When society creates monsters out of saints
THEY attract all manner of revulsion in the hearts of fellow brethren as they extend their unwelcome hands for alms and leftover food in their unkempt, scarecrow appearances, with their wash-free, bath-free existence provoking scrawny countenances.
At their worst, they are known to shout obscenities at the perceived or real enemies of their lot—those who turn a blind eye to their plight.
Others among us see prospective sex objects in their vulnerability, as the battle to keep body and soul together intensifies, and the monstrous fish of prey lies in wait at the shores where the smaller species eke out an existence.
Yes, they might be foul-mouthed, and forever sloshed as they seek meaning in the dark recesses of life, protecting an encroached territory that mainly exists in their minds.
But who really is to blame for this proliferation of urchins on our streets?
Street kids, we might call them; do they belong to the streets? Did the streets beget them? Are they not monsters of our own creation as a society?
Every child is born a saint, and remains one, until society corrupts him or her. However, when that same society denies responsibility, then the monsters that it creates, will haunt it ceaselessly.
The issue of street urchins is a thorny one, especially when it is weighed against a community that is too busy fighting against itself, as individuals are always on their marks in a rat race against time.
How many times have you pouted your mouth in disgust, when somebody else’s child, who in all fairness is also your own, extends a malnourished and dirty hand for food and alms?
Does it ever cross your mind that your beautiful daughter or intelligent son might also end up on the streets of doom?
Do you sometimes take a moment to reflect on the possibility that our future leaders and captains of industry are roaming the streets without even elementary formal education or basic considerations of etiquette?
A perusal through our literature reveals our own shortcomings as a people when the issue of street urchins is fore-fronted.
In “Somewhere in this Country” (2006) Memory Chirere highlights how society plays a part in the creation of its own enemies.
Through its own incessant conflicts, society spews out products that will come back to give it no peace.
But children, as children, will always remain children, as long as all of us are willing to treat them as children, and accord them the love and opportunities that will make it possible for them to be redeemed.
Shimmer Chinodya also purveys the societal ills which culminate in the littering of the streets with children whom everyone wants to chide, forget about, sneer at, exploit and strangle.
This is especially apt in “Chairman of Fools” (2005), “Tale of Tamari” (2004) and “Tavonga” (2005).
Against the background of the many faces that street urchins wear, the reasons for their increasing numbers on the streets, and the solutions that may be proffered to mitigate their predicament, the reading of Rodgers Matsikidze’s “The Suppressed Voice” becomes both revealing and informative.
The book exposes societal folly, which is central to the collapse of the family unit that should be responsible for moulding the individual and pampering his or her dreams.