I am sad. I say this not because I want your sympathy, not because I choose to or because I feel the weight of the world across my shoulders. I’m not God and no way do I wish to take on the responsibility that is entirely his alone; the weight of the world.
I am sad because earlier this morning on twitter I came across a tweet on my TL, TimeLine, of a trending topic that left a sour taste in my mouth. When virtues that the society should uphold and defend become a point of stigmatizing people then I really can’t help but be worried about.
“#youlookgoodbut you are a virgin…waka abeg..”
Maybe it was meant to be funny maybe not. I have unfortunately taken it personal. Not against the person who tweeted it, not against those who laugh at it (I believe they do not know better) but against those who are in the know but who play the ‘dumb card’ when the issues of morality and wantonness, are raised. Now I ask myself is this worth getting worked up over? And I answer it myself ‘YES YES YES’.
When we begin to make nonsense of the values that the society is built on, when we throw caution to the wind and embark on senseless journeys down lanes of moral decadence then I am very worried of what the generations of my children and children’s children will have to live with as values that shape their society.
When a young girl cannot be bold enough to declare her virginity to the pride of her family and a young boy will finds it cool to brag about the number of times he has had sex with or without ‘protection’, then I am worried.
A young girl goes out and gets pregnant for a man who it turns out is her father; it takes a twisted turn because the mother told her that her father was dead. The mother had been raped as a student in secondary school, yet she was kept the baby despite the stigma associated with having children out of wedlock, and now she is shamefully being accused of being the cause of her daughter getting pregnant for her father. I SO DISAGREE. Why couldn’t she have kept her thighs shut and waited till after marriage before going to bed? How much trauma she would have saved herself and her family had she but wait.
I won’t belabour the point. I have made one that even the blind can see. And I do not ask that you support or not. But I do ask of you to reason with me ‘what kind of earth do we long to leave as a legacy to our children?’ One where lewd and distasteful remarks would take over as commonplace while right thinking is placed on the back burner?’ I hope not.
This is my mind… What is yours?
*Waka – Keep moving
*Abeg – Please
PS – Re-edited
Sheyhun's Ways 