The Concupiscent Youth?

By Omoseye Bolaji

As a youngster, one of the books that fascinated me was H.G Wells’ An Outline of World History. A magnificent work that encapsulates so much of what is good about Eurocentric writing: an awareness of global history, trends, development; allied to fecund, imaginative yet economical writing.


Wells wrote the book around the time of the Second World War when the possibility of the extinction of mankind was not an outrageous prospect. Hence cynical undercurrents abound in the book, for example when he writes: “Strange as it may seem to students of history in the years to come – if there are any students in the world in the years to come…”

This blast from the past, as it were, came to my mind as I tried to ingest a particularly lurid news – or revelation – in South Africa that went on and on about how an extraordinarily large number of very young female students get pregnant in schools, especially secondary schools; this is compounded by the fact that a very high percentage of young girls in school are already hiv positive!

In simple terms, this essentially means that the life of many of these young ladies is over before it even starts! For how long have many pundits lamented the shocking levels of immorality, to wit sexual promiscuity that pervades all over the place. This is one of the terrible prices to be paid for our modern times of “democracy” “rights for all” “equality’ and so on. The ravages on poor young lives!

The powers that be, including the pertinent Ministers (of Education)) in the country are worried; so worried that they are seriously considering distributing things like condoms en masse in SA schools. As they have correctly and pragmatically pointed out: the reality is that so many youngsters are having sex, getting pregnant, contracting aids; and burying heads in the sand will not help the terrible scenario.

Condoms in schools for youngsters? My own particular generation will wince with trenchant shock if such is also the case in places like Nigeria. But what can be done to nip the situation in the bud? Is it too much to expect very young females just to go to school, face their studies en route to a tertiary education as was the wont in the past? On a personal level, I have always regarded teen-age pregnancy as an anathema. Poor old-fashioned me!

Some years ago a friend of mine started a small magazine in South Africa; that was some 6 years ago. He invited me to come on board and generate, edit stories which I did whilst the magazine was in existence for a couple of years. I remember he had a quiet 11 year old daughter at the time. A few months ago (after a long absence) I met this friend of mine again and over lunch I asked in cursory fashion about his daughter. “She’ll be around 17 years old now eh?” I quipped. “She’s getting to be a big girl now,”

The gentleman gulped. “Ja. So big that she, my little daughter, is a mother herself now!”

I flinched.

Need we start to examine the reasons why young girls are getting pregnant these days? Unwholesome peer pressure; having boyfriends, both young and old from a very early age; the insidious effects of modern technology and awareness; sugar daddies and the dubious gifts they dangle (eg trendy ‘smart’ cellphones); girls’ desire for the “good” things of life; the ironical cynical effects of early rapes, or early introduction to sex…

By a strange co-incidence, as I am typing this now I glance at my TV screen – South African television news; and emblazoned there is the headline: 17 pupils pregnant in one school! The details are as gory as ever; including midwives on standby for female kids about to deliver babies! One cannot but be filled with despair, especially when it is further revealed that a shocking amount of girls in the same school are already infected with the deadly hiv/aids disease.

What is the way forward then? At the moment, one has to come back to the reality that condoms have to be part of the situation, as it is clear that no facile words or messages will nip in the bud rampant, illicit, dangerous, sexual activities among the young. But in a way, it is a universal problem…isn’t it?