Prejudice

A relative of mine believes that the Yorubas are the worst people to walk the face of the earth. A colleague at work would rather die or remain a spinster for life than marry an Ibo man. Some people look at the Hausas with the same suspicion with which an American/European looks at his fellow man from the Middle East. They think 'north and the only picture that comes to their minds are violence and the senseless slaughter of innocent people. Say Binni person to some and the next word that comes out of their mouths is 'Witchcraft'. Makes me wonder 'so which is the perfect ethnic group'?

Is it the Yoruba who are seen as deceitful, two faced walking Nigerian versions of ‘Judas Iscariot’? whose men are known to be irresponsible when it comes to marriages indulging themselves in 15 to 20 mistresses outside when they clearly have 1 or 2 wives at home? Who are also seen as highly fetish and heavy ‘juju’ practitioners?

Is it the Ibo, who is seen as a greedy, shrewd and manipulative money worshiper? Whose love for wealth and affluence pushes them to throw away all moral dictates that they learn and take part in money making rituals which more often than not, leads to loss of lives or sanity? Who are known to make a young widow drink the water used in washing her husband’s corpse just to prove that she’s innocent and has no hand in his death?

Is it the Hausa who has no qualms about drawing his dagger and stabbing his neighbor from the south with whom ironically, he had shared lunch just hours ago thanks so some religious radicalism?

People at some point or the other, have consciously or unconsciously allowed ethnic prejudice to cloud their perceptions and views of someone or some people. Now I’m not talking about the village people who know no other place than their home towns. I’m talking about the so called enlightened, educated people. The doctors, the bank executives, the engineers, the lawyers, the architects, the lecturers, the business executives. They claim to be enlightened, yet you would hear these same people say ‘Lai lai! I can never marry anyone who’s not from my tribe’

Another surprising bunch are the so called ‘Christians’. They claim to be children of God: you’d go to church and they’re the ones sitting in the first row. When it’s time for praise worship they’re the ones who sing and clap the loudest. When it’s time for prayers, they speak in tongues more advanced than that of the pastor. Those same lips with which they howl unto God are the same lips with which they’ll go out and say ‘Omo Ibo ke? Olorun ma je!’ ‘Onye Yoruba? Tufiakwa!’ indirectly telling God that He did a bad job by creating such an ethnic group. So much for being children of God. What a bunch of hypocrites!

People have forgotten that we have to deal with people on an individual basis and not as a member of an ethnic group. Ok so you had a bad experience with someone else from that group, is it fair to judge everyone because of that? I used to tell my mum that if Jesus was a tribalist, he wouldn’t waste his time dying for the whole world. He would have died for the Jews alone and that was it! We wouldn’t get a shot at Heaven. But He chose to die for you as an individual not as an Ibo, Yoruba, Hausa or Efik person

I hope that one day, I would go out and no one will judge me based on my ethnicity. That I would be seen as ‘Rita the individual’ and not ‘Rita the Ibo girl’. That I would stop hearing people make prejudiced comments about any tribe. Statements to that effect sickens me each time I hear them

If you have a problem with them, why don’t you go up to God and say ‘Look! You really did a bad job creating that tribe’. I can imagine Him looking at you and saying ‘What makes you think yours is any better’?

And while you’re giving a list of 10 reasons why that tribe isn’t good, be sure to know that there’s also a list of 10 reasons why yours are seen as the scum of the earth!