Hello story lovers! It’s the first episode of The Shorttales Club and joining our host Oz are Cryptte, Habiba and AbdulHanan. Together they discuss Chinua Achebe’s short story titled The Madman. As the name suggests, it covers mental health, madness attributed to jazz and other forms of Nigerian superstitious beliefs.
Transcript
Oz: Hello story lovers. Welcome to The Shorttales Club, a place where I and my friends read, think and discuss short stories that we find fun and interesting. Please note that this is a spoiler-filled show as we cannot be held accountable for our frenzied excitement. Seriously, we really can’t help ourselves. Other than that, enjoy the show.
Welcome to the first episode of The Shorttales Club. My name is Oz and I have my guests here with me …,
Cryptte: Cryptte
Habiba: Habiba
Abdulhanan: Abdulhanan
Oz: Good. Today, we will be discussing the story The Madman by Chinua Achebe. It was first published in The Insider in 1971, several years ago. But then, as the name implies, the mad man, we’d wonder what’s going to happen, whether we are going to be learning about a mad man or not so mad, mad man, you know, anyway.
We’re going to begin with a sound review, a summary of what we think of the stories in sounds. I’ll go first.
Oz: …
Cryptte: …
Habiba: …
Abdulhanan: …
Oz: Okay then. There you have it. The sound review. Now let’s go into the story proper. First of all, let’s start with what you think of the choice of this story as our very first story for The Shorttales Club.
Cryptte: I think it’s actually a really good choice, like The Madman, because I believe all of us are mad in some way, specifically the four of us. I’m not going to go into details of our madness, but we are all mad so it makes sense that the first story we cover is The Madman. Maybe they should have said Madmen and Women. So maybe it has to do with something with his gender.
I also like how the story starts off. At first, you think that he is going to try and hide who the madman is then he doesn’t. You start realising that this character is the mad man. But then suddenly switch perspectives and he turns everything upside down and you start wondering, is this mad man really mad or is he just, …
Oz: I mean, is he the mad man that we are supposed to be paying attention to as the title suggested or …,
Cryptte: What kind of madness are we talking about exactly?
Abdulhanan: I thought you were going to talk about it when you said we are all mad in our own ways. In Nigeria right now, I think right from the president to the last baby that was born two minutes ago, we are mad in some way. Then again, what seemed to be madness to you, in some other culture, it’s not mad. For the story …,
Cryptte: Another sound review.
AbdulHanan: Yeah. I just love how the guy tricked me. I thought someone was mad and actually the person is the …, Is there any word like sanest? The sanest person …,
Oz: The person is like the sanest person in the village.
Habiba: The first thing I got from it was that, okay, this is the mad man, he is mad. Then when we met the actual mad man …,
Oz: Oh my God!
Habiba: I started wondering, was that other mad man actually mad or what actually happened to him that he became a mad man. It was so,
Abdulhanan: The choice of story is just superb. Not everything seems to be as it seems.
Cryptte: Yes, it says a lot about our society. People that have mental health issues, usually we just call them mad. We don’t bother to find out what exactly is wrong with them or how they got that way. Then a lot of us that are suffering from depression, anxiety, all sorts of disorders, we live everyday like we’re normal.
But then you could equally say that we are mad. If we would say that the guy that walks on the streets simply because he’s not wearing clothes, is mad. Then if you actually have mental issues, because that guy probably does not have mental issues, it’s just that he does not have clothes to wear, he has no way of buying clothes, so he just decided, you know what? I don’t care. I’m just going to walk like this, in my bathing suit, on the streets, anywhere, everywhere, all the time.
Oz: At this juncture, I’m going to try and give our listeners a small synopsis of what the story is about. So Chinua Achebe started out by describing a person, a man who converses with the road. He talks to the road as though the road is his friend, tells it, ‘I know you are thirsty. I’m going to bring some water back for you. Please do not be angry that I’m abandoning you at this point.’ Holds great conversations and understands that cruelty is bad, because people who are cruel to him …, he understands that this is wrong. He doesn’t mess with anyone. And he’s wondering why anybody would want to mess with him.
So we meet this man, and then we get to the point where he has a routine, he follows it religiously, and then we get introduced to somebody else who seems very…, I think the first word would be industrious when you think about Nnube. You imagine somebody who is hardworking, a farmer, a leader in his home because he has two wives whom he’s responsible for, a trader who is wealthy to some extent because he has corrugated iron roofs on his house when everybody is using thatched roofs. You realise that this man is to all the societal standards, a healthy, okay, human being. Only for us to get to the point where the story twists and, I will leave this for later.
Oz: So let’s move to the next point where we explore what we think Chinua Achebe was trying to do with the story.
Abdulhanan: By the way, it’s a very beautiful story because the character that is talking to the road feels the road is some kind of human being that needs to be treated nicely. I think we all, at some point in our lives, would have done that …,
Oz: Talked to inanimate objects, not necessarily the road.
AbdulHanan: … but at a very minimal amount of time so we think it’s okay. The story might be short, but I think it describes humans.
We don’t really talk about mental wellbeing, especially in this country. For instance, you tell someone, you need to see a psychiatrist, they tell you, are you insulting me? Are you saying I am mad? Nobody wants to see a psychiatrist. When they see this particular doctor, they try to hide. I think it’s a very beautiful story and it describes our everyday life, but we don’t know because we don’t want to accept the fact that at some point in our lives, we are not mentally okay.
Habiba: What I loved the best about it was that this is 1971. He published this in 1971. And to this day, in 2022, we are still struggling with mental health issues and trying to get people to accept it. And Chinua Achebe decided in 1971, I don’t think they did therapy in 1971. They take you to the madhouse.
Oz: We are still struggling to enlighten people that therapy is not a sin, it’s not a curse, it should be okay.
Habiba: And he took this topic and did justice to it. And then of course, the other mad man, not the first mad man. I like the fact that we did not see his point of view. It made it all the more heart-wrenching because we did not see what he was feeling. We saw what everybody else …,
Oz: thought of him, saw when they looked at him.
Habiba: Exactly, but he was blank. And so we don’t know what he was feeling, what his own perspective on the issue was. But we saw everyone else’s perspective. And that is what’s happening in real life.
You are there minding your own business and everybody else has an opinion on what you are doing, on how you are dressing or how you are walking. Somebody will stop you in the middle of the road and ask, can’t you see the way your skirt is riding up from behind. People are just like that.
Cryptte: And when you tell them no, I can’t, they will think you are being rude, or sarcastic.
Habiba: And then it will be that you don’t have home training.
Oz: Or you must be mad.
Habiba: Exactly! So madness is like an intrinsic part of our society. Everybody is mad and then we are all trying to ascribe madness to everyone else while saying we are the sanest. No, we are not mad. Everybody else is mad.
Cryptte: We are not accepting our own madness. I think it helps us cope. The idea that you can point out somebody else’s madness without admitting that you have it, it just makes it easier for you to live with yourself.
Oz: It all goes to show how our society has been dealing with mental health. We all feel like …, well, not all of us. In the past few years, a lot of mental health campaigns have been going on where people are trying to educate others about what mental health is and the fact that there should not be any stigma attached to it. We should all come to accept that this is our reality and then seek help when we need it.
It’s funny that, yes, just like you said, years ago, this story. And it’s also funny that it’s not a very popular story. I had to go looking to come across it. I know Chinua Achebe has a series of short stories, but none of them stood out. When you say Chinua Achebe, everybody thinks ‘Things Fall Apart’, the novel. For me, this is a story that is so timeless. The kind of stories that we should always go back to.
If you want to teach mental health, you refer to this story, especially for young adults, you ask them, who do you think is mad in this story? And then once they come to realise that each and everyone of them is …, that they could see themselves in one way or the other in these two men, they realise that, okay, maybe madness is not what we think it is. Maybe we could all be victims of circumstances, you know?
Oz: And that brings me to the point where I kind of felt pity for Nnube, the second man. We could all assume and say that it’s his fault what happened to him at the end because he allowed his anger to take control of him. But I also want to look at it from another perspective. When relatives were escorting him home, somebody was praying ill for whoever was responsible for his madness.
So let us look at it from this point. Do we think that what happened to Nnube was something that could have happened to any one of us? Or do we think that there was ‘village people’ involved?
AbdulHanan: I really like this question. I will take it from his matrimonial home. He has two wives and they are always at loggerheads. First of all, I think the first wife is mad.
Oz: Mgboye.
AbdulHanan: Yes. I think she’s mad because when you are being hurt everytime and you feel it’s okay, and even when you answer, you just answer low …, you are not well.
Oz: Okay, the fact that she’s not expressing her anger,
AbdulHanan: Yes. Anger should be expressed. I don’t know if anyone is watching ‘Big Bang Theory’. Sheldon, with all of his intelligence, does not know what love is, or how to express love.Then when you talk about sex, it’s like an alien thing. That’s an illness. That’s madness. So I think she is mad and maybe the second wife is just over-expressive.
Oz: Or we could just say troublesome because she loves trouble, it’s obvious.
AbdulHanan: Troublesome, yes, thank you. Now, according to the story, this is a constant thing for the man. It’s enough to run anybody mad.
Oz: So maybe his own madness was just on standby.
AbdulHanan: It could be emotional. You know how he’s been troubled by people and he feels, the story didn’t tell us how he has, maybe tried to fight back. He just took it into himself. When I I was listening to the story. I actually put myself in this guy’s shoes and I feel, what if I am married to two wives and I go to work and all of my colleagues are bullying me and I don’t see the need to actually fight back. What would be my mental health? You shouldn’t be surprised if you see me naked and trying to …, it’s enough. There’s no ‘village people’ attached. I think the man was too much of a lowlife for anybody to try to hurt him. It’s clearly scientific.
Oz: I’m sorry I have to interrupt you at this point.
Cryptte: What he means is that nobody will waste their ‘jazz’ on him.
AbdulHanan: Thank you very much. That’s what I feel.
Oz: No no no. I beg to disagree.This man has just applied to join the Ozo men of the village. And they were considering it. It means he is ascending.
Habiba: He’s meant to be a titled man
Cryptte: Chairman!
AbdulHanan: I don’t think the leaders were going to give it to him.
Oz: But they were considering it.
Cryptte: Wait, wait. I think the Ozo men were like, well, this proposal, we are going to consider it, but, …
AbdulHanan: It’s just like when you go for an interview and they are like we will call you back.
Cryptte: It’s more like, oh, you want to run for this thing right? Let’s see you do it.
Oz: Well, doesn’t that sound like a tacit threat?
I mean, this man was supposed to have the rest of the year to prove himself to these clansmen, so he can join their ranks. And their only response was, let’s give it time, as though they knew something was coming. Why did they have to say that? It wasn’t a very positive response. It was like they knew that something was going to happen to him, so they were just waiting. They colluded to put him in his place.
AbdulHanan: I think if there was a ‘jazz’ thing in the story, the writer would have given us some clues.
Cryptte: I think it was intentional.
AbdulHanan: It was more mental. I mean, that’s why he talked about someone talking to the road, saying, ‘guy, I’ll give you water, I’ll give you …,
Cryptte: The thing is, yes he was talking to the road,
Oz: That’s man 1.
Cryptte: Yes. Now, I can’t count the number of times I have spoken to a car or TV, any kind of electronic, saying please, just work.
AbdulHanan: You do this purposely. You talk to your system, please don’t misbehave.
Oz: But if that’s the case, then we all talk to inanimate objects.
AbdulHanan: Look, we all talk to things and that’s why the English people brought personification, right?
Cryptte: I will feed you with fuel, full tank. Please, just get me to my destination. Don’t stop on the road.
Oz: Don’t abandon me in my time of need. And especially in a country like Nigeria where everything happens to fail at one point or another.
Cryptte: At the worst point.
AbdulHanan: When you need them most.
Oz: At this point, I would like to give an instance where we have come to agree that in our house, there must be a camera hidden somewhere, because on that particular day that you have garnered all your energy, that you have worked up the courage and strength to do that important task, they will take the lights.
AbdulHanan: First.
Oz: Yeah, first of all. And then if paraventure they happen to bring it back, they won’t do it until just at the point where you have given up hope. Like ‘even if the light comes now, I’m not even going to do that work, I can’t even do it’, and then they’ll bring back the lights.
Everything is set up to fail in this country. Okay, maybe not everything, but most things are set up to fail. So it’s not surprising that we find ourselves begging God, and then we beg Nepa. We say, ‘please just give me an hour to finish this task.
Cryptte: I have a deadline.
Oz: So it’s not so uncommon to see people talk to inanimate objects. We do not take notice of it. We don’t pay attention.
Habiba: Unless the person doing it is naked on the streets.
AbdulHanan: I think it is about timing. I used to have anger issues. The therapist, what he told me was, ‘you don’t need any drug. You don’t need anything. First of all, walk, take a walk, then go to the bush, voice out all of your anger, things that you would have told that person …,
Cryptte: That would have harmed the situation.
Oz: So go there and scream to the winds.
AbdulHanan: And I laughed at him. Like, how can I? He said, go to the bush, go to the flower. He told me to go to the bathroom and scream. And I was like, that would make me mad. Yeah. This is what I felt. It. It would make me mad. What if someone saw me.
Oz: What if someone is passing by and just …,
AbdulHanan: Then I didn’t do it. And this was while I was a teenager, 15, 16 or so. I didn’t do this thing until I got to the university and it helped me. I think some amount of talking to the road or any inanimate thing would help you as a person to cope with life.But it shouldn’t be an everyday thing.
Oz: At this point, who says that it is wrong, who decides that it’s wrong for you to speak to inanimate objects that can’t respond?
Habiba: Society.
Cryptte: Let’s just say that society says so. You know our uncles and aunts.
Oz: Then for how long are we going to live under the shackles of society?
AbdulHanan: You know, I came very early. When I was leaving, I saw this man that was actually talking about …, he was having a conversation with his wife. Only him.
Habiba: The wife was not there?
AbdulHanan: No, the wife was not there.
Cryptte: I think he was coaching himself.
AbdulHanan: I just laughed. He was like, na gaya miki kar kiyi. Oh, za ki ce kin sani ko, kin sani ko,
Habiba: Maybe something happened and he was trying to ginger himself.
AbdulHanan: And this man was alright, looked alright.
Oz: He was alright?
AbdulHanan: What I’m saying is that I think the amount of talking to inanimate objects or talking to yourself increases once that person is not allowed to express himself or herself.
Habiba: Okay, because the moment I started reading this story, the first person that came to mind was one of my aunts. She was a genuine mad person. We all knew her. The way this man walks on the highway, that’s how she walks. She walks from Kano to Kaduna.
Cryptte: Seriously?
AbdulHanan: Kai!
Habiba: On foot.
Oz: Oh no.
Cryptte: How long does she take?
Habiba: Weeks. She would come out to the side of the road, in markets, like everybody knew her. Of course like they say, ‘jazz’.
Cryptte: So they will say, ah, you don come?
Oz: So everybody just blamed it on that.
Habiba: Yeah. They said somebody did it to her. But then other people will tell you that it is because she did not have ‘tawakkali’.
AbdulHanan: Say that again?
Oz: She would come on the road and no, no, no, no. You mean people say it’s because she doesn’t have ‘tawakkali’ that …,
Habiba: People said it’s because when she was married, her husband did not have money and he could not afford to give her groundnut oil, only …,
Oz: Only palm oil. Okay, keep going.
Habiba: And so everytime she comes to our house, she will sit down and complain to my mother that he did this. If my mother gives her food, she will say, ‘kai Hauwa …,
Cryptte: Is she still married to him?
Habiba: No, he divorced her.
Cryptte: But she is still complaining about the marriage even now.
Habiba: Yeah. She will say, ‘kai Hauwa, see how this your rice is filled with oil. Mhm, Sani will never give me oil like this’. Every single time, her complaint is him, the way he does not give her money, he does not give her oil, he does not give her vaseline.
Oz: So, ‘tawakkali’ now is supposed to be like she was ungrateful.
Habiba: Yes, she was ungrateful, she should have stayed in her husband’s house and just managed the little that he could give her.
Cryptte: Wasn’t it the same husband that drove her …,
Oz: And this is why she is mad today. Oh God.
Habiba: Instead she …,
AbdulHanan: But would you all agree with me that Nigerians, Africans, but especially Nigerians don’t believe anything happens by mistake?
Oz: That there’s any scientific reason for things to happen.
AbdulHanan: So if I fall on the ground now, it’s either Halima or Habiba have done something to me.
Oz: Or you yourself have done something to offend someone, you know.
Cryptte: You have evil plans for one of us, and that’s why …,
Oz: That’s why you fell, to teach you a lesson.
Cryptte: Because God is only on my side.
AbdulHanan: Halleluyah
Oz: Or it could also be because you didn’t pray this morning,
Cryptte: Ehen!
Habiba: You will think it yourself too. You will start thinking, when I was leaving the house this morning, did I pray? Maybe that’s why my car just stopped working.
Oz: Maybe that’s why this is happening.
Habiba: You will think, tomorrow when I’m coming out, I’ll make sure I pray.
Oz: I’ll pray so nothing bad will befall me.
AbdulHanan: I did this course recently on child abuse with British Council online. There’s this thing that even my dad did to me and my dad is educated. He did it to me. A lot of people have done it to a lot of children where you tell a child, you are doing this and that’s why this is happening to you.
We try to create that perspective for the child and the child grows up with it. My father thinks, anytime I said I don’t want to do something and they force me to do it, I would have a problem or the person would have a problem. And I grew up with this idea in my head and it was a problem. It contributed to my anger issues.
Oz: So. In an attempt not to cause harm to anybody, whether yourself or others, you bottle things up.
AbdulHanan: You bottle things up and you just need some kind of trigger, one day and then you pour everything on, most likely an innocent person.
Oz: Whoever happens to be unfortunate.
Cryptte: It;s just one drop, just one drop …,
AbdulHanan: One tiny drop. So it’s a very necessary story and yes, just like Habiba pointed out. Considering the year it was written and was published. I’m just surprised that it’s still very valid, you know?
Oz: Very relevant,
AbdulHanan: Very relevant in our lives right now.
Oz: Okay. At this point, we’re going to go on a short break and we’ll be back soon with our closing. Thank you. See you soon, don’t go anywhere.
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Oz: We are going to move to the segment where we talk about how we make the story better. So for me, looking at what Chinua Achebe has done with that story, yes, it left me with a sad feeling towards the end of the story, but I wouldn’t, I don’t think I would do anything different.
I think that he, even for the things that he didn’t say, was saying something in another manner. It was supposed to make us think, make us reflect. And I think he has done a really good job with that. And he was also shining a light on mental health. And that is, you know, an apt topic that everybody should be aware of.
Cryptte: I think there are aspects of the story that he could have fleshed out a bit more to emphasise his point, like the off-hand way he wrote the second man, all the things he did to the mad man prior to his segment in the story. So when the mad man tells us that …,
Oz: Mad man 1 or mad man 2?
Cryptte: When man 1 tells us that this is the same guy that did this to me and that to me, it just feels like the idea just sprung up in his head and he just decided to write it. It didn’t feel like there was any real connection between them.
Oz: Yeah, because he had every opportunity to show us.
Cryptte: Show some kind of sign.
Oz: Or a connection between the two of them,but no. He wrote that first part independent of the other.
Cryptte: He didn’t describe a leader among the four people that drove him out.
Oz: Yes.
Habiba: But are we sure that he was even among the four men? This mad man could have just imagined everything.
Oz: At this point, we are not sure.
Cryptte: Exactly. It might have been somebody entirely different.
Habiba: Exactly.
Oz: He just assumed that every unfortunate thing that men have meted out on him, this man was responsible.
Habiba: Exactly because he kept saying, ‘and then he remembered, and then he remembered’.
How can you just keep remembering?
Oz: Yes, he was remembering them in stages.
Habiba: And then he remembered, this was the same hefty man that brought three others like him and whipped me out of the hut.
Oz: And then he remembered.
Habiba: He remembered again, this was the same man in the lorry that …, and then he remembered.
Cryptte: And then he mentioned children at some point. Now those children, the only child that they mentioned Nnube had, that is the second man,
Oz: Yeah, was a little child. But then, that is the child of the second wife. So he might have other ones.
Cryptte: But the space between the time he married the first and the second wife was three years. But that doesn’t mean that the first one didn’t give birth a lot earlier than the second.
Oz: Yeah, maybe she already had all her kids.
AbdulHanan: Between three years?
Habiba: Like children on the street, when they see mad people, they throw things. So any child on the street could have …,
Oz: So what made him even think that they were …,
Habiba: Like that’s how mad people are. You are walking on the street and they look at you and
Oz: And they look at you and say, ah, you are the one, you did this thing to me’.
Habiba: … they start beating you. They say, ‘You took my food yesterday’.
Cryptte: For me, it’s more like, he could have fleshed it out a bit more so we will be sure. Probably his reason for doing it is to keep us guessing. But I still feel like there is a way he could have done it to make it more …,
Oz: Connected.
Cryptte: Yes. Like the things we said now wouldn’t have spoiled it if he had mentioned them, just added a little more detail that will make us think even deeper about it.
AbdulHanan: But then again, I’m trying to excuse him based on the setting, the timing, ‘70s? None of us was born then.
Cryptte: Well, well, well, well maybe …,
Oz: What has the time got to do with story writing?
Cryptte: Wait, one of us or some of us could have been alive then. Different life, reincarnation …,
Oz: Please let’s not go into that.
AbdulHanan: The style of writing changes. I don’t know how the style of writing was then so I’m trying to excuse him. Though he didn’t do justice to the suspense, and when it came in, it was as if, ah mehn, we don’t need this.
Cryptte: He could have made it like an Indian movie.
AbdulHanan: Asides that, it’s a beautiful story, written beautifully.
Habiba: For me, I don’t think there is anything I would have changed.
Oz: Thank you very much.
Habiba: Because, I was vindicated. For the people that would say, ‘me I don’t read African literature, African writers are so,…’ And then these are,
Cryptte: Africans?
Oz: Oh, you don’t know what’s going on in the literary circle?
AbdulHanan: Mhm mhm.
Cryptte: No, I do not know.
Habiba: Oh they do. That’s what they say.
Cryptte: That what? African writers are too African?
Habiba: They say, African writers are something. African writers can be so, … then they will not finish the sentence.
Oz: Yes, they’ll leave you guessing.
Cryptte: What? So boring?
AbdulHanan: Wait, let me get this straight.
Oz: I know people who have sworn that they will never read African writers, never.
AbdulHanan: I have words for those kinds of people; it’s inferiority complex. Just like, nobody will want to dress like this.
Cryptte: It doesn’t stand out.
AbdulHanan: They would have preferred something like a suit. I swear to almighty God, before you critique a book, that means you’ve read the book, yeah? Most of those people have not read any African book.
Habiba: Exactly.
Oz: So they don’t even know what …,
AbdulHanan: They don’t know the content.
Oz: They are speaking out of ignorance.
Habiba: So when I read this, I was like, in 1971, Chinua Achebe was writing what they are trying to write now, with all their American, and English, and whatever literature.
Oz: Thank you.
Cryptte: With ease.
Habiba: With ease, so simply with such beautiful language.
AbdulHanan: That carries our own. You can hear names like …,
Habiba: You relate
AbdulHanan: You can relate.
Habiba: I will send it to some of them and I will say this is African literature.
Oz: At this point, you people are making me doubt Chinua Achebe’s prowess, let me explain. You know how you finish reading a book or watching a movie and it is so so perfect, it did something to you. Only for somebody to come and tell you, that person plagiarised.
AbdulHanan: Oh God, oh God, please don’t say it.
Oz: There is a story like that somewhere so now I think what we should do, my take home, is to go back and do research to make sure that this vindication you are looking for, let it be right. Let’s pray. Chinua Achebe should not fall our hands. Let it be true that yes, this is original.
AbdulHanan: I will still not be disappointed if I found out he plagiarised.
Oz: For me, that’s my take-home. I have a home-work to do.
Cryptte: So it won’t be like The Necklace that there are one million versions of it.
Oz: But that’s because the co…, what is it called?
Cryptte: Copyright?
AbdulHanan: Copyright?
Oz: No, Creative Commons has expired.
Cryptte: No no, it’s part of it and its copyright is,
Oz: It’s part of Creative Commons because it’s been over a hundred years since it was published.
Oz: Take-Home?
AbdulHanan: As a teacher, I would be very observant of the everyday behaviour, especially in children, and not to call them mad. It’s an insult in Nigeria. ‘You’re mad, you’re mad.
Oz: Or the question, ‘are you mad? Why did you do this?’
AbdulHanan: Which is still an insult, ‘are you mad?’
Habiba: And then it can be a compliment, as in, ‘you are maaad’.
Oz: A child is holding a glass of water and it slips and the glass shatters and the first thing you hear is, ‘are you mad? What is wrong with you?’
AbdulHanan: So now, if you believe you are not mad, it would be like a question, just another statement. But if you actually think you are mad, that would do something to the child. So for teachers, doctors, no not doctors, nurses, African parents …,
Cryptte: Yeah, bedside manners.
AbdulHanan: Yes, we need to pay attention to all of this.
Oz: Pay attention to what we say and who we say them to.
Habiba: For me, I’ve become conscious of the fact that when I say mental health is important, I can say all the jargons, all the politically correct things, but I will still see a mad man on the street and say, mad man. And this has made me conscious because the first mad man was a mad man. And then I met the second mad man, and …,
Oz: And then you are not sure what to say anymore.
Habiba: And then I realised that what if the people on the street have their own reasons …,
Oz: For doing the things that they do, we just don’t understand …,
Habiba: Yes. So I will be more conscious about this that a mad man can be an ordinary man.
AbdulHanan: That he’s not so well, but not just mad.
Oz: And the ordinary man can be a mad man.
So, what’s your Take-Home?
Cryptte: I think for me, it’s that I can be proud that I’m a mad man like so many other people because the mad is normal.
Oz: Yeah, that’s true.
AbdulHanan: There is this music that says, ‘he’s crazy just so he doesn’t go insane’.
Oz: So, what this means is that we should all express our madness with our full chest.
Cryptte: Embrace it.
Oz: And be okay with it. But please, please please,
Cryptte: And if we need help, because there is a point where your cup will be full.
Oz: Let’s seek help when we need help before we cross over to the other side. Just like how Nnube entered the market square and his own case was just final.
Cryptte: You know, all he had to do was just stop.
Oz: Was just pause and take a look at his environment.
AbdulHanan: Meanwhile, Psychiatric Hospital is not just for mad people.
Cryptte: For druggies. Actually I knew people who,
AbdulHanan: Even when you are emotionally unstable, you can see a psychiatrist.
Oz: Everybody should seek help.
Cryptte:: Some people make asylums, at least in Nigeria, they make it their personal drug store when they want to get high, they will just …,
Oz: They will fake an episode and people would rush them there.
Cryptte: Because most of these places, all they do is pump them full of drugs, to keep them docile.
AbdulHanan: Oh my God.
Cryptte: And these guys want to get high, so to them, it’s a win win. Nobody will,
Oz: Please stop giving people expo on how to go about this thing.
Thank you very much for being here with me. I had fun and I’m sure you all did too. See you next time.
All: Bye.
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