A cursory look at THE TORMENTONE!

BY OMOSEYE BOLAJI

It is always a heart-rending sight and spectacle – familiar not only in Nigeria but all over West Africa. The phalanx of the unfortunate, with horrifying diseases – terrible afflictions that have to be seen to be believed

This unfortunate corps of people do not lie supine in their private houses or hospitals – they are right there in the open with mind-boggling injuries, gaping, festering sores, diseased veins or arteries patently visible from the outside, incredible tumours, medicine defying growths on the body etc. In public places, these people can be seen begging for their living, part of the talakawa (very poor), bringing tears to the eyes.

They can be seen by the roadsides, around bus termini; and just like in the old ancestral days they can often be seen at the King’s palaces even now – knowing that people will often give them gifts and alms, often heart broken, stricken with disbelief that such stunted, suffering people could exist.- stunted

Because the sight of this phalanx of afflicted people is so common in West Africa much of the horror that one would normally feel whilst seeing them apparently has vanished. I remember whilst growing up in places like Ibadan, Lagos, Kano how horrified I constantly was upon seeing what is no doubt the wretched of the earth – with their unedifying afflictions. Sometimes, such beggars would actually come very close to one so that one could see, eg the bloodstained holes in their gaping, ravaged chests – and this would have a vicarious empathetic effect, resulting in one giving them some money

It used to pain me that some people, especially the comfortable ones, would just dismiss such beggars by saying things like “This is blackmail. these people are pests” I used to think it was exceedingly unsympathetic of such people – as it is understandable that these beggars would have to survive one way or the other since there was no real, institutionalised buffer against their suffering “Pests, pests, tormentone – as they say in Italy” a former employer of mine used to refer to these beggars as they besieged his car regularly.

Strangely enough in South Africa such people – with extraordinary injuries, afflictions, patent eyesores – cannot be seen en masse in public places. It can even be argued that one can hardly see them at all. So it is not easy to paint the grisly picture in west Africa for many South Africans. What one intermittently comes across in SA, whether black, white or coloured, is a solitary beggar, blind man, or “half crazy” element; and this is VERY tame whilst juxtaposed with the army of the unfortunate in west Africa

Many might ask: why aren’t such horrific sights available in South Africa? Does it mean people with heart-rending diseases prefer to stay at home? That there are special homes for such people, so they do not constitute grisly sights in public? That such people are anyway limited in number in SA? The most accurate observation, I can state from experience, is that there are a number of special homes for such people in South Africa.

In any event the tormentone come across as very limited in public places South Africa. What is more common here are the so called street kids, the tsotsis, the skelms who are also tormentone in their own way – but often in a polite, meretriciously harmless way.

And they are almost always friendly, well-spoken, courteous, even if potentially dangerous. They often ask for money and other items from vehicle drivers, from the general public, and some of them confess to horrific crimes they have committed, once they become somewhat close to you. These pests also have their ways of vandalising things like public phones (for the money – coins - !)

Anyway let us just congratulate South Africa for preparing to host the world now, re the latest edition of the Fifa senior World Cup. It is a gargantuan achievement which goes with a myriad of responsibilities. South Africa has been pulling out all the stops to ensure that the event is a stellar success – from the infrastructural innovations, to the logistics. Here’s wishing all the African teams at the fiesta – Nigeria, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria and Cameroon the best of luck as the event gets underway!