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The other day I stretched my hand to shake a friend and colleague in our typical happy-go-lucky Nigerian style. He hesitated for a very brief moment, which could have been one long minute. Then he reached out his hand half-heartedly, making sure I got only the tip of his fingers. It was the coldest, the un-friendliest handshake I ever had. Imagine reaching out to grab a ‘live’ hand; to execute a macho handshake in the manner we Nigerians do it only to be met with a ‘dead’ hand.
And it struck me: ah, no more all those boisterous Nigerian handshakes that sometimes last all of one minute! The type in which two palms are clasped and the two greeters would proceed to perform several hand-clasping rituals, which eventually end in a joint, loud, finger-snapping finale. Farewell to the great Nigerian handshake. By the time this new Ebola virus disease scourge is done with us, we may have lost our souls, our rich African souls.
It is this warm handshake which is peculiarly Nigerian that will go first. Now our adversaries seem to be closing down on us fast; first it was HIV/AIDS which they threw at us but which seemed not to have been devastating enough for our doughty African souls. Boko Haram’s terrorism is raging up north and now Ebola. Chinua Achebe wrote that proverb is the palm oil with which words are eaten in Igbo-land and I say handshake and hugging are the crutches with which we support each other in Africa, particularly Nigeria.
What shall we do without our big, rambunctious body-contact greetings? The big handshake which is our utmost show of fellow-feeling; that energetic grip that re-assures us about our common humanity in an increasingly lonely and forlorn world may soon become extinct. Unknown to many, a hearty handshake remains the last common communion we share freely with each other, with love, without that offending hint of hesitation that dampens the spirit. For instance, in the developed world, people shake hands too, but without a cheer, in fact, often with cold, limpid hands. Some even wear gloves and many live an entire lifetime devoid of bonhomie and geniality.
It is not only our ‘kissing with the hand’ (as some wag has described our mode of handshake) that will suffer in this Ebola fever; even our good, old hunters are in trouble. With bush meat completely stigmatised as the chief carrier of this virus, it can only be imagined what calamity would have befallen the horde of our compatriots, the tribe of Cain who live through the providence of the forest. Their compounded tragedy is that the big men from the city, who patronise them, have become Ebola-savvy. They now dread the sight of their favourite delicacy.
But bush meat is not mere delicacy but an economic commodity, an article of trade and a source of livelihood. Just because hunters have not upgraded their trade all these years does not mean they are not an important sector of the economy. But the Edo State branch of the Bush Meat Sellers Association (BSA) has cried out over the indefinite suspension of the purchase of the rare meat in the Edo State Government House. They are now condemned to consuming most of their commodity, said BSA’s spokeswoman. You see now that one man’s virus may just be another man survival.
Further, it is woe upon our friends, the commercial sex workers too. Since this disease can be contracted through sweat and other body secretions, there cannot be a deadlier contact than that with the merry women of the red light districts. Oh, what a great economic calamity if you consider that that is perhaps the largest underground economic sector in the world. Imagine for a minute what will become of the world if the oldest profession of all is shut down, even temporarily? How would the practitioners be engaged and what will happen to their patrons?
What about the harm Ebola is bringing upon herbalists, healing homes and spiritualists? How can the world come up with a ‘big’ disease like this and local medicine practitioners would be excluded from its concomitant largesse, so to speak? How can they be so absolute that Ebola has no native remedy or spiritual healing therapies? Not even the much dreaded HIV/AIDS with its convoluted foreign tags could become the exclusive franchise of the Western medicine men. From early in the day, all sorts of quasi-practitioners have fought for their space and claimed their stake in the huge AIDS industry. From Dr. Abalaka to Prophet Joshua, it boiled down to turf fight in a multi-billion dollars business. Call it man-eat-man if you like but the biz was good.
How can you convince the followers of faith healers like Prophet Joshua or Pastor Oyakhilome that certain cases are beyond there Daddies; that they should not take their ailing children or spouses first to Daddy before a doctor?
And it struck me: ah, no more all those boisterous Nigerian handshakes that sometimes last all of one minute! The type in which two palms are clasped and the two greeters would proceed to perform several hand-clasping rituals, which eventually end in a joint, loud, finger-snapping finale. Farewell to the great Nigerian handshake. By the time this new Ebola virus disease scourge is done with us, we may have lost our souls, our rich African souls.
It is this warm handshake which is peculiarly Nigerian that will go first. Now our adversaries seem to be closing down on us fast; first it was HIV/AIDS which they threw at us but which seemed not to have been devastating enough for our doughty African souls. Boko Haram’s terrorism is raging up north and now Ebola. Chinua Achebe wrote that proverb is the palm oil with which words are eaten in Igbo-land and I say handshake and hugging are the crutches with which we support each other in Africa, particularly Nigeria.
What shall we do without our big, rambunctious body-contact greetings? The big handshake which is our utmost show of fellow-feeling; that energetic grip that re-assures us about our common humanity in an increasingly lonely and forlorn world may soon become extinct. Unknown to many, a hearty handshake remains the last common communion we share freely with each other, with love, without that offending hint of hesitation that dampens the spirit. For instance, in the developed world, people shake hands too, but without a cheer, in fact, often with cold, limpid hands. Some even wear gloves and many live an entire lifetime devoid of bonhomie and geniality.
It is not only our ‘kissing with the hand’ (as some wag has described our mode of handshake) that will suffer in this Ebola fever; even our good, old hunters are in trouble. With bush meat completely stigmatised as the chief carrier of this virus, it can only be imagined what calamity would have befallen the horde of our compatriots, the tribe of Cain who live through the providence of the forest. Their compounded tragedy is that the big men from the city, who patronise them, have become Ebola-savvy. They now dread the sight of their favourite delicacy.
But bush meat is not mere delicacy but an economic commodity, an article of trade and a source of livelihood. Just because hunters have not upgraded their trade all these years does not mean they are not an important sector of the economy. But the Edo State branch of the Bush Meat Sellers Association (BSA) has cried out over the indefinite suspension of the purchase of the rare meat in the Edo State Government House. They are now condemned to consuming most of their commodity, said BSA’s spokeswoman. You see now that one man’s virus may just be another man survival.
Further, it is woe upon our friends, the commercial sex workers too. Since this disease can be contracted through sweat and other body secretions, there cannot be a deadlier contact than that with the merry women of the red light districts. Oh, what a great economic calamity if you consider that that is perhaps the largest underground economic sector in the world. Imagine for a minute what will become of the world if the oldest profession of all is shut down, even temporarily? How would the practitioners be engaged and what will happen to their patrons?
What about the harm Ebola is bringing upon herbalists, healing homes and spiritualists? How can the world come up with a ‘big’ disease like this and local medicine practitioners would be excluded from its concomitant largesse, so to speak? How can they be so absolute that Ebola has no native remedy or spiritual healing therapies? Not even the much dreaded HIV/AIDS with its convoluted foreign tags could become the exclusive franchise of the Western medicine men. From early in the day, all sorts of quasi-practitioners have fought for their space and claimed their stake in the huge AIDS industry. From Dr. Abalaka to Prophet Joshua, it boiled down to turf fight in a multi-billion dollars business. Call it man-eat-man if you like but the biz was good.
How can you convince the followers of faith healers like Prophet Joshua or Pastor Oyakhilome that certain cases are beyond there Daddies; that they should not take their ailing children or spouses first to Daddy before a doctor?