Five books in this season of hate speech

It’s a season of anomy. The continuous interest in anarchy, inhumanity, hatred, words that cut through and refuse to go away and groups disinterested in peace in parts of Nigeria boggles the mind. If you have ever been the subject of unwarranted hate, the sort that makes you sick to your stomach, you will understand the current state of Nigeria with deranged individuals whose only interest is how to make another person miserable and dismember a nation.

You do not have to do anything to another, just a group of disgruntled sick individuals pushing the most bizarre statements online and elsewhere for their selfish interests, be it religious, political, ethnic or gender related. A couple of years ago, I was faced with a child, only 11 years old, at the summer writing boot camp which I facilitated, who shocked me to my bone marrow.

He told me he was not going to sit with another ten-year-old child who came from a certain ethnic extraction. There was no other reason other than for the fact of her ethnicity and religion. The ten-year-old cried for two hours, the offending child failed to apologise and I had him stand outside until he did. Even then he could not grasp his offending behaviour enough because he was cocky and self-righteous. Parents are part of our hate problem nationwide. An eleven-year-old is only acting out his socialisation.

Many parents feed their children with stereotypes and hate so bad it consumes the child. Charlottesville, Ku Klux clan, white supremacists, racists, ethnic jingoists, Rwanda, South Africa, all the tribalists and shameless hate speech propagandists worldwide are all in the same boat.

Persons who are so unhappy they need to pass their unhappiness along through hatred, people so unfortunate they die just watching others being happy. It’s a battle, but can be won if we are all honest with ourselves. Hate speech can lead to all sorts of social upheavals, wickedness, bullying and the complete absence of national development. Haters are not worthy of our time.

They are very sick people. In the light of the current battle with hate speech in Nigeria, I dedicate this week’s column to books that deal with hate and the possible consequences, with a few examples that abound.