It's the 15th?I'm writing this on the 13th actually so yayyy for progress? ?How are we doing??? I hope we're all staying safe. This pandemic is still back on the rise, and so is its more evil, shall still remain nameless twin. It is imperative that we observe all safety protocols, unless you absolutely can't because your life truly does depend on it.
Today, we're doing an opinionated reply to a story I recently read. It is not what I would do but I can't tell what I would do because it really is a dicey one. I'm going to summarise, after which I will give my 2 cents. Let's go!
The Story
Disclaimer :I do NOT ow?n this story in any way. I read it on someone's status and I cannot ascertain its origin. The names I'm giving the characters are so that it's easier to follow the story. The original story is anonymous.
Characters: Lily(our main character), Tricia(her little sister) and Mama(their mother).
Lily is a university student who's on vacation. Lily lives in her own apartment, away from her mother and sister. Lily's father is no more.
Lily decides to take her sister out on a girls' girls' fun day out. During their enjoyment, their mom calls and requests that Tricia comes home so she can look up the house, as it is getting late. Lily and Tricia decide to stay out a little longer, despite their mother's request.
When Lily takes Tricia home, their mother has turned out the lights and gone to bed. Lily feels a negative energy and decides to stay the night.
In the morning, she is woken up by screams from her mother and her sister. When she rushes to the hall, she sees Mama angrily yelling and flogging the life out of Tricia, who's yelling and crying in pain.
She's so enraged, she picks up a frying pan and hits Mama and doesn't stop even when Mama is off Tricia and crying and begging for mercy. She hits her for all the times she was as young and as dependent as Tricia and had to endure similar pains.
Eventually, it's Tricia who gets her to stop and after looking at their mother on the floor, swollen and bruised, Lily helps Tricia to pack a few things and takes her to live with her.
Two weeks later, Mama calls Tricia to apologise for the abuse. Lily and Mama do not speak.
Lily wonders if she is the villain in the situation.
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Two Cents
You can look at this from 2 angles. Lily is right or Lily is wrong. I dare to introduce a third angle; Lily is both right and wrong. Yes, it's not right to abuse a person and she could have simply stunned her mother into stopping with the first hit. But, from the story, it sounds like the abused finally getting a reprieve. Yes, what she did, by African societal standards, is disrespectful and borderline witchcraft but was she supposed to stand by and watch her mother beat her little sister into a coma?
With the African society, as it stands, had she decided to go and get help from neighbours, the best she'd have gotten was them pulling her mother off of her sister, a lecture on the consequences of disobedience and her mother would have gotten a slap on the wrist for being too harsh with the punishment but not with the punishment itself.
Too many African children have gone wayward in one way or another due to the normalized terrible abuse practices. Even if Mama felt disrespected, there were better ways she could have handled her, anger. She could have subjected Tricia to a plethora of house chores that would have set the girl on the straight path. She could have grounded her from going out to other social events. Cause and effect consequence.
Corporate punishment rarely does the trick African parents have been automated to think it does as a result of their own trauma responses.
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Thank you for reading. I had higher hopes when I started this one. What's your take on the story? I'd love some feedback ?
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