Blood on our hands: the huge cost of ignorance

Case I: North-Central Nigeria

Fatima, a 15-year-old high school student, wrote a love letter to a teacher expressing her love. The teacher in question took the letter to the school principal who then called an emergency school assembly where the girl was called and her letter was read to the entire assembly. She was then publicly punished, with boos of derision from the other students. The girl returns home crying from the public humiliation she has suffered. In her opinion, she will never survive the shame and humiliation and will never be able to hold her head up again in school or in the community. Unfortunately, her parents were not home when she returned. So she bought some rat poison, locked herself in her room and drank the poison. When discovered after a few hours, she was still alive but later died in hospital.

Case 2: South West Nigeria

Tunde, a 4-year-old boy and student in an urban elementary school, began having convulsions that lasted a few minutes. The teachers made a fire and put the boy's feet on top of the fire because they believed his epilepsy was caused by "ile tutu", which means "cold from the ground" according to a Yoruba mythology. The poor boy ended up with significant burns to the soles of both feet. Her parents are considering legal action against the school, but as these things unfold in Nigeria, it could soon become a "family affair". "They were willing"; "Let's just thank God the boy is alive"…..and then the case dies a natural death.

Case 3 South West Nigeria

Iya Tunji is a 65-year-old widow who lives alone in a rural community somewhere in southwestern Nigeria. Two of her 3 children died: one from complications of childbirth and the other from a car accident a few years ago. Rumors circulate that she is a witch and that she killed her husband and two of her children. For a year, she barely leaves her house and does not interact with her neighbors. Sometimes she walks out of her house crying and begging for forgiveness – even from random strangers on the street. This behavior did not please the neighbors who then organized the youth and broke down his door in an attempt to obtain a full confession. The crowd demanded that she tell them all of her sins, and she duly obliged. She was responsible for the deaths of her children and for all the negative things that had happened in the village over the years, she said. It was the only proof they needed to blame her. She was beaten with sticks and clubs and stoned until she breathed her last. His son reported to the police, but they claimed it was a mob action and they could not hold any individual responsible. He was advised to bury his mother quietly and leave the rest to God.

Comment:

Case I: This young girl's preventable suicide is heartbreaking because it reveals such insensitivity of teachers to the developmental realities of adolescence. A phase of life that is characterized by feelings of insecurity, low self-esteem and fragile ego issues - where even the appearance of pimples on the face can be a major crisis that would make them want to hide of their peers. This is also a very impressionable age where infatuations can and do happen and should have been handled better by the school management. The humiliation inflicted on this young girl was not only ignorant but harsh and very cruel.

Case2: Widespread ignorance of epilepsy is a recurring but very disturbing theme. Sometimes it comes from other parents or the school. But this again underlines the need for health education (physical and mental health) for teachers in our schools.

Case 3: All over the world, women live longer than men. Second, depression is twice as common in women as in men. It is also common in older people and can be characterized by feelings of sadness, lack of appetite, fatigue, feelings of guilt, and confessing to crimes not committed or claiming responsibility for anything negative. which occurred. Thus, it is very likely that Iya Tunji was depressed.

Conclusion: These cases are adaptations of real events that occurred in the recent past; and no one knows for sure how many similar cases go unreported. We all have blood on our hands, due to the widespread ignorance and lack of understanding, and associated stigma and discrimination that persist in our society. It is our collective responsibility, you and I, to push back this costly ocean of ignorance.