tiny and peaceful country. One historic detail that might explain such an entourage: this President was a sergeant in the army and a bodyguard of the previous President, when he staged a successful coup to oust the head of state, in 1994. He was less than 30 years old at the time, and made the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest head of state in the world. Others within the military ranks – as recently as last month – have tried to oust the current President.