DEPRIVATION - A Nigerian Special Dish? (Part 1)
DEPRIVATION – A NIGERIAN SPECIAL DISH?
My sojourn in this world has been eventful. A bittersweet, kaleidoscopic bag of experiences. Had I the means to draw the curtains at this moment, the disappointments would definitely boast the greater possession of playing time. The achievements trail far behind. Lost in time. Another time. In a different place. A place where my expectations were borne. A warm, thriving, resourceful and accommodating place. A simple place. Values were higher then, much higher. It was easier to communicate with others. Trust was better entrenched. Humanity was real.
I can’t recall how many children my maternal grandmother, (Mama Iwo) fostered. Having retired as the matron at the Health Center of the Baptist College where my grandfather was a tutor (now Bowen University), she eventually established a mid-wifery outfit with wards and a hostel-like accommodation within her compound where she trained young maidens she accepted and treated like her own children. They in turn spoilt us, the grandchildren, rotten. We looked forward to vacation periods with Mama Iwo. She was an avid entrepreneur, ran a successful bakery and was also a cement distributor amongst other things. I remember helping to prepare the dough. We would be awoken in the dead of night to prep the dough, and once everything was layered in the huge clay oven we would go back to bed. Her workers would ensure that hot, freshly baked bread was ready by first light, to be sold locally and also transported to surrounding towns at established outlets. She often allowed us to carve whatever we desired on some of the dough. These would be set aside after being baked for us to use as ‘trophies’. The local bakers could never quite understand why instead of inscribing our names we came up with meaningless titles as Batman, Superman, Thor, Marine Boy, Zorro and a host of others. Obviously, very few had TV back then in Iwo.
There was one place she forbid us to enter whilst activity was ongoing. The delivery room. It was a single room adjoining the hostel and the wards. Of course we could enter when it wasn’t in use (I can still smell the unique mix of disinfectants, blood and birth elements after the room had been cleaned) when it would lose all its mystic, and transform into an ordinary room just like any other, save for the delivery slab in the middle and the deep sinks lining one corner. For some unfathomable reason, deliveries mostly took place at odd hours of the night when the world was fast asleep. Especially little children who had spent the entire day running riot. Yet, sometimes we chanced on some of these events. Mostly when it was a difficult or complicated delivery where a lot of running around and noise accompanied the usually undetectable process. I was a younger grandchild and slept deeply, thus often missed the heavy action witnessed by my elder brother and cousins. Two events I vividly recall were that of a successful delivery and that of a still born. I believe, even though I wasn’t aware at that time, those events became life’s first practical lessons to the meanings of gratification and deprivation.
noun: gratification
- pleasure, especially when gained from the satisfaction of a desire
satisfaction, fulfilment, indulgence, relief, quenching, slaking, satiation, appeasement, assuagement
plesasure, enjoyment, thrill, relish
Gratification is the pleasurable emotional reaction of happiness in response to the fulfillment of a desire or goal.
Gratification, like all emotions, is a motivator of behavior and thus plays a role in the entire range of human social systems.
When she was discharged and left Mama Iwo’s care, the young new mother surrounded by a horde of her family members and in-laws, radiated a glow as though she had been swathed in a balm infused with happiness. Her nine months of expectation along an anxiety ridden and arduous road had been met with a bundle of joy. She dealt with a myriad of emotions which were coursing through her veins like a concoction – pleasure from the unique satisfaction stemming from performing her role in society; her role as a woman; her role as the wife of a man whose family expected to bring increase to his numbers. And from all these waxed a very deep sense of fulfillment.
noun: deprivation; plural noun: deprivations
- the damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society
poverty, impoverishment, penury, privation, hardship, destitution, need, neediness, want, distress, financial distress, indigence, pauperdom, beggary, ruin;
reduced circumstances, straitened circumstances, hand-to-mouth existence;
rarepauperism, pauperization, impecuniousness, impecuniosity;
"the cause of the rioting was unemployment and deprivation"
- the lack or denial of something considered to be a necessity
"sleep deprivation"
dispossession, withholding, withdrawal, removal, taking away, stripping, divestment, divestiture, wresting away, expropriation, seizure, confiscation, robbing, appropriation;
denial, forfeiture, loss;
absence, lack, unavailability, deficiency, dearth;
"he was sentenced to one year's deprivation of political rights"
- archaic
the action of depriving someone of office, especially an ecclesiastical office.
The other event exposed me to the other side of the coin. A tough act to follow. A bitter pill to swallow. When this lady left Mama Iwo’s care it reflected the truth in the adage ‘success has many fathers, failure is an orphan’. She had only one family member by her side, no one else had come to escort her home. Not even her husband. She carried the still born in a hand-held bag, covered with her wrapper. Her face mirrored hardship, distress, reduced circumstances. She hung her head low in shame from the lack, or denial, of something society considered to be a necessity. Fate had acted against her and deprived her of office; the office of a mother. After nine difficult months of carrying a pregnancy she had been dispossessed, denied the ecstasy of cradling her new born child; her joy was taken away. In the household of her husband her name would be loss, lack, deficiency and dearth.
How did I meander to this point? What took me from the pleasant experiences of my yesteryears to this inexplicable stomach churning event? I didn’t plot my article to flow like this. Is there a force residing within me that is more insidious than I dare to acknowledge? Does this force find nourishment in the flow of negative thoughts, or do negative thoughts arise because of it? Is this force capable of influencing undesirable outcomes and able to connect the dots? For the dots are now connected, indeed.
My happy yesteryears are akin to the young woman starting a new phase of life, with a bundle of joy to gape at. Her hopes, her expectations, her very existence have taken on a new meaning. She will awaken each and every day with fervor, in anticipation of what the day brings for her. And for her child. She will brim with pride as she sees her child develop and grow, learning to crawl, to walk, to run, to talk. Her life will never be the same again as she sets out at the beginning of experiences she has never experienced before. Oh, what a life!
Oh, what a life! Who killed Humanity? Who killed my Humanity? Who killed my Humanity for me? My story today is akin to the story of humanity in Nigeria; which itself is akin to the story of the poor young woman who delivered a still born. With one major exception – humanity in Nigeria wasn’t a still born. Humanity existed. Humanity was evident. Humanity was endearing. Yet, somehow along the way, humanity became a tough act to follow. A bitter pill to swallow. Humanity hung her head low in shame, from the lack, or denial, of something society considered to be a necessity. Fate had acted against her, deprived her of office and replaced her with her evil twin. Humanity morphed into Deprivation. Deprivation reigns supreme and bestows its fruits upon us. Life has become synonymous with hardship, distress, reduced circumstances. After numerous generations of nurturing a vibrant culture Humanity has become dispossessed, denied the ecstasy of cradling a new being; her joy has been taken away. In the household of Nigerians her name is loss, lack, deficiency and dearth.
Humanity is dead and gone to its grave. Hm, ha, gone to its grave.
Instant and Delayed Gratification
The term instant gratification is often used to label the satisfactions gained by more impulsive behaviors: choosing now over tomorrow. The skill of giving preference to long-term goals over more immediate ones is known as deferred gratification or patience, and it is usually considered a virtue, producing rewards in the long term. Walter Mischel developed the well-known marshmallow experiment to test gratification patterns in four-year-olds, offering one marshmallow now or two after a delay. He discovered in long-term follow-up that the ability to resist eating the marshmallow immediately was a good predictor of success in later life.
Criticism
While one might say that those who lack the skill to delay are immature, an excess of this skill can create problems as well; i.e. an individual becomes inflexible, or unable to take pleasure in life (anhedonia) and seize opportunities for fear of adverse consequences. However, it is said that individuals who seek wisdom tend to attain the fortitude to apply equal balance.
There are also circumstances, in an uncertain/negative environment, when seizing gratification is the rational approach, as in wartime.
Bipolar
Gratification becomes a major issue in manic-depression. One sign of the onset of depression is a spreading loss of the sense of gratification in such immediate things as friendship, jokes, conversation, food and sex. Long-term gratifications seem even more meaningless. By contrast, the manic can find gratification in almost anything, even a leaf falling, for example.
Walter Mischel might be horrified to discover that in present day Nigeria, one would be considered a complete buffoon to opt for delayed gratification. Yes, we are immature. No, we are not in wartime. Yes, we are in an uncertain, negative environment. No, we will not delay. We absolutely refuse to delay. In fact, we abolish the very idea of the word ‘delay’. Why delay? Those who rule over us don’t postpone accumulating mind-boggling wealth in various currencies of the world. The National Assembly members don’t waste time in appropriating huge, meaningless perks and allowances to themselves. It trickles all the way down in public service to even the mere road traffic officer who doesn’t put off till tomorrow what he can squeeze from your pockets in the form of a bribe today. Grab it here. And now! Patience? Who needs that? It’s best for teachers who look forward to receiving their rewards in the afterlife. Nigeria has perfected a culture where the lack of social structures and safety nets have transformed us all into our own Local Government; we are the primary source of our security, our pipe borne water, our electricity, our tarred roads and drainages, and our filthy lucre. And yes, we often find gratification in the silliest, commonest of things, like say a falling leaf.
This premise forced me into a deeper dive. I’m finding that the bedrock of our issues in Nigeria stem from the fact that we exhibit several traits of a people who have the ill-luck of having been cursed to remain in a mental state of, and maintain the unmistakable appearance of a people beset by perpetual and unshakable deprivation.
Relativeness
Feelings of deprivation are relative, as they come from a comparison to social norms that are not absolute and usually differ from time and place. This differentiates relative deprivation from absolute deprivation (also known as objective deprivation or absolute poverty) - a condition that applies to all underprivileged people. This leads to an important conclusion: while the absolute deprivation (poverty) in the world may change over time, relative deprivation will not, as long as social inequality persists and some humans are better off than others.
Consider the following examples: in 1905 cars were a luxury, hence an individual unable to afford one would not feel or be viewed as deprived. In 2010, when cars are common in most societies, an individual unable to afford one is much more likely to feel deprived. In another example, mobile phones are common today, and many people may feel that they deserve to have one. Fifty years ago, when there were no mobile phones, such a sentiment would obviously not exist.
Relative deprivation may be temporal; that is, it can be experienced by people that experience expansion of rights or wealth, followed by stagnation or reversal of those gains. Such phenomena are also known as unfulfilled rising expectations.
In an example from the political realm, the lack of the right to vote is more likely to be felt as a deprivation by people who had it once than by the people who never had the opportunity to vote. I begin to suspect that here lies my affliction. My tormentor. The Humanity I was exposed to as a child, as a growing adult is no more. In its place is a stranger. A distinctly weird phenomenon. A phenomenon that dashed my rising expectations of Humanity and leaves them unfulfilled. Having been accustomed to seeing Humanity around and finding comfort in its presence, this temporal slant presents a setback that makes it difficult to adjust.
Relative and Absolute Deprivation
Some sociologists, for instance Karl Polanyi, have argued that relative differences in economic wealth are more important than absolute deprivation, and that it is more significant in determining human quality of life. This debate has important consequences for social policy, particularly on whether poverty can be eliminated simply by raising total wealth or whether egalitarian measures are also needed. I personally align with Karl’s argument and believe that the variable in relative deprivation should be regulated and kept within a specific range to keep social ills in check and stop potential horrors before they start to bud.
Critique
Critiques of this theory have pointed out that it fails to explain why some people who feel discontent fail to take action and join social movements. Counter-arguments include that some people are prone to conflict-avoidance, are short-term-oriented, and that imminent life difficulties may arise since there is no guarantee that life-improvement will result from social action. The neither here nor there people.
Quotations
Consider also this quotation from Karl Marx: "A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut. The little house now makes it clear that its inmate has no social position at all to maintain, or but a very insignificant one; and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilization, if the neighboring palace rises in equal or even in greater measure, the occupant of the relatively little house will always find himself more uncomfortable, more dissatisfied, more cramped within his four walls."
Relative Deprivation
Relative deprivation is the experience of being deprived of something to which one believes to be entitled. It refers to the discontent people feel when they compare their positions to others and realize that they have less of what they believe themselves to be entitled to than those around them. It arises from the lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that an individual or group are accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved in the society to which they belong. It is a term used in social sciences to describe feelings or measures of economic, political, or social deprivation that are relative rather than absolute. The term is inextricably linked to the similar terms poverty and social exclusion. The concept of relative deprivation has important consequences for both behavior and attitudes, including feelings of stress, political attitudes, and participation in collective action.
Social scientists, particularly political scientists and sociologists, have cited 'relative deprivation' (especially temporal relative deprivation) as a potential cause of social movements and deviance, leading in extreme situations to political violence such as rioting, terrorism, civil wars and other instances of social deviance such as crime. Similarly, individuals engage in deviant behaviors when their means do not match their goals.
Theory
American sociologist Robert K. Merton was among the first (if not the first) to use the concept of relative deprivation in order to understand social deviance, using French sociologist Emile Durkheim's concept of anomie as a starting point.
In one of the first formal definitions of relative deprivation, Walter Runciman noted that there are four preconditions of relative deprivation (of object X by person A):
- Person A does not have X
- Person A knows of other persons that have X
- Person A wants to have X
- Person A believes obtaining X is realistic
Runciman distinguishes between egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation. The former is caused by unfavorable social position when compared to other, better off members of a specific group (of which A is the member) and the latter, by unfavorable comparison to other, better off groups. Egoistic relative deprivation can be seen in the example of a worker who believes he should have been promoted faster and may lead that person to take actions intended to improve his position within the group; those actions are, however, unlikely to affect many people. Fraternalistic can be seen in the example of racial discrimination, and are much more likely to result in the creation and growth of large social movement, like the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Are the stars aligned for the occurrence in this country of a large social unrest stemming from fraternalistic relative deprivation?
References
Hariri & Klinton Ltd.
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