AFRICAN BRUTALITY

There are behaviours which when exhibited in developed countries are considered brutish and a psychological disorder. Behaviours like fighting, forcing your way into a cue etc… Those kinds of behaviours are considered normal on the African continent.

Any time there is a cue, let’s say for transport or anything, be sure to find the strongest in front and not the first nor the meek. Those that are considered are the pregnant women and nursing mothers. Apart from that, it is a battle for the strong when boarding a vehicle. A friend told me of a friend who travelled overseas and went to a station for a vehicle to his destination. He forced his way into the car but no one struggled with him.  No one sat close to him in the car and the bus conductor did not take any money from him. He then enquired from others who told him they thought he was a mad man because of his behaviour. Not here in Africa, it is a battle of the strongest unless you want to be the last to leave the station or perhaps sleep at the station.

If you are provoking someone in Africa, be sure to test your strength against his or hers. This is because many Africans will test their strengths if they happen to feel unjustly treated. Know that, you will be beaten to a pulp if you do not mind the way you talk. That does not mean they go about beating anyone without provocation. No one, except of course a mad man or a drunk will hit anyone without provocation.  Insulting unfairly or a woman hitting a man first is suicidal. It simply means “Please beat me until I’m dead today”. Few of the egoistic men in Africa will let you go if you try that as a woman. Now men are careful because the laws on domestic violence are working and a man who hits a woman can be jailed. But reporting a man is considered a divorce in Africa. His family members will make sure to nullify your marriage before he is even bailed. So many women choose to remain silent when their husbands assault them. Others simply do not want to report such abuses because they claim the court takes one’s precious time.

Yesterday I was teaching a class of 50 boys and 4 girls, then I heard one boy tell one girl;

If you do not take care, I will slap you!

I was taken aback, I didn’t know what to say at first because the students love, respect and fear me at the same time. So to make that kind of comment in my presence was shocking. And the whole class was quiet awaiting my verdict. When I recovered, I asked him why he would ever want to hit a girl. The 18 year old boy told me she had insulted him. Then I told him that no matter the provocation a boy shouldn’t hit a girl because it was cowardly. The entire population of boys shouted “That’s unfair madam” with some shouting “No, this one we won’t understand”

They are all trained to be egoistic and feel supreme. All African boys are! So the boys of at most 18 years will not stand insults from their female colleagues even if they angered them first.  I spoke at length but they felt I was on the side of the females because I also share their gender. So I finally gave up and continued teaching.

It then dawned on me that being physical in Ghana may take a while to faze. Although I hope that those anger management and psychological disorders associated with fighting will not take over this brutality. This is because I see a flaw in that way of solving physical assault problems. There is the likelihood of those involved believing in the imaginary psychosis psychiatrists associate with physical assault. I know many people will vote for the anger management sessions because when people know they’ll be branded insane when they vent their anger, they will never engage in testing their strength when angry. But the thought of sane people going bonkers because they have been made to believe that they are mad because they threw a fist is something I do not want to envision.

So yes, as of now, most Africans are brutish and I pray for change. I hope you are too.

   Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © 2014.