{UAH} ULIMWENGU: Avoiding Ebola -Practise Hinduism, stay clean, don't listen to false prophets
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ULIMWENGU: Avoiding Ebola -Practise Hinduism, stay clean, don't listen to false prophets
Posted Saturday, August 9 2014 at 12:40
In Summary
- Superstition is probably the most debilitating disease we suffer from, and it may acquire frightening dimensions once we are hit by a real emergency and our rulers continue to be totally clueless on such matters because they are themselves mired in nonsensical beliefs.
Another killer disease is stalking Africa. As if we had not had enough of pestilences that have wreaked havoc on Africans down the ages, another agent of the Grim Reaper is doing its visitation on us in the form of a virus called Ebola.
When the haemorrhagic fever and its terrible effects on humans was first reported in the media a decade or so ago, some punster declared that it was nothing to be scared of because it was only a new Congolese dance style, just like Ndombolo and Mayenu before it.
I'm sure the man is no longer laughing, seeing that hundreds of people have succumbed to this thing that still defies proper definition and eludes cure.
Scientist are still struggling with the enigma and the only things we can be sure of at this juncture are the terrible symptoms afflicting the patients and the physical, economic and psychological devastation the virus is causing among affected populations.
Already there are travel restrictions on the affected areas. Whole communities, already indigent as it were, are too scared to venture out to carry out economic activities and panic and anger are growing by the day.
Suggestions that the virus may have been introduced into the human bloodstream via animals consumed by people who feed on so-called bushmeat, which refers to a host of non-domestic animals favoured by people in certain parts of Africa and wherever the Neolithic revolution has not truly taken root.
Alimentary habits breed forms of prejudice and encourage xenophobic exclusions. People who eat a different animal from the one you eat appear rather strange to you, if not inferior, and all of us subconsciously wish the entire world ate what we do.
Of course, there are those who are forbidden certain animals by their faiths, such as the Jews and Muslim with pork, or those who may not consume anything "which has a mother," as says my friend Rakesh Rajani. The Hindu stricture on non-meat eating would seem to be the safest if we wanted to avoid any animal-borne ailments, including cholesterol.
Having witnessed the attachment that my brothers and sisters have to bushmeat in some African countries, I do not suppose they will drop their dietary preferences any time soon. They will still favour roasted squirrel, or ratus-ratus, over your Chateaubriand or steak-au-poivre.
That being the case, then, what is to be done? We may want to encourage a little care with whatever we consume, including proper cooking and strict hygiene. This is easier said than done, seeing as most of our people continue to vegetate in perfectly unhygienic conditions.
It is not only about poverty, which is a crushing reality, but the sheer lack of a culture of cleanliness and tidiness, which does not cost money. Our towns and cities are breeding grounds for all sorts of epidemics because of the filthiness surrounding us, and the way the authorities treat this state of affairs as natural.
It is never too late to start teaching our people the maxim, "cleanliness is next to godliness," that we were taught so long ago, and that we should continue teaching to others and to each other.
Then we should look out for shysters, tricksters and fraudsters who may want to cash in on the epidemic if it hits our neck of the woods.
Even without an epidemic, we witnessed the long queues of people heading toward Loliondo, in northern Tanzania, to drink from a cure-all cup that our authorities failed to stop, and in fact encouraged, at the cost of so many dead.
Nor should we heed the false hopes held up by those who call themselves prophets and who profess to cure all ailments, apart from anointing future presidents and turning paupers into magnates.
Superstition is probably the most debilitating disease we suffer from, and it may acquire frightening dimensions once we are hit by a real emergency and our rulers continue to be totally clueless on such matters because they are themselves mired in nonsensical beliefs.
Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com
Democracy is two Wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed Lamb contesting the results.
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