Column | The Dilemma of Fa Dembo Kambi as a Parable of One Messy Little Country
By Saul Saidykhan
An old man name Fa Dembo Kambi who is yet to fully recover from a chronic disease he has been suffering from for three decades, is a very unhappy man.
Despite his very humble beginnings, Fa Dembo surprised almost everyone by surpassing all expectations people had of him as a child.
Because of his success in building a large conglomerate, he had seven wives and two dozen children half of whom are male. All are adults now
Nearly a decade ago, Fa Dembo had his last serious health crisis.
Due to that exigency, and because many of the sons he had confidence in as capable successors of his were indisposed at the time, he settled for Molfa, one of his less talented and unimaginative sons as Caretaker CEO. The appointment was supposed to be temporary.
However, egged on by his greedy and manipulative wife, soon after taking over the corporation, Molfa started dividing the large family along maternal lines conspiring with his wife’s people and anyone else who could help him keep his position – a job he is demonstrably terrible at.
Now stupendously wealthy from using the corporate treasury as his piggy bank, he continues to use a mix of inducement and blackmail to maintain his parasitic dependents. Molfa is particularly worried about the more popular Bakari Sedy who as their father’s oldest son is seen as his natural successor as CEO of the conglomerate that has several major subsidiaries which are all faltering.
To contain Bakari Sedy, Molfa has handpicked the heads of all the key subsidiaries who have also become very wealthy through corrupt enrichment in their respective positions. Like Molfa, the Segment chiefs without whom there cannot be any real change in the corporation, are all vehemently opposed to Bakari Sedy taking over the top job because they fear he will – at the least, replace them, prosecute, or even jail them. They are resolved not to allow Bakari Sedy to take over. “Any other son of Kambi, but Bakari Sedy” is the inflexible stance of Molfa’s key appointees.
Yet, Bakari Sedy and most of his large in-family supporters insist on maintaining tradition by installing him as the rightful heir to their father’s seat. The two sides seem stuck in their antagonistic positions.
Molfa’s team see Bakari Sedy as mean Scrooge eager to derail their gravy train while the older brother’s side call and view the poseur as Gikitinya – the hope-dasher. None of the camps seem to realize that they’re engaged in a dangerous game of MAD- mutually assured destruction.
Lying prostrate in his sickbed, old Fa Dembo kept whispering to one of his daughters who is his main caregiver:
“everything I have worked for is being ruined. My businesses are failing, and my children are suffering needlessly while their brothers are fighting ego battles. Can’t they see that preserving and building on my legacy is more important than any specific son of mine taking over?”
Why bother with fiction when reality is stranger and more captivating?
About the author:
Saul Saidykhan, is a author, creative writer and financial professional.