Abstract

Bintu walked back inside the locker room, her face dripping with water, prayer beads in hand. Bintu saw me out of the corner of her eye, in a deep raspy voice she said “naka mu, lou bess?” (“what’s up man, what’s new?”), simultaneously removing her white prayer robe to reveal a black oversize Bob Marley t-shirt, a silver pendant in the shape of Africa, faded ripped skinny jeans that she wore low on her hip which showed off her dark blue tight-fitting boxer underwear. Once she removed her prayer robe, she laid it neatly into a bundle and placed it, as well as the prayer beads, in her dusty black athletic bag which lay on the floor. From the same bag, she picked up a purple baseball cap and placed it on her shaved head sideways so that it looked as if it was floating just a little to the left, squared her shoulders, puffed up her chest and began to strut slowly but purposefully over toward me. She explained that we needed to go back to her house to get the food her sister had already prepared for the pre-game meal. I agreed to accompany her to a nearby neighborhood.