Photo by: Lucas Andrade.
Violence within local communities can take various forms such as, verbal abuse, physical harm or cultural and sexual violence. Violence such as physical harm are predominant in many rural communities in some countries of West Africa. It is a behaviour or an act that uses force to inflict physical or psychological harm or trauma on a person. It is common for perpetrators to hit, slap, kick, bite or use a house hold weapon against the victim. Take for instance this true life scenario; our team working in some rural communities in southeast Nigeria witnessed violence among extended family members. It was in one of those communities that has lost the vigor of its youths to urban migration. In the community lived a returnee young man, who spent a considerable amount of his life, chasing greener pastures in urban cities of Nigeria and nearby country, and of course he also acquired urban-based habits. This returnee contracted rural children to do some manual labor and agreed to pay a certain sum to the four laborers who were school children. Some under the age of 12. The job was to clear a small piece of his farm land. Some of the ‘laborers’ avoided going to school on the days they scheduled to do the “job”. On Completing the task, the ‘contractor’ delayed their payment until three weeks, during which there had been series of complaints from the respective families demanding for the agreed wages for their lads. Several days went by before the contractor eventually paid part of the agreed sum, but this marked yet another fresh episode of an unpleasant occurrence.
The young man who contracted the lads, was unemployed and lived with his wife and his aged parents in the same house. He was exposed to psychoactive substances and engaged in socially disturbing behaviour such as physical violence against elderly and vulnerable women.
Many researches on domestic violence in sub Saharan Africa proves that a greater percentage of the victims are women while perpetrators are usually men associated with low social class and financial constraints. While violence within homes is a widely spread phenomenon as it happens in other societies irrespective of class, geography culture or race, it may occur frequently in low income homes or localities where the state is invisible and where it is more convenient to replace the law with might.
A victim of violence in rural sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is likely to receive less help or experience longer response time from the system whereas those in the urban areas or in developed societies are likely to get on-time response and adequate help from any existing civil or social system. This is due to the institutional and administrative gaps that exist in the rural social systems. As a result, a victim of violence in rural SSA communities could face a bigger threat because the communities are often isolated from social or state services. In a case where social or state arbitration system are non existent or inefficient, some communities rely on their bye-laws or traditional norms to address such issues that relate to anti-social behaviour, substance abuse and delinquency. In most cases, the process may be guided by sentiments, cultural intelligence and cultural practices. On the other hand, when poverty causes people to focus on survival, cultural practices and bye-laws may be ineffective as the people disregard the very values that once addressed injustice. Socio economic problems motivate people to prioritize short-term needs over long-term development. The desperate situation puts pressure on individuals and families, often manifesting as violence and delinquencies.
Despite numerous recommendations by researchers, the true solution does not only come from reading research papers or from corelating the research statistics. Part of the true solution comes from the doers who are the rural empowerment agencies or grassroot social organizations working to bring positive change. Within specific contexts, the primary factors that promote inter-personal conflict includes but not limited to, socio-economic problems, lack of inter-personal skills and insensitivity. The other is migration which strips rural communities of the natural restrainers and mediators as there are fewer or no able-bodied individuals to intervene during conflict or provide security. When individuals lack economic agency, they lose the power to provide and it triggers aggression which could potentially circulate across a social setting. Where people prioritize immediate survival over long term goals, child labor and school truancy become least of a challenge.
Written by: Byke Freeborn| X/Twitter: @bykefreeborn