Gatekeeper

Pa Calipha and his bow and arrow from Guinnea Bissau. He told me that in some areas of his country, locals fear the bow and arrow more than the gun

We will miss Pa Calipha. He is the respected, regal statured, 75-year old watchman living at our compound.

When I began to drive here, I reflexively reached above the windshield visor for the garage door opener (I think I’ve seen one house in the country with a garage). Then I remembered I need to honk the horn twice and within a few minutes, Pa Calipha is there to open the gate.

My girls and I communicate with him using basic greetings in Wolof or English and the universal “Salam-Aleikum.” Beyond this we use sign language. He speaks his native Fula and learned Wolof after arriving in the Gambia.

Pa Calipha is from Guinea Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, where he was a farmer and trader and also was among those fighting for independence. He is from a chief class that might have seemed a threat to the ruling party after independence; so, twenty years ago he came to live in the Gambia. He lost his three brothers in the independence war. He says this makes the prospect of returning to his hometown too painful to consider, in spite of the fact that in his own country he would be much better off, as he would have land, and importantly, family.

Adviser-Healer-Guide-Counselor

Throughout the day we see men and women of all ages seeking out Pa Calipha. He’s not quite a marabout (according to himself) but he has studied the Quran, he interprets dreams, advises about peoples’ present and future and gives out traditional prescriptions involving various charms, similar to my previous posting about “Stones in the Road.” He also described how he prays for peoples’ particular problems, particularly legal ones. I asked if he knew how effective the prayers and charms have been, and he said: “Too many cases have worked for me to count them.”