The Cameroonian Left Handed Stigma

 

Around the world, left handedness is associated with ink smudges, difficulty using scissors, intelligence and table edges. Some Left handed persons in Cameroon have a similar experience but different narrative. Being left handed in Cameroon often receives a lot of mockery and discouragement from the community around you. The culture has come to stipulate that if your write, eat, greet and do activities with your left hand in public, you will most likely be jeered at, pitied, reprimanded and get asked why your parents did not stop it or “correct” it when you were young. 

 This stigma shapes life experiences negatively starting as early as the playground in nursery and primary school. “ During games, I hardly got picked for either side because it was considered that left handed people don’t play games well so out of pity they add me as “all head”(this type of player just plays for the sake of it and their victory or failure does not affect any team’s current score in the game). By then I was happy to just play but later on I started seeing that my performance meant nothing and it made me sad so I started spending break time alone and became friends with my bench mate. Over time it contributed to me always leaning back in group activities because I did not need the slangs. At work my colleague once laughed at me all through a meeting because I was taking minutes with my left hand.Needless to say that was the last time and I do not speak with this person anymore outside work” Phina Bih 

In my early childhood,my mum used to beat the “left hander “ out of me because she was unable to teach me how to write. I would cry out my lungs (she laughs) that every evening was a nightmare for me because I know what was up. Secondly I am not sure I feel comfortable eating with people at the same table till date,because they will throw some comments at me like ‘its disrespectful eating with your left hand’ ‘I will lose my appetite if you continue using that hand’. Fast forward to November 2022,I had to serve a friend Achu (a cameroonian meal native of the North West Region) when he saw me dishing his food with my left hand, he said ‘I be pikin for palace (royalty) how dare you insult that food you want to give me like that?’ I smiled but deep down I got me angry,I don’t know if being left handed is a taboo or what.” Piewo Edith.

Melvin Songwe has an “OK” experience with being left handed. For him,it has always been a point of encouragement because people around him associated it with success ,intelligence and being “special”.

 The possibility of making a child born left handed to become right handed continues to fuel the community stigma and practice of changing handedness among Cameroonian parents because the Right hand feels normal. On days like this one when left handedness is being celebrated,we are all reminded that being left handed is associated with genes and environment and it has no proven relationship with abnormalities in a negative way so left handed children should be imbued with as much confidence as right handed ones.