> Is there any real document anywhere on this earth that explains one step at a
> time how to create a graphical text .gif file with gimp?
> 
> The stuff on www.gimp.org seems to refer to refer to some software somewhere 
> else on the planet that is not gimp as it is in recent pkgarc.
> 
> I just want to produce a simple .gif with black text and a white background,
> and as far as I can tell. gimp can't do that or much of anything else either.

  http://www.gimp.org/tutorials.html

This seems to me what you want...

If you want to save an image as GIF, you have to tell Gimp that the
image is index-coloured. Click left button on the image and follow
'Image', 'Mode' and pick 'Indexed...'. Now you can select 'GIF' format
when you save the image.

HTH,
Masao