Trauma scenes lurk everywhere in the corners of our world. . .
They shock our eyes and wound our mind into a lasting paralysis.
Maddening scenarios that make the head jump over the abyss of existence.
There are trauma scenes on the road. Like when the bus runs lightless into the stationary truck along Uyo-PH Road.
Like when Keke is crushed by a ruthless tipper, gushing out blood like the palm oil press in Atabong.
Like the school girl who could not escape the claws of a pickup truck at Atek street in Ekpene Ukim.
Trauma scenes occur in the hysterical cries of the frightened faces pursued by the nightmares of earthly existence.
Stalked souls are traumatized, left in perpetual fear of the unknown assailants.
Gutters in Ajegunle offer sights of trauma, haunting filths stick to our visuals, affecting our victuals.
Bodies under sheets in lonely hospital cubes are trauma scenes of man’s final journey. You cannot take your mind from them. They haunt you throughout life.
The blow to the head incurred by the school boy from his teacher will cause him headaches throughout life.
Some disappointments can be traumatic. Expectation cut short is like a life gone too soon, including when dreams turn to nightmares.
Delayed and denied salaries and other entitlements can traumatize the labourer. The ghosts of 279 continue to haunt the grounds of the Ivory Tower, pleading for mercy, begging for justice.
Prolonged labour strike is a source of trauma to the learners who dread crossing the river of knowledge at old age.
In Bakassi, the gendarmes terrorize the people through blows, slaps, kicks and whips.
SARS truama lives in the memories of the unarmed youths at Lagos tollgates.
War trauma is relived by ex-soldiers unmercifully spared by the wars in Chad, Sudan, Nsukka, Ukraine, Syria, Baghdad and the West Bank. The mind does not rest even during sit-at-home in Aba.
Trauma scenes are sung in dirges in remembrance of Okigbo, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9, all the freedom ‘righters’ who suffered defeat at the foot of the sword but triumphed with their pen.
Trump is a presidential truama just like T-Pain. Both names start with T which is a cross and a scourge to our peace of mind. The world should learn to sleep less as the days tick by.
The sharky Abuja Road where kidnappers reign, the Sambisa Forest, the nightmarish Ogoni Road and the accident-prone East-West Road; these are the trauma scenes of our national life, the path the nation is travelling in; destination is tragedy on a national scale.
Historical truama scenes remind us of slavery, colonialism and all forms of white-man-eat black-man and later black-man-learn-to-eat-fellow-black-man.
. . . to be continued. . .