Histoire du Royaume de Biffeche 

History of the Kingdom of Biffeche

 

History -- Page 3

He initially gave them some chickens and sheep, and later paid thousands of dollars to complete an electric power line to the Kingdom so they can refrigerate vaccines (child mortality is high) and have lights in their homes. People donned T-shirts with "RONALD IS MY KING" on the front and "BIFFECHE IS MY COUNTRY" on the back. There was a party with African drums and dancing. The King danced. He was accepted as the new King not only by the Christians, but also by the Muslim majority in Savoigne, the Muslim Peulhs in M'Boubene, the Muslim Wolofs, Naar (Moors) and Peulhs of the countryside, and the traditionalists who still follow the ancient African religions.

The Biffeche have an unusual "Royal chair." It is woven from reeds and looks like a giant saddle-shaped (hyperbolic) leaf -- very artistic but it does not appear to be very comfortable.  More conventional thrones for His Majesty are kept in America, Scotland and Sweden. 

While in Sénégal, King Ronald visited officials at all levels of the Sénégal government to discuss the affairs of Biffeche. He also visited Mauritanie. There was apparently no help available in either country for the problem of the salty fields of his Kingdom.

After he left Africa, the King promised to return with the ashes of his predecessor Edward for burial in Biffeche. While Ronald was in America during the next 18 months, the Biffeche people built a monument to receive Edward's ashes. It was 2 meters tall, resembled a concrete metronome with a semi-circular bench in back, and had a medallion of Edward's face and an inscribed marble plaque. The languages are Sérér-Mont-Roland, Arabic, French, English and Latin.

EDWARD I

BOUR BIFFECHE

Maliku Biffeche

ROI DE BIFFECHE

KING OF BIFFECHE

REX BIFECTIÆ

Edward Charles Schafer

N. 1922 - M. 1997

Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

A few days after the ceremony, the new King wined and dined various Sénégalese officials and military commanders in Saint-Louis, along with Elizabeth, daughter of Baron Faye. He lobbied hard to get the military to repair a decrepit bridge in Biffeche that the people use to cross the marigot to work in the fields.

The King turned his attention to the ecological disaster at Old Biffeche (M'Boubene). The fields lie alongside the Marigot de Djeuss, dozens of acres of flat, bare land surrounded by raised irrigation mounds. Almost nothing grows there; not even weeds. The hard gray surface reveals a layer of white salt-like crystals just below. The Chef de Village, Sir Malick Sow, asked the King (who had just knighted him in the Order of the Crescent) for a "motopump" to pump water across the soil from the Marigot de Djeuss 20 feet away (there's already a pipe), and a new ditch to drain it toward the northeast, so they could "wash the salt from the soil as you wash a dirty tray".

The King donated many thousands of US Dollars for this, but it seems doubtful that this effort will really deal with the salinity problem. If the soil can be "washed" at all, the nutrients can be washed out along with the salt. (In sandy Biffeche, "soil" of any kind is a rarity.) The King asks for help and any information on the possibility of growing non-standard, salt-friendly crops. Two obstacles have been the assumption of the Biffeche people that they must grow standard rice, and the skepticism that Westerners exhibit about his "Kingship" whenever he contacts them.

The Kingdom maintains an American Office, 6152 115th Place, Seminole, FL 33772, USA and a European Office, APDO.Correos 47008, 28080 Madrid, Spain. At this time, the Kingdom has no support for its subjects, or representation, in Asia or Oceana.