Born in Africa, “Racial” Scars and the Internet Gap

Let’s just say, you’re better off not getting sick or injured in an African village. If the wound or disease isn’t too bad, you may suffer, but you will get better. Anything worse, you’ll probably have the money to pay for transport to a hospital in the city. If you’re from the village, you will probably die. Speaking with most women, they have many children, partly because they don’t know how many will survive. A typical response… “ I have had nine children, four are dead. Now I have five.”

Gbemissola just had another baby nine days ago. She waits in this medical centre until her husband comes back with money to pay for the birth(probably around 10 €). Gbemissola’s face is decorated with scars. Decorated, because it is a symbol of her tribe, the Houli. She says she is neutral on the subject. “That’s just the way things are,” resumes Gbemissola. She won’t scar her newborn’s face. Not because she is against the practice, but because the scars are passed down from the father and Gbemisolla’s husband is Fon, so no scars. In general, this practice is becoming more and more rare.

There is no electricity in Kpokissa. There is no running water. And, of course, there is no internet. In the last 20 years, our lives in Europe, America and Asia, have changed drastically because of Internet. A world of information is at our fingertips. Friends from afar are only a Skype away. When I used to come to villages like Kpokissa, they seemed underdeveloped to be sure. Now, they seem like another planet, but it is more that we in the west live on another planet. The gap between us has increased by trigabytes. A kid in Europe copy-pastes his homework from Wikipedia on his ipad, as Gbemissola’s little baby waits in the dark for his father to return with money so they can leave the rundown maternity… probably by foot.