Mrs.
Akudo George is pregnant. The 21-year-old woman got married about 10
months earlier and is naturally excited. She has always been in high
spirit though, but an experience she had in Oyingbo market, Ebute Meta
in Lagos left her petrified.
Seven months pregnant George was
haggling with a fruit seller when she heard someone say, “Please give me
money.” She turned to behold a small man standing beside her. The man’s
features showed that though small in stature, he was not a kid but a
full grown adult.
She recalled, “I was petrified. I just
handed the money I was about to pay the fruit seller to the little man. I
felt dizzy all of a sudden. The little man took the money and said,
‘thank you very much madam. Don’t be scared. I mean you no harm. Life is
tough for people like us. God bless you. You’ll give birth to very tall
children’. I said ‘amen’ weakly. It wasn’t a pleasant encounter. I went
through the remaining weeks of the pregnancy in a daze. I had heard
stories of how normal babies changed to other things in the womb. I had
to tell my husband, doctor and mother. I prayed. That was 36 years ago.
My son, Chibuzor, grew into a healthy man. But that pregnancy was
difficult because I developed high blood pressure because of that chance
encounter with a little man.”
If George felt this way just because a ‘little man’ approached her, what about the feeling of the ‘little man’?
Mr. Moses Ogbaji is 29 years old, but
his three-foot height sharply belies his age. However, his face and
mannerisms show the maturity that is seemingly lacking in his tiny
frame.
Ogbaji is a dwarf, but this did not stop
him from fantasising about being a pilot, particularly in his
childhood. Even as a grown man, Ogbaji said he sometimes wishes he was
taller, so he could have a shot at fulfilling his childhood fantasy.
He said. “I wish that I could be a
pilot; to be up in the air and travelling everywhere. I remember
dreaming about it, especially when I was younger, but a person of my
stature cannot be a pilot. So I will have to miss not having the
opportunity to become a pilot in my lifetime.”
According to the Little People of
America, a non-profit organisation that offers support to dwarfs and
their families, dwarfism is “an adult height of four feet 10 inches (147
cm) or under, as a result of medical or genetic condition.”
In general terms, dwarfism is a condition of short stature.
Indeed, job preferences for dwarfs are
limited, particularly in a developing country like Nigeria. Dwarfs are
also not considered to be suitable for driving, joining the security
force or taking part in sporting activities, such as athletics, that
tend to emphasise the use of limbs. But beyond that, dwarfs are
generally considered to be at a disadvantage in a world dominated by
relatively tall people. They are often bullied, cheated and jeered in
educational, work and social settings.
Also, dwarfs are called by different
names, mostly derogatory, in different places and languages. For
instance, they are ‘Arara’ in Yoruba and ‘Gagere’ or ‘Wada’ in Hausa.
In Igbo, the name for dwarfs is
‘Akakpo’, which is sometimes used as an insult to any one considered as
short. It is also said that if a woman insults an ‘Akakpo’, she will end
up giving birth to one.
But universally, midget is a common term
used to describe dwarfs, but it is also often regarded as offensive. In
places like Canada and the US, many dwarfs now prefer to be called
‘little people’, but this has not yet caught on across the world, with
some people still referring to dwarfs as ‘pygmies’.
Pygmies are an ethnic group of averagely
short adult people that can be found in some African countries
including Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, Botswana, Rwanda, Burundi, Central
African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are
said to make up two per cent of its population.
However, Ogbaji, who hails from Oju
Local Government Area of Benue State, said people sometimes call him
‘Congo’ on the streets of Lagos.
“Some people call us ‘Congo’; they will say that we are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and not Nigeria,” he said.
Basically, dwarfs face stigma and
discrimination because of their stature, so they consequently withdraw
socially and tend to associate more with fellow dwarfs by clustering
together.
In Lagos, Moyosore Abiodun Shopping
Complex, Oshodi and Ebute-Ilaje in Bariga area serve as base where
dwarfs of various ethnic groups from across the country are found.
Chibuna Emeka, 20, who is the only dwarf
in his family, said most of them are into film making to survive the
public ridicule they face, along with the limited opportunities
available to them. Even with that, Emeka claimed that they are often
cheated by other people in the movie industry, and therefore, resolved
to the marketing of CDs themselves.
“People look at us and laugh but I know
that I didn’t create myself. We gather here in the morning, and then we
go out to market and converge here in the evening,” Emeka said.
He is married to a tall woman, Chinasa,
and they have a daughter who is not a dwarf. Emeka said he was pleased
that his daughter, Happiness, did not take after him and so, saved from
the pains that characterised his childhood. Emeka, who grew up in Abia
State, only had elementary education because according to him, much of
his childhood was spent as a lonely boy.
He said, “I was always alone and I had no friends; it was how my mind wanted it.”
But in spite of his stature and unlike
Emeka, Ogbaji considered himself a ‘yuppy dwarf’ and his dressing bore
testimony to his claim. While speaking to Saturday PUNCH, Ogbaji
had two earrings on his left ear, one on his right and another ring to
adorned his nose. His permed hair, combed backwards, was black and
shiny.
Ogbaji drinks, goes clubbing and even
asks women for a dance, although he admitted that his advances are not
always successful and that dancing with a tall woman could sometimes be
awkward. He said little men are good in bed that women fight over them,
adding that he has two tall girlfriends, one of whom might become his
wife later in the year.
“I have two girlfriends and they are
tall. I wooed the first one but it was the second one who wooed me and
now, they are fighting over me,” Ogbaji said, attributing his love
dilemma to his ‘dress sense’ and ‘sweet loving’ nature.
He said he was lucky to get his first
girlfriend to agree after several failed attempts to get a woman. Ogbaji
recalled an unpleasant experience he had with a lady, who declined his
love advances some years back.
“I was lucky with my girlfriend. I
remember one tall girl I wooed one day, who said, ‘you no dey shame? You
short person coming to meet me’. She laughed and said she didn’t want a
child that would look like me,” Ogbaji said, adding that the lady left
him standing as she walked off.
Even though, Ogbaji has starred in several movies including Golden House and Land of the Dwarf, he said he still sometimes feels bad when people jeer at him and call him names.
He said, “I always tell them that I’m a normal human being but sometimes, I still feel annoyed with myself.”
A consultant family physician with
special interest in mental health, Dr. Gbolahan Abideen, of the Nigerian
Airforce Hospital, Ikeja, said dwarfism could be caused by any or more
than 200 conditions, identifying the two categories of dwarfism as
‘proportionate’ and ‘disproportionate’.
According to him, people with
proportionate dwarfism are unusually small, but with bodies that are
normally proportioned, while those with disproportionate dwarfism have
one or more body parts with apparent growth variations. Abideen,
however, identified disproportionate dwarfism as the more common type
and abnormal bone growth, which is genetic, as its most common cause. In
addition, Abideen said dwarfism could be hereditary or come as a result
of growth hormone deficiency.
He said, “’Achondroplasia’, which is an
abnormality with bone development, is the most common form of dwarfism.
It’s responsible for about 70 per cent of the dwarfism cases you find
around. What you essentially find in them is big heads, big tummies,
abnormally short limbs and protruding chests as a result of curved
backbone.
“When the cause is hormonal, two dwarfs
could marry each other and their children would grow tall, but when it’s
hereditary or familial, it means that it runs in the family; an example
of this is the pygmies.”
Abideen added that dwarfs in Nigeria are
usually disadvantaged from birth as “they are a point of ridicule in
childhood and an object of discrimination in adulthood.” He, however,
noted that the solution lies with the society, which “should be
encouraging and supporting them.”
He said, “They (dwarfs) don’t get jobs
and even when they get, they are given the lowest of the low, like
cleaning and so on. In school, they get so much attention and sometimes
sympathy, so they sometimes end up having low self esteem and that’s why
many of them don’t finish school.
“They are bullied, they are called by
derogatory names. So because of the discrimination, they tend to cluster
together. Some of them get depressed, particularly in their teenage
years when their peers are growing, and they tend to remain the same.
Most times, you also find that they are poor because they are unable to
get good jobs.”
Abideen also added that dwarfs’ “intellect is intact, in spite of their small size.”
“What they need is for the society to
support them so they can blossom and reach their full potential. They do
not need dole-outs or people’s sympathy, what they need is empathy,” he
said.
Ms. Abiodun Christiana Abon, a dwarf,
said she once ran into a woman on the road, who screamed upon sighting
her. Abon said she felt embarrassed and could not understand why the
woman made a fuss about meeting a dwarf on the road.
She said, “Our daily life is supposed to
be normal, but it’s not. When people see us on the street, they call us
all sorts of names and look down on us like we are not part of the
society.”
Abon said that growing up was
particularly tough for her because her mother deserted the family
because of her stature. Although her father is late, Abon said she would
forever be grateful to him for his support to her while he was alive.
She said, “But the worst feeling is when
the discrimination comes from within the family. I was still small when
my mother left us because of me. At a time, while growing up, I felt
dejected. But my father was always there for me until his death when I
had to stop school.
“I had planned to study law before my
father died and I still wish to if I can get the support; but the truth
is that it’s not easy for dwarfs in this country.”
According to Abon, her wish to study law
came one day when her dad took her to meet a female medical doctor, who
was also a dwarf.
She said, “The woman encouraged me and
told me that she did not know her biological parents because they dumped
her somewhere. It was her foster parents who nurtured and gave her all
the support she needed to become somebody. Right there and then,
although I was still in primary school, I decided to become a lawyer,
but unfortunately, my father died.
“It is very difficult to get a job. Many
dwarfs no longer bother to look for jobs and the trend is also
discouraging the young ones from going to school since the best chance
they have is to be self-employed or be a trader.”
Abon, who has a Catering and Hotel
Management certificate from a catering institute, recalled her
experience when she was posted to an eatery for industrial training.
She said, “I was there with four others
but I was the only dwarf. They called the four others into the office,
attended to them, but I was left there and nobody told me what was going
on.
“After waiting for about five hours, I
spoke to an employee, who told me that the manager was busy and that I
could come back the next day.”
Abon said she met the manager as he was
arriving for work the following day, but that he only gave her an
illustration to explain why he would reject her.
She said, “He gave me an apron to put on
and took me to the kitchen. In the kitchen, he showed me their huge
cooker and said he would not take me because of my height. He said I
would not be able to use the cooker.
“By then, I had started crying. He
counted some money and gave to me, which I rejected. Instead of giving
me where I could fit in, he was comparing me with the cooker.”
Abon said it is common to find a
significant number of female dwarfs who are single mothers, because most
men are only interested in them for sex.
She said, “Men are only after having sex
with us just to see if it is different from what they are used to. And
even when we find sincere ones, they tend to face intense pressure from
their families who try to dissuade them.”
At over 30 years of age, Abon is not yet married, but she said she was in a relationship with a man of average height.
“Even at that, we are facing pressure but we hope to overcome it,” she said.
Another dwarf, Mrs. Deborah Ogunka,
lamented the challenges dwarfs experience in getting married to taller
persons, explaining that was why she eventually decided to marry another
dwarf.
Ogunka’s son has normal growth, but she admitted that she was a bit apprehensive before going into labour.
She said, “I did a scan, so I knew he was a boy, but I didn’t bother to ask if he would be short.”
Ogunka also said she has had to cope
with so many derogatory comments, but according to her, the worst
discriminatory statement she ever heard came from her neighbour, who
said, “You people should not be living in the cities, you should be
living in the forest.”
She recalled, “Tears ran down my face that day; even now, I still cry every time I remember that statement.”
Mr. Victor Udochukwu Nwaogu is a 2008
Theatre Arts graduate from the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. However,
he was disappointed on two occasions when he had got to the final stage
of getting employed.
He said, “One was a federal job, while
the other was a private job. The moment they realise that I’m a dwarf,
everything changes.”
Nwaogu said dwarfs need platforms to
enable their integration into the society. According to him, such
platforms could be by engaging dwarfs in the public sphere or by giving
them important responsibilities.
He argued that such platforms, along
with enlightenment programmes to debunk cultural myths, would gradually
give dwarfs the opportunities needed for proper integration.
He said, “There are very few educated
dwarfs because of issues of self consciousness. But a platform for
dwarfs to play active roles in the society will encourage more dwarfs to
be educated.
“People tend to look down on physically
or specially-challenged people, but an able-bodied person can become
physically challenged tomorrow, so it is important that issues affecting
people in the society are addressed.”
Sources: The punch
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