A thousand words??

The night is dark and full of terrors.

The video is that of the guy who hacked someone last week….

Hey there y'all. How’ve you been? Last week’s edition of A Thousand Words saw a lot of views and comments, both online and offline. Thank you all for your kind words and support.

As I iterated and reiterated last week, the night is dark and full of terrors. This has become quite a reality over the last two weeks for people from my hostel or people known to us. Another attack happened. This was not a stranger who was attacked, it was one of the imams in my hostel. I'll talk about that and give you closure on last week's edition.

For starters, a 300-level gentleman. I love him, his voice during the recitation of the Quran (and the multiple modes of recitation), he’s someone we can call quite reserved, or in the most common word used nowadays, demure. He’s a good man. So, what happened? How could someone so gentle get attacked? Did he cause trouble, or was he just like me, minding his own business? We’ll see.

So, on Wednesday night while I was home minding my own business or to be more specific, sleeping. Things more interesting than the dream I was having were happening. This individual went for a night class at South Africa. He'd been there for a while and I guess he needed to get food that'll take him through the night. Given the distance and seclusion of South Africa to the main road and considering the darkness, he was accompanied by someone else to get something at Under G. On their way, after passing by the 1200 Lecture Theatre, they met with a gang of three individuals who looked like criminals. I guess there was a bit of space between the imam and his companion, and one of the gang asked why they weren’t walking side by side.

A very absurd question, wasn’t it? Given the nature of our imam, he retorted and asked why they needed to. “Bawo ni ase le rin?” as one person described it. This was none of their concern, they weren’t disturbing anyone. Suddenly, one of these miscreants slapped our imam on the neck. How audacious! Imam asked what right he had to slap him. The fool said he had slapped him and there was nothing he was going to do about it. He then told him to call whoever he had to come to his aid, Pe awon to ba ni wa. I strongly believe it was this statement that broke the camels back. The scenario went that way. They proceeded to get what they had set out to buy at Under G. This all transpired in front of the school’s non-functional post office.

On their way back to South Africa, they checked 1200 and saw the assailants in the lecture theatre chilling. I guess they went back to South Africa to drop whatever they had with them. Once there, they called for reinforcements. They called someone from our hostel, and about four people went into the school. Two others, initially set on going to the library, also joined them, and they all went into 1200. What for? Maybe retribution, or better yet, closure. Like last week, they met with disappointment. The miscreants had left 1200. They checked all the other lecture theatres around that area, and disappointment greeted them at every turn. Eventually, they had to break up. The ones from the hostel went back, the others headed to the library, but there was something about our imam that kept him going: tenacity! The law is far, but authority is near. That’s the reality we live in right now. To tell a helpless person to wait until the law gets justice for them is illogical.

Both of the waylaid individuals continued their search to Sifax and possibly, if they had not found them there, they’d have gone to FPAS. They had searched 1200 LT, Management 1000 LT, and FAG LT before they broke up. But these two didn’t stop there. They kept going, and later on, lo and behold, they found them at Sifax. Seeing them there meant something. Those who left were immediately called back. The ones from the hostel returned, and the ones from the library rejoined. One of them, who I had a chat with, said he had opened his biology textbook, gone through the pages to find the topic of interest, found it, and just as he was about to start reading, he got the call. Picking up the phone, he stood up, left his books, and went to join the rest.

As they all got there, they went into the lecture hall and went straight to the one who slapped the imam. Upon reaching him, IMAM swung into action and repaid the favor in kind. He slapped him back, and the rest of the entourage gave him a bit of touching and patting, just to serve as a deterrent. As he was getting beat, a knife fell from his body. Obviously, he was criminal-like. This all went down.

Whether it was on cue or just a coincidence, as this was happening, a company of about ten people showed up. They were sympathizers of the miscreants or probably more plausibly, part of their gang. Suddenly, they were outnumbered, and the next thing to do was flee. These people obviously came prepared, as about three of them were carrying knives. Taking everything into consideration, they ran and got out of Sifax, chased by everyone, and all but one got away. The one who was caught was beaten up. His clothes were torn, and I assume he got the beating of his life. The ones who bolted didn’t just leave. They went to different places for backup, and backup they found. One went to get the MSSN officer chief. That one was dragged by his clothes. This all went on until an overwhelming number of people from my hostel showed up, forcing the hooligans to flee.

They ran, but one of them was caught. He was dragged to the security post and detained. For a moment, everything settled down, and a resolution was reached for everyone to leave. The people from my hostel stayed a bit at the security post while the detainee was writing a statement.

The imam, accompanied by others, then went back to Sifax to clarify what had happened to the people present and explain that this wasn’t a random disturbance but one triggered by an infringement of rights. As they got there, explaining, one of the people who came from my hostel noticed that as all this was going down, doors at Sifax were being shut leaving only one or two exits.

Suddenly,another set of miscreants came—again, outnumbering them. This time, the imam couldn’t get away, and he was beaten to a pulp. As the others turned back to get him, they left him behind and returned to the security office. When they told the security officers what had happened, remember that our hostel mates were still there. One of them, out of anger and taking the swollen face of the IMAM as motivation, picked a stick, barged into where the detainee was, and hit him with the stick, hoping he’d reveal the whereabouts of the others.

The security officer didn’t take kindly to that and slapped him, telling him to stop. Still angry, he was slapped again until he calmed down. They stayed back for a while, trying to find the others involved. They returned to Siphax and found another one. This one was also dragged into the security office making the total of two detained.

That’s when one of the miscreants, from a distance, shouted to get attention. He shouted and flashed a light. Normally, my hostel mates would chase someone like that, but unknown to them, it was a trap—one they didn’t fall for. They stopped when they reached an area with no light and didn’t follow him into the darkness. He didn’t know they understood that the night is dark and full of terrors—terrors they would have faced if any of them had stepped into the dark.

Finally, it was agreed that everyone would go home, and all could be put to rest. As they were leaving, a tip came in that one of the assailants had been spotted going back into Sifax. How foolish of him. It’s like he was following the saying, “the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime.” They went back, found him in the lecture theatre, and made him sit on the floor. Given everything that had happened, he was patted and caressed by angry people. He knew he was guilty, and the only thing he said was to take him to the security post. This they did, but only after he had received a bit of a massage from the crowd. He got there, and the security office told them to return by 11:00 AM the next day.

Finally, all of them headed back home, to the library, and wherever they had come from. I was reading when they got back. It wasn’t until they returned, accompanied by noise, that I realized most of us hadn’t been in the hostel. I checked the time, and it was a bit after 2 AM. I went to check what was happening, and that’s when I got the full story. A lot happens. The issue was later resolved, and the resolution was for the assailing party to apologize, and that was that.

I’m definitely not a pacifist, nor am I a fan of violence. But sometimes, without violence, order cannot be restored. And as Petyr Baelish said in *Game of Thrones*, “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” A ladder that restores the order of things when it’s trampled upon. If they weren’t dealt with to a point, they’d never feel the pain the people they assault felt. And this would be like an infringement.

What I don't understand is why should a victim be left to scar while the assailant be punished with a slap on the wrist. The one that happened last week to me wasn't resolved at all. The guy who hacked someone with an axe came back and I think apologized. The person who was hacked although didn't suffer a deep would, but ,from the way he spoke, he was scared as hell and I fear this will take a toll on his psychological health. To me, the ability of someone to raise an axe to another person without being provoked meant he could do a lot worse things. Why should he be forgiven without undergoing the same thing?

This is why I believe some laws in these world are very kind to criminals. I was sent a petition recently of a rapist who raped a kid until her uterus was no where be found. The only thing you could see was her spinal cord. He strangled her. Washed her body and then put her body on the age of her house and still, he was given a 15 year jail time. Where's the justice in that. The government would still feed him. If I was in a position to decide what's to be done to him. You don't want to know what I'll do if I had the opportunity to decide.

But that isn't our topic of discourse. If people call this barbarity, I think barbarity is sometimes a good thing then.

I'll leave you with another GOTquote, one attributed to varys and GRRM reported him to have said ,”Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall”. In this context, I'd say , if our imam believed these lowlife thugs had power, he'd not have slapped one of them back. Power is just an illusion. One which deludes the one who thinks he holds it. What power do you have now that someone from the years gone didn't?

The night is dark and full of terrors…

Allahul Musta'an_ Only God’s help is to be sought.