TRIBAL MARK: SCARRED FOR LIFE?

I used to spend long hours in front of the mirror; using my fingers to cover my marks, or close my eyes and imagine my face without blemishes, or just picture a Jumoke without marks. I wish it was different; that’s no secret. But deep inside me, there’s also a reality I only recently got to accept; that there’s nothing I can do about it. Maybe at a point in my very early life, I saw nothing wrong with my face but that changed in secondary school. I felt different, I felt weird. I felt local. I felt razz. They took something from me- a huge chunk of my self esteem. Then years after, maybe when I was in SS2 or so, something happened that totally made realize I wasn’t alone- A girl I knew rubbed some chemicals on her marks; face directly tilted to the scorching sun with tears streaming down her face as the chemicals ate away her face. Suffice to say, it never disappeared. All it left was two deep bleeding bruises around her facial marks.

“If there was one thing you could change about your appearance, what would it be?” asked my first serious boyfriend one day out of the blues. His gaze was intense and scrutinizing- it stripped me bare. “My facial marks.” I supplied without hesitation. The speed of my answer left me reeling. It was a discovery of how much I resented the 2 straight lines on my cheeks.

My friend once told me about a very brilliant lady he met; one with very prominent tribal marks- top of her class, a very fine medical doctor who confessed that one thing that makes her extremely sad is that people refer to her as the “okola” rather than “Dr…” Of course I could relate with that. I wouldn’t say it’s abnormal to feel affected by a marked face. On more than one occasion, people have switched from English to Yoruba when they want to communicate with me, people have doubted how good I am as a writer, how well I speak English and what I represent as a person. People have doubted how credible I am to hold positions. The fact that every day, people kinda segment and categorize you as local or uneducated inevitably gets to you.

“Se mo jo okola ni”– an expression used to depict the assumed stupidity of mark carriers.
“E maa wo okola yi”
“Se ila yen ti de opolo e ni”

As much as there are many organizations that have risen against facial scarification, there are still so many young people who carry them around. And while it’s definitely not popular anymore, I know someone who gave his baby girl 8 deep marks on each cheek about a year ago. Beauty is tampered with, some people struggle with job prospects, relationships and all other things- there could be this deep rooted insecurity that make it hard to network, socialize and interact with people even when they have everything it takes to belong.

In assessing the effect of facial marks on people, the best interest should dictate that since these marks are permanent, children should not be made to carry them until they are old enough to carefully weigh the implications of having one. Considering the fact that tribal marks were for identification purposes, it is very obvious that times have changed, and technology has created less barbaric means of identification. The choice to have tribal marks of any kind should be the decision of a fully informed adult and not the choice of some parent who doesn’t know the implication of what they’re enforcing on a child.

Apart from the total eradication of tribal marks, the fight or struggle should really be against the discrimination. The disrespect, be it verbal or action, directly or indirectly, should be confronted and resisted. The decadence lies with members of the society who would ridicule a “victim” for a scar that he or she is got at birth when no resistance was possible by the “victim” and no corrective option is affordable too. Realistically, the reason for the mock is nothing of essence. What do people mock the mark carriers for? Are mockers more intelligent, beautiful, caring, competent, productive, powerful or richer than all okolas? Is having a tribal mark a symptom of any deficiency? Are there any achievement that tribal marks prevent a marked one from attaining? No!

Maybe at a time, people saw it as a badge of pride but not anymore- people that don’t carry it find it repulsive; most people who carry it have a deep resentment for whoever got it for them. During the process marking faces, chunks of flesh are ripped off the face based on the pattern and number of the tribal marks, then rubbed with black grounded substances- leaving permanent scars. And not scars in the marks left behind- scars in every other things that are unintentionally ripped off in the process.

I don’t hate culture; I hate facial scarification.