Suffering and Smiling

By

Tochukwu Ezukanma

maciln18@yahoo.com

 

 

Some of these wonna-be Whites, the Lebanese, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, etc, in Nigeria can sometimes be downright obnoxious. Pompously, they strut around, behaving as though they are racially superior to Nigerians. They often treat their Nigerian employees as the scum of the earth. In their own country, these Nigerians accept such insults and inhumanity, from foreigners because the social structure in this our wealth conscious country is so skewed against the have-nots. So, the under-privileged just suffer. Timid, poor, ignorant and cowered, they seek no redress.  

 

On this particular day at the Big Treat, one of these Chinese, or Korean-owned (both nationalities look and sound the same to me) stores at Ikeja, a Chinese, or Korean manager was scolding two of her Nigerian employees. The problem, as I could deduce, was that the manager instructed the two employees to clean the shelves. When the manager inquired if the shelves have been cleaned, she was told yes. But when she came to inspect the shelves, she found out that the employees were just beginning to clean them.

 

It is understandable that managers, sometimes, have to employ tough arm tactics to keep their employees in line, and to get their jobs done. However, what bothered me as this Korean lady dressed-down these young sales-girls were the harshness, arrogance and contempt in her voice. She talked as though she was rebuking a slave. In spite of their pleadings and apologies, she raged on, berating them, as though the era of slavery is not yet over. Finally, she stated imperiously, you are suspended for 1 week. Reflexively, I screamed, “wow, who is this woman. Why does she talk like she is God? Who does she think she is?”

 

Apparently, impressed by my expressed disdain for this unbearable haughtiness, one of the other sales girls sneakily, responded, “that is the way she talks.” The way she talks? Why would these ladies accept to be talked to like that, routinely? Because they are poor, helpless, desperate for a job, or acutely aware that their society offers them no protection, not even from the most dehumanizing abuse and humiliation?   

 

As the suspended sales-girl, a young woman of about twenty, passed by, I asked her, so that means that you are fired? With a sheepish smile, she replied, “she did not fire me. She only suspended me.” I was deeply disturbed by her diffident demeanor and that awkward smile on her face. It was a smile borne out of a feeling of disgrace and a sense of helplessness. It was an outward indication of an instinctive effort to uphold whatever was left a bruised ego. It was a sign of an unconscious attempt to salvage a battered lady hood. I was incensed.

 

The social cost of such psychological abuse to young sales girls may not be readily evident. The import of our schools is obvious to us. In them, we shape the future, as we mold the character, quality and disposition of future mothers and fathers, pastors and teachers, writers and thinkers, politicians and public servants, leaders and followers, etc. But we fail to view mechanic workshops, carpenter sheds, market stalls and anywhere else the young workers and apprentices are engaged at work, as analogous to schools. We do not appreciate their influence upon the character and temperament of our youth. We therefore, do not think that their moral climate is a legitimate subject of public concern. What will a psychologically scarred and psychically brutalized generation portend for the future of this country?    

 

As I finished with my purchase, I called the Korean manager, and she came towards me. I asked her why she talks to her employees with such rudeness. I continued: it is wrong to talk to anyone like that, and you just cannot keep talking to these ladies that way. You talk like you are God. You are nobody’s God. I was taken aback when she calmly replied, I am doing my work. I have to do my work. I was angry, and in a   combative mood. I wanted to take some verbal swipes at her. However, her calm response mellowed me down. I told her that it is alright to do her job, but that she must learn to talk to her employees with some respect. She replied, thank you sir.

 

However, it will be self defeating escapism to limit my disgust to only the mistreatment of Nigerians in the hands of Koreans, Indians, Lebanese, etc. With their perverted value system, the middle class and wealthy Nigerians are also wonna-be Europeans. Their snobbery, arrogance and insensitivity are equally terrible. Some of them are just as bad, even, worse than the Chinese, Korean, etc. In their misconstrued concept of the White man’s way of life, they treat the poor and weak with lamentable harshness and scorn.    

 

Apart from the degradation of the poor by foreigners and Nigerians, life is just merciless with them. They are consumed by the daily drudgery for survival. For their long hours of toil, they earn a pittance, never enough for a decent living. As the month turns around, the meager sum is all spent on the very basic necessities of life. Public transportation is chaotic, exasperating and hazardous. It is barely regulated by the government. The drivers, conductors and thugs that operate the public transport system in Lagos scarcely adhere to any standard. Sadly, it remains the only form of transportation available to the poor.

 

What passes for human habitation in impoverished neighborhoods is most unsettling, mere hovels. Lagos is not known for its sparkling cleanliness, but the fetid squalor of these low income neighborhoods is heart-rending. Underfed and ensconced in filth, they are victims to series of pathogens. They suffer, and die from readily preventable and treatable diseases, like malaria and typhoid fever.

 

As tenants, they are underserved, and overcharged. Ignorant of the law, they fall prey to landlords and landladies (in their big man and thick madam complex) and their army of real estate agents and unscrupulous lawyers. They cannot afford the protection of fortified walls and security gates, so they are the most vulnerable to criminal predators. Unaware of their rights under the law, and/or just lacking the wherewithal to protect them, they are harassed by the police, soldiers and other agents of the government.   

 

Harried and hassled, insulted and intimidated, downcast and discouraged, they struggle to shield their pride and dignity. This, they do by masking their sadness with a pretense of gladness; they smile. The late Fela Anikilakpo-Kuti, that indefatigable iconoclast, succinctly summed it all up, as suffering and smiling.

 

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.