My Court ‘Gambia Experience’

This is the final of four articles from Trust director Dee Bixley, reflecting on her recent visit to our projects in The Gambia.

Pursuing a longstanding land dispute case on behalf of donors to the Trust, Kira has received notification to attend court at 10am on Wednesday. I must attend too, she says, because it will be an excellent addition to my ‘Gambia Experience’.

General Manager Fanding has driven us here and he will help with translation. We arrive spot on time.

Naively, I’d assumed there would be some sort of Court building but as we walk into the Chief’s compound, I see rows of plastic chairs under the mango trees and realise this is Court. The chairs are empty and yet their presence does suggest that something will happen, sometime.

Gradually people do arrive, greet friends, sit down, have a chat or a nap. There’s an overwhelming air of resignation.

Meanwhile, all around and seemingly oblivious of our presence, the women of the compound go about their unceasing work, collecting water, pounding grain, hanging out washing - whilst tiny tots play in the sand, and goats, hens and chicks weave in and out of the chairs.

I find myself thinking about an old Fry’s chocolate advertisement for Five Boys: “Desperation. Pacification. Expectation. Acclamation. Realisation. It’s Fry’s”.

Three hours later, when the Court Clerk arrives, I have my Fry’s moment, entering what I can only describe as a state of ecstasy. OK it isn’t the Chief himself, but something is happening! I watch as the Clerk carefully dusts the table and then - is it him or the Court Usher - who wheels in the special Chief’s chair? And where did the Call to Prayer fit in? When you’re ecstatic you tend to lose track of the order of things. Meanwhile, Kira continues with her crosswords.

Fifteen minutes later the Chief himself arrives and tackles the first case of the day; witnesses bob up and down stating their evidence, and documents are scrutinised. Then, four hours and twenty minutes after we arrived, the morning session is over. Amazingly, Kira is beckoned forward and given a future date for her diary. She seems quite pleased. This Gambia Experience, it’s exhausting!