|
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

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.
|