By Seun Sobola
VeryDarkMan spent Easter in Prison, Bobrisky, during Salah. We should expect beards on Bobrisky’s face when s/he eventually leaves the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Turning from Very Dark Man to Bobrisky, we leave the “Merry social media” of Nigeria for an artificial gay, but oppressed, Bobrisky of the 21st century.
Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, better known by Bobrisky, is a transgender woman and LGBT celebrity from Nigeria. Not until last week, her notoriety on social media for breaking the traditional Nigerian norms and causing partial controversy, would not have made many platforms en-strange constituents of national discord. There is no gainsaying that Bobrisky has been arrested for an offense which has been committed and left unnoticed by many Nigerians. None of this is to deny that for trampling on and spray-painting fresh naira notes in February, actress Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin did not receive a six-month prison sentence, but our “BOB-RISK-IT had it not coming. He or she has just been taught a few lessons in the polity of “reason” introduced by civilization.
Jean Jacques Rosseau (1712-1778), the author of Social Contract, was the first to suggest that man should learn to trust his “heart” as a guide to human action, since emotion and natural instinct prompt wiser conduct than does reason. Late Hibbard put forward the view that America’s Declaration of Independence might have been delayed and would probably have been phrased differently if not for the essays in Social Contract. Rosseau locates social inequality (differences) among people based on social standards as class, fortune, birth, differences as meaningless and should be discarded. To Rosseau, civilisation with an emphasis on social standards is an enemy of mankind. Then, why should Bobrisky be born free and then everywhere s/he is in chains?
The major facts in the whole story may be quickly told. Portable must be cautioned for his rallies of sarcastic dance on the platform of “Brotherhood and Sisterhood” where his lies engaged truths to overthrow humanity. It was Portable’s purpose to strike off the shackles of convention which hampered Bobrisky’s freedom, and, interestingly enough, he succeeded in finding an audience in the formal society of the 21st century. His song, “You Are My Brotherhood”, in which these doctrines were most vividly expressed, went through over ten million views on TikTok within two weeks. Portable’s high momentum rose, in addition to the new supposed song, as he was awarded a 70 million naira convert-able Benz sequel to his condemnation of the popular Nigerian cross-dresser, Bobrisky (originally a male) who was called the “Best Dressed Female” prize at a Movie Premiere event, Àjàkájù (Beast of Two Worlds) by Eniola Ajao. Just like Nigerians, Portable is a child of decorum, child of reason for many years in a bid to move rapidly through a great transition towards reordering of human society in the sense which the new prophets (religion, civilisation, reasons) demanded.
Nevertheless, let us remember that the first man to ever exist simply considered himself after enclosing a plot of land and declared, “This is mine”. For this reason, we would refer to him as the true founder of civil society because the people accepted him as such. In such primitive state, man was placed at an equal distance from the stupidity of brutes. Because man was led by instinct to care against anything that threatens him, he had natural compassion to care for others.
Breeding forward, the initial awareness of one’s own existence and duty was “self-preservation.” Man had what he needed from the produce of the earth, and he knew how to use it because of his instinct. But hunger and other desires caused him to go through different phases of life at different times. One of these was a blind inclination which had nothing to do with the heart and caused him to act in an animal manner, which was an impulse to spread his species. Technically, that was the first yoke that man inadvertently imposed on himself.
There was more. As thoughts and emotions (civil institutions) spread and people became closer, men started to think about the others and consciously choose to think about the ones they desired. They also started to associate worth with being well-liked by the general public. For instance, the most attractive, strong, dexterous, and eloquent people, as well as those who sang the best, became the most valued. That was the beginning of inequality, and from this division arose conceit and disdain as well as jealousy and embarrassment. It is now necessary that as men started to esteem one another and the concept of regard gained traction, everyone responded by punishing others for treating them disrespectfully and, in turn, revenge became terrible, and men bloody and cruel.
The world as it is now is more unsupportable than the pain itself. “Where there is no property, there can be no injury,” the sage Locke once said. That implies that there would not be any issues if our society was sane. Nothing is more compassionate than man in the prehistoric past, thus those artists who have established the concept that man is “naturally” cruel and requires civil institutions (government, law, politics, religious centres, economic resources, etc.) must be mistaken. When will humans interact with their shabby huts? When shall we begin to dress in animal pelts? But from the moment we feel in need, some people can afford to acquire what they want, while others can not, then property has been been introduced, and slavery and misery will grow up in the same level like our crops. Portable should, therefore, be cautioned. Portable and anyone who denounced Bobrisky for transvestism should be wary. Is morality possible in a universe where egoism’s petulant activity remains stable? There is another popular transformation in America that you can choose to transcend time after death. But before we choose to live again after death, although not in the same biological vituperation: Are we not meant to be human first?
We usually fall back to the Classics to know better the present and if I am correct, Aristotle was the first critic to bring up the concept of “decorum” in literature. Literally, the concept of “literary decorum” means that “tragedy” should be “tragedy” and “comedy” should also be “comedy”. In other words, none should be mixed together. That postulations, however, seem to have changed due to the kind of world we lead. The formulaic interpretations are given below;
The Principle of Decorum
T: Tragedy = High art for the people better than we are
C: Comedy = Low art for the people worse than we are
When the Principle of Decorum is Mixed Together
TC: Tragi-comedy = for people of the same kind that we are
Seun Sobola is a first class graduate of English.
