Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 75
57 neighbour, we met each other almost daily. He appeared to be a well-mannered person. I had good neighbourly relations with him; he always met cordially. Once I went to him for something. We spoke on several topics. One of his visitors asked me a few questions about the jama’at. As I started answering the questions, I could read expression of unpleasantness on Ahmadou’s face. After a while, Ahmadou started talking to the questioner in his local Wolof dialect. He advised him that one should never talk with these people (i. e. the Ahmadis) as they are very shrewd and very easily convince one their wrong ideas. To further infuse hatred in him for the jama’at, he started narrating a false and offensive tale about the Promised Messiah as fabricated by the Pakistani mullahs. His inimical and hypocritical attitude hurt me a great deal. I returned home but this distressful incident left a very deep impression on my mind. A few days later, he went to Banjul to see his family there; as a routine he used to go to see his family every month. This time he did not return for quite a while. I continued to see his colleagues during this period. He returned to Farafenni after about two months. I noticed that he was reduced to a skeleton. He told me that while he was away to see his family, he got fever. ‘When I went to see the doctor, he told me that I had developed the fatal disease, AIDS. ’ He was greatly worried on that account. After a short period he went to Banjul and never returned to Farafenni. After a few months he passed away.