Africa Has Highest Rates of Suicides; Woman Claims Beating Children Cures Mental Health in Africa

Wednesday, 7 June 2023

By: TB Obwoge

It was disheartening as an advocate for not only mental health & suicide prevention but a Black woman to read such comments about mental health and child beatings. Also having a nonprofit for gender equality and children's right.

Under a post of a mother dealing with an unruly child, several Africans commented about how American children are spoiled and not physically beaten often enough.

The mother of the 8-year-old had the police called to her home because neighbors heard her child screaming, loudly. When police arrived they heard the child making a commotion inside the apartment.

The mother previously told the child to wait for her father to arrive, the child who was screaming due to having her cellphone taken from her, had not only been screaming but throwing things. Most parents would've turned towards physically spanking this child, American or not.

However several Africans said this was unacceptable in Africa, they praised the idea of not only physical beatings but corporal punishment.

An American woman told of growing up with Nigerian neighbors, hearing their parents beat them and their cries. She said they were very well behaved children but whenever they were punished it was physical and it was loud cries heard.

This was applauded by most of the African and Asians on this post which have over 15.6 thousand comments, 145 thousand views and 15.7 thousand shares.

The amount of people applauding hitting children, instead of other means of discipline was disgusting. This case aside, the child was 8-years-old, had social media pages that were not for a child that age and was becoming violent with items.

Those in the comments went beyond the scenario into a world of praising beating children. The comments went into something that seemed more inhumane than parenting. As one man compared raising children to training soldiers in the military.

When asked how these beatings worked for Nigeria the man never replied. He was asked several times about crime, the behaviors of Nigerian adults. Life in Nigeria for adults whom were beaten as children, all answers he never responded to.

Nigeria is a country a fraction the size of the United States, it's a beautiful country with 219 million citizens. However it's not known for being a country of humans who are perfectly behaved.

Suicide attempts are a punishable crime in many countries in Africa, Nigeria being one of them.

Article below from February 2022

Attempted suicide penalty: Reps seek to replace jail term with community service

The house of representatives is considering a bill seeking to replace the punishment for attempted suicide.

The proposed law, which is sponsored by Francis Waive, a lawmaker from Delta state, seeks to amend section 327 of the Criminal Code Act, 2004.

The section states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year”.

But the amendment seeks to replace the section to read thus: “Any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to compulsory consoling and community service for a period, not less than six months”.

Source: The Cable Nigeria

Instead of mental health treatment or being remanded to a mental health facility, jail or community service are the options. When there aren't any treatments for the issues which caused the person to attempt suicide they're more likely to try another time.

Suicide Punishable By Death Or Jail in 20 Countries 10 Being African

Mental health issues have long been an issue that's dismissed in the Black American and African communities. Where therapy has been shunned and considered issues that only affected the white race (race isn't a real, just a societal concept)

People often use the word 'depressed' when they're sad, 'anxiety' when they're temporarily nervous

Social media is making dealing with mental health issues even worse, as people are posting incorrect advice. Those who claim that they cured mental health by prayer, or just ate a certain food. Others claim there isn't mental illness in Africans.

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