Twah! The slap landed on my cheek. Tears welled up in my eyes. This was not due to how painful the slap was, but due to the anger and humiliation of this public assault. It was an impotent anger as there was nothing I could do. If stare could kill, I would have murdered Elder Opa. He is my uncle known for temper which was as short as him. He is barely 5ft, squat with a thick neck and hairy chest.
I made the mistake of collecting the money he gave me with the left hand. Growing up, I was ambidextrous.
This had led to a similar warning from elders on my bad habit of giving or accepting things with the left hand. I still do not care if a person is using left or right in receiving or giving. But, I noticed the elders here all take a rather severe stance on which hand you use to give or receive.
There is the belief it is disrespectful to use the left to give or receive. When I asked an elder who was in good mood after a good dose of palm wine, he tried to explain the reason for this practice. He said, "People use the left hand to wipe their behind after doing their business. So I guess you do not want to have someone hand you something with it after doing that, do you? He asked with an amused smile. "Also, the left hand is used to give gifts to the gods." He concluded.
The left-handed in our society would be forced to use right in other not to appear rude when giving or receiving things. But cheer up lefties, five out of the last seven US Presidents have been left-handed.
So, if you're a lefty who gets annoyed with all the right-handed bias in the world, perhaps you can help change things as the next president :)
| Name of the USA President | Order of presidency | Note on left-hand use |
|---|---|---|
| James Garfield | 20th | Able to simultaneously write Latin with his right hand and Greek on right |
| Herbert Hoover | 31st | Left-handed |
| Harry Truman | 33rd | Another leftie but forced to use right in school |
| Gerald Ford | 38th | Ambidextrous |
| Ronald Reagan | 40th | Born left-handed but forced to use right at an early age |
| George H.W. Bush | 41st | A leftie |
| William Clinton | 42nd | He is naturally left-handed |
| Barack Obama | 44th | He is left-handed and not shy to use it! |
The only popular Nigerian leader I know that is left-handed is Babatunde Raji Fashola, former Governor of Lagos State and currently the Federal Minister of Power, Works, and Housing.
Source
My only guess is others, like me, had their left-handedness slapped off them at an early age :)
The geneticist, Dr. Amar J. S. Klar, who studied handedness, found out that many artists and writers are left-handed, thereby indicating that lefties may indeed have a broader ability of thought. He also notices that ambidextrous or left-handed people are generally able to engage in more intense and complicated thought.
How are left-handed people viewed in your culture? Let me know in the comments below.
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