Absurd Tradition

ABSORD TRADITION

I am starting this write up with Chinua Achebe’s quote “A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.”

The African people have very strong cultural beliefs which their whole lives is tied around, these beliefs form the basis of their existence as a people. These beliefs however differ from region to region. African people from region to region have their unique ways of proposing for marriage, conducting marriage ceremony, burial, how a family should be run etc.

During my youth service in Ebonyi State in Nigeria I came across some cultural practices I never suspected or think existed. These cultural practices to me coming from the western part of the country look so strange, in this article I’m going to share one of my numerous awkward cultural practices I came across during my service year in Ebonyi State.

I served at Abakaliki, Enyandulogu Agalagu, Ishieke, Ebonyi Local Government Area to be precise. Enyandulogu Agalagu is a remote town in Abakaliki and it is about 15 minutes drive to the Abakaliki township stadium. My place of primary Assignment is located at the same town and it is very close to Ishieke town where the state university is located.

It was a very hot afternoon, I was heading home after the day’s work when I noticed group of people clustering around an open compound was a man sitting on the floor with robe tied on his wrist and feet, the man was looking so scared, he is a familiar person to me, whenever I was heading to school in the morning he always greeted me in Yoruba language, he understands the language because according to him he lived in Ogbomoso, Oyo State for several years.

On several occasions we’ve met in a local bar where we have light conversations and share experiences, I never saw him drunk, he does not take more than two or three shots of kia kia (local gin) and sometimes I or another person may buy him a bottle of beer or two and then and then we exchange greetings and he leaves for home which is just the opposite street.

So, when I saw him in that horrible condition I was disturbed and curious, I wanted to know to know what he has done. In the evening I called two of the indigene of the of the town which I have a good relationship with and inquired from them what the man has done to make people subject him into such inhuman condition, I was surprised at the answer I got.

First, I was told the crowd I saw were his own family members and the family of his in-law. Second, I was told he was beaten seriously where he was sitting in bondage by every member of the family present and that after the beating, the culture mandate him to buy drink for all the people that partook in the ritual (beaten).

The third is the shocker, I was told everything they did to him was a ritual, it must be done or else the gods of the land themselves will punish him and according to them the punishment of the gods is more severe than that of man. His offence was that he often beat up his wife and four children whenever he was drunk.

The next day I saw him putting on black singlet, he has marks of the cane all over his body, he was pushing a wheel barrow full of cocoa yam, I was told he was taking it to his in-law.

The west where I come from I don’t think such practice exist, the worse the woman do is to run for her life if she could not take it any longer. This kind of experience reminds me of the Akure monarch who battered his wife in 2010, who subsequenly died 2011 of the injuries inflicted on her by the monarch sustained Mr. Adepoju Deji. It was repoted that the mornach who relocated to the UK was deposed by Governor Olusegun Mimiko. I think it is because the king shows himself to be a very bad example to his people.

Africa is rich in culture and the culture is dynamic, I cannot believe even a man in African that is patriarchal can be so humiliated publicly for behaving in a graceless, improper and incongruous manner. But, I still believe if such practice exited everywhere I think wife beaters will not be much as we have it now.