“My only crime was bringing my children to Europe for a better living” Celia mumbled for the umpteenth time, wiping visible mucus off her nose as streaks of tears rolled from her eyes all the way down to the floor.
“But that’s hardly a crime” I cooed, not sure what the next appropriate thing to say. I was lost for words and even lost in thought. What Celia didn’t seem to realize was, that I was as clueless as they come. She was inconsolable or maybe I was doing a shoddy job at trying to console an obviously inconsolable woman.
Here’s the gist: Celia, her husband of 12 years, her 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son, had moved to Europe where rules, laws and customs were clearly different from what obtains in Africa. Of the 150 million set of rules in Europe, smacking, or beating, or flogging or any kind of physicality as a corrective measure on your child(ren) is forbidden, as a matter of fact it is a taboo in the land of Europe, Celia, my good old friend and her husband learnt this lesson, but they had to learn it in a hard way.
Salome, their 10 year old daughter showed up at school with a tiny little mark on her left arm, she had been smacked for strolling into the wild after school hours, to play with her friends; she got beaten by her father who is a stickler for “spare the rod and spoil the child” and that was where the cookie crumbled. Teacher sees the mark on Salome’s arm, Salome said it all, no holds barred, teacher reports to the social welfare and now Celia and her husband are declared unfit to parent their children in an European soil. If you are by any chance looking for a hysterical woman, I know where to help you find one, end of story.
Our guest Aunty Ify of Ify cooks, was on our VIP seat at The Saharian Show, and she unpacked the intricacies of parenting in European clime juxtaposed with the stereotypical African method.
She’s a mother to hers and mother of all, been there and knows it all.
Keep yourself abreast of this intriguing episode of The Saharian show.
