AFRICAN PECULIARITIES: Death and Social Media
It has always filled me with disgust and wonder, the hurry that people are in to post of the demise of ‘friends’ and ‘loved-ones’ on social media. A person is barely dead, and the images are already flooding the pages, images from the years back and now. It is only then that somebody you barely talked to becomes your girlfriend and boyfriend, when the brother you fought all the time becomes beloved, or the mother you called names becomes the greatest ever loss. Some of these people you have not contacted in years, some you have not seen. Others you could not see eye to eye when they were alive, but the moment they die, they become your beloved brother, best of friends. Your grandmother was walking barefoot while you had the best of lives in the city. You could not visit her in the village when she was sick, save for the measly Christmas visits where your desire is to show off to the low-lives that were left behind when you went to the city, to show off your car and your babies, ...