Last weekend, theatre-goers converged at the Alliance Franco Gambienne amphitheatre to see the latest from the Ebunjan Theatre Troupe. The presentation was ‘The Dance of Katchikali’, a dance –drama focusing on the genesis and legend of Bakau’s sacred crocodile pool.

According to a griot narrator, the Divine power had created the sacred pool in the midst of a small forest and placed there different spirits. The spirits represent all aspects of human aspiration and endeavour: wealth, success, fertility, good health, peace. The spirits take the form of crocodiles during the day and spirits at night. Higher than all the spirits, however, and shielding superior control over them, is the Great Spirit of the pool, named Katchikali. Everything seemed satisfactory and harmonious until the Divine power created humans, man and woman.

At that point in creation, harmony became destroyed and with it the beautiful environment that flourished, as humans wreaked havoc on their surroundings, chopping trees wantonly and generally creating a negative impact on the ecosystem. The spirits revenged by evicting humans from the forest, and Katchikali subsequently installs the Bojang family as custodians of the pool following a satisfactory test of the family’s loyalty, kindness, selflessness, and caring nature. The Bojangs care for the pool to this very day and assist those who visit the spirits with their various wishes, prayers and supplications.

The story is narrated with the support of the medium of traditional music and dance, with accompaniment of kora and drums. The effect ranged from quite strong to absolutely stunning. Much of this had to do with the deft and sprightly performance of the dancers. Eddie Mends Cole was in top form again as choreographer and dancer both: his imagination, creativity and effervescence never seem to wane. His magic was first revealed in the Troupe’s production of ‘The Magic Necklace’, and re-affirmed in the Troupe’s recent showing of ‘Hand of Fate?’ Professional koraist, Alhagie Mbye, led, accompanied, interspersed sounds with his kora adroitly between and through narrations, dances, songs, episodes, and still stayed as cool as a cucumber. Well, that’s a professional for you.

Esther Emeh, the great spirit of Katchikali, was as good as any spirit: how lightly she treaded, looking immaculate, noble, exalted, and emitting all the mystique she could muster. Of course the drama would not have been the same without the impactful narrating of Felix Downes-Thomas who played the part of the griot. His stage abililities were shown in Gogol’s ‘The Government Inspector’ as the shrewd Village Postmaster who unravelled the trickster Khlestakof, and as the concerned father in ‘Hand of Fate’  by Janet Badjan-Young. Other experienced actors included Ibrahim Ceesay who also featured in the Troupe’s performance of ‘The Government Inspector’ as well as in the Classic, ‘Man for All Seasons’. Marcel Thomasi and Ousman Jarju delivered the Prologue with great artistic flourish.

Some of the audience afterwards commented about the length of the performance which was judged and pronounced ‘too short’, and ending where previous plays of the Troupe broke for intermission. Comparatively short though it was, the show was yet enjoyable. What helped it gain ground and enthusiastic reception must have been in the area of stage effects, in particular sound effects, lighting, physical effects of smoke, trees, flowing river, and certainly its colorful and well-designed costumes.

The play’s brilliant director, Janet Badjan- Young, received a most deserved ovation at the end.

An artistic masterpiece! Congratulations Ebunjan Troupe!

Renovation work at the Kachikally Crocodile Pool in Bakau came to an end. The face-lift renovation of this sacred pool, which is one of the most attractive sites to the tourists to The Gambia was carried out with the aims of promoting and developing the site to attract more visitors to the pool.

Speaking to Arts and Culture, Dodou Bojang, a traditional custodian of the crocodile pool, expressed profound and sincere gratitude to the youths of Bakau for participating actively in the renovation process. The renovation which was carried-out in the pool involved the complete covering of the most unwanted and stinky water running through the gutters that leads to the women vegetable garden, fencing of the pool vicinity among other works. He described the gesture of the youths, as the manifestation of their commitment to serve humanity. 

According to him, the crocodile pool attracts lot of visitors ranging from tourists, students from all over the country, researchers among others. Mr Bojang revealed that, the crocodile pool is known for its spiritual mystical traditional power.

Still commenting on the renovation work at the pool, Mr Bojang said that the work was long over due.  “We have been wondering and thinking of which measures we should take in order to deal with the bad smell coming from the gutters prior the renovation.  We had received numerous complain from visitors both tourists and others.  The former situation posed a real threat to the development of tourism, considering the nature and role of the crocodile pool to the tourist industry,” he said.

The custodian of the crocodile pool thanked The Gambia Tourism Authority and the National Environment Agency for the technical support accorded to the management of the Kachikally Crocodile Pool. “We hope the new anti-littering Bill will have positive impact on our environment,” he added. The renovation budget amounted to the tune of D200,000.