{"id":29556,"date":"2023-02-08T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/childhood-and-early-life-growing-up-from-rural-gambia"},"modified":"2023-02-08T15:28:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T15:28:17","slug":"childhood-and-early-life-growing-up-from-rural-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/childhood-and-early-life-growing-up-from-rural-gambia","title":{"rendered":"Childhood and early life: Growing up from rural Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Back in the days, those days when poverty was at its maximum height, things were very hard for a lot of people. Life and livelihood were a living hell. Destitution was threatening a lot of people, families, and areas. That harsh nature of poverty. Those were the days of \u2018bee kucha, saama bukoli, sininding beh Allah bulu\u2019.<\/b><\/p>\n

As a villager, born into and brought up in a struggling family, growing up from the countryside, you largely realize that poverty is a great enemy to humanity. Because odds are \u2013 your parents are either poor or you live with poor people. So by chance or by circumstance, you\u2019re bound to know or recognize poverty very early in your life.<\/p>\n

In those days, going to school was a great challenge for many kids. From struggling with essential materials like uniforms and shoes, to indispensable stuffs like stationery, lotions and suchlike. Sometimes, even food, commonly monikered \u201clunch\u201d per se. That perfect depiction of a true life poverty that attacked many people from get-go: the one that threatened their bright futures, trimmed their odds of turning things around, for themselves and for their families \u2013 the one that attracts inconsideration, discrimination and marginalization \u2013 both within the family and in the neighborhood; that\u2019s the very poverty I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

Going to school in an empty stomach, without any lunch, with the expectation that there\u2019d be breakfast at home by break time around midday, only to discover that mom has gone to the rice field or pounding some coos at the backyard, or rice that she\u2019d cook for lunch that very day; that\u2019s a bad feeling second to none. That\u2019s the real life heartbreak. The practical demo. The invasive type.<\/p>\n

Those days when you\u2019d wake up in the morning, only to realize that all your clothes have been wet by a night rain. The days when you\u2019d realize that all the clothes you have, including the ones that you put on during Tobaskis or when Yahya Jammeh was on tours wouldn\u2019t even fill up a pan, are the ones I\u2019m talking about. Poverty isn\u2019t far from death on the wickedness scale. They\u2019re siblings. One is masculine whereas the other is feminine. The only difference is: you can overcome the other, but not the other one.<\/p>\n

There used to be dark days when they\u2019d send you away from school for fees, only for your dad to go with you to the school or tell you to ask the headmaster to give him some time to settle it because there was no money at that juncture. The days when mom would send you to collect fish money from dad, only to see that he had only two currency notes \u2013 a ten and a five dalasis \u2013 with some coins that would only afford jumbo from Mariama Sellou and a smoked fish from Mama Kudas.<\/p>\n

If you come from a family where you\u2019d hoe a farmland nearly a month but wouldn\u2019t even finish it because of insufficient machinery or daddy\u2019s inability to hire labour, you\u2019d know what I\u2019m talking about. If you know that, you\u2019d also know how it feels to fetch firewood in the bush at the peak of such rainy seasons. There was hunger and fatigue all hiding in common poverty, the poverty that claimed the respect of many people, conditions, and circumstances. That poverty that catalyzes women\u2019s journey to widowhood when their husbands feel sick or get old. The one that even attracts livestock to use your veranda as shelter. That\u2019s the one I\u2019m referring to.<\/p>\n

If you were born and brought up into a poor family, you must know or recognize poverty of all forms and degrees. Even if you succeed subsequently, you\u2019d still bear memories of such critical life events. You can kill poverty but you can\u2019t kill its memories, unfortunately. If this isn\u2019t the case for you, then it\u2019s a de\u0301ja\u0300 vu.<\/p>\n

However, in those days, many people were happy. Maybe even happier than now. Maybe due to their gratitude. Because there\u2019s happiness in gratitude. Today, many people are comfortable instead. Maybe poverty is evolving. But the finest recipe for happiness is probably gratitude. If you\u2019re grateful, you should have enough reasons to be happy on the reminiscence of your childhood and early life from the countryside. It doesn\u2019t necessarily need to follow the script or descend into these extremes. If you can just relate it, without minding the degree or duration, maybe you\u2019d see the poverty I\u2019m talking about. And you\u2019d be grateful and happy for whatever life has presented you so far.<\/p>\n

This might not be the exact or mainstream depiction for you particularly as life events differ from person to person, place to place, but verily; this isn\u2019t a hyperbole either. I don\u2019t like it. Euphemisms and paradoxes are my literary devices. And seeking relevance isn\u2019t my cup of tea if you know that this is my thirty-fourth article on this platform alone since 2020. Albeit some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, this is just a general depiction of what some other villagers would normally endure in childhood and early life, the one that their parents would go through just to eke out a living or see them through school \u2013 the one that you and I can also relate and now smile in gratitude.<\/p>\n

Batou Saidy is a Public Health Officer and a writer. He\u2019s a football fanatic and a Manchester United aficionado.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Back in the days, those days when poverty was at its maximum height, things were very hard for a lot of people. Life and livelihood were a living hell. Destitution was threatening a lot of people, families, and areas. That harsh nature of poverty. Those were the days of \u2018bee kucha, saama […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":29555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-29556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nChildhood and early life: Growing up from rural Gambia - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Back in the days, those days when poverty was at its maximum height, things were very hard for a lot of people. 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