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Unprovoked Family Violence In the West: African Perspectives

by Gershon C. Ejeckam

104 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0535; ISBN 1-4120-0167-6; US$14.50, C$17.95, EUR11.70, £8.10

An intriguing examination of family violence in the western family from an African perspective.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book A comparison of life in African and Western communities. Highlights the unfortunate downturn in the West, where family values may be set aside in pursuit of material wealth. Failure to achieve often leads to frustration, disenfranchisement and murder. Relations kill each other to either get even or call attention to themselves.

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About the Author Gershon C. Ejeckam is a medical doctor specialized in Anatomic Pathology. He was born in Nigeria where he received his elementary, high school and University Medical School training. He proceeded to Ottawa, Canada in 1974 to pursue his postgraduate residency training in Anatomic Pathology, obtaining specialist certification in 1977, from Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Diplomate of American Board of Pathologist. The following year he passed the membership exam of UK in Histopathology hence became a Member of the Royal college of Pathologist UK. Dr. Ejeckam lived and worked in Nigeria, Qatar in the Middle east and is now residing and working in St John's Newfoundland, Canada. Besides scientific and medical publications, Dr. Ejeckam has taken keen interest in education of the public. He established the Cancer Society of Nigeria in Enugu in 1978 and became its first Executive Vice-President. In 1986 to 1990 he became the President-General of his town*s union, Isulo Development Union, an organization which functions as a fourth tier of Government in towns of most Igbo states of Nigeria. Dr Ejeckam is the author of two books, Essentials of Medico-legal Autopsy and Understanding Cancer in the Developing World. His exposure to different tribes, cultures and religion has impacted on him the merits of some of the so-called backward cultures of the third and developing world. This book Unprovoked Family Violence in the West, African Perspectives, reflects his belief that culture and family are the bedrock on which orderly human society is organized and to ignore those in pursuit of affluence often leads to chaos, violence, including murder.

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Sample Excerpts

There are always two sides to a coin. In their eagerness to emigrate to the land of opportunities and freedom, most people become oblivious of the other side of the coin; the dark side of living in the western world.

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Life in the developed nations is fast, and to succeed, individualism tends to be pushed to the extreme. The rat race is exaggerated to the point where normal links with the family is seriously weakened or even severed. Every thing is now measured in dollars and cents. Those who fail to make it or encounter any set backs or disappointment lose hope. Loss of hope primes these people to become delinquent and violence prone, which is most often unprovoked. This violence is often directed at family and friends or some times at the community.

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Those who make it at times are so driven by their success that they become estranged from their children and family. Because of and despite their wealth, their children*s upbringing may suffer to the point that the children may resort to violence to call attention to their isolation or as a manifestation of improper parental cares.

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Many children end up raising themselves on the streets. They are deprived of the opportunity to learn from their parents, values and virtues that successful citizenship requires.

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The licentious freedom given to children under the guise of protection against child abuse and civilization in the western society does not exist in Africa. Children therefore irrespective of their ages are fully aware that they are answerable to their parents and in fact sometimes to older extended family members.

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Hopelessness, abandonment, lack of self-esteem which will all take place when children are neglected and kicked out of their home, will eventually lead to violence in one form or the order. The afflicted, sometimes, believe the society owes them and since they consider themselves abandoned, they would take laws in to their hands.

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Catalogue Information

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