When i saw this picture, like the one about the child getting burnt, i lost my peace totally. I couldn't eat. I became depressed. Then i began to plan murder in my heart. The parents who could subject such a young child to such a traumatic scarification should be jailed for a long time without an option of fine!
Look at the child. He must have wept and screamed in trauma, and sleep only offers an interval of almost painless oblivion marred by nightmarish flashes. Who still considers scarifying such tender faces at this age and time?
Well, who doesn't? We call it scarification, but those traumatic lines etched forever on the child's tender face reflects cultural beauty for others. "Baamu" (the name of the specific marks on the child's face) is essentially an Ogbomoso trademark in Southwestern Nigeria. Each Yoruba tribe has its own unique marks. My daddy was an Igbomina man and my mother is from the Okeogun area of Oyo state. Both of them have beautiful identity marks sketched on their cheeks. My daddy was certainly handsome and my mum is still beautiful. But then, they certainly were like this poor and traumatised kid.
So, what's the balance? What's the differential?
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