AMMA DARKO: Faceless
Consider Baby “T” as a victim of Social Injustice?
Explanation
Consider Baby ‘T’ as a victim of social injustice. Baby T is Maa Tsuru’s third child, her first girl with Kwei. Baby T’s predicament brings to the fore the responsibility of society for the terrible condition in which neglected children, more especially the female, find themselves in present day society. The title of the novel “faceless”, is an adequate description of Baby T. Like her younger sister Fofo, Baby T represents the count-less “faceless” girls who roam the streets. Baby T is faceless, nondescript, without identity and without recognition by society. Significantly, she does not even have a name of her own. Born after her father has abandoned her mother, Maa Tsuru, she is not even honored with a name. At first she is called “Tsuru’s baby’, then “Baby Tsuru’, and later the name evolves to just `Baby T’.
This lack of recognition is accentuated by the attitudes of the police after her body is found badly mutilated behind the kiosk in Agbogboloshie market. Her case is merely filed. No one makes any effort, not even a pretense, at carrying out an investigation into the circumstances leading to her murder. Baby T is a victim of social injustice both in life and in death. Her travails start right in her own home. She is born into a family struggling to survive. From her early years, she is exposed to hunger and deprivation. She drops out of school in Class Two because the family, abandoned by a useless father, cannot afford to keep her in school.
The father, Kwei, must bear great responsibility for Baby T’s predicament. Under the pretext of escaping from Maa Tsuru’s curse, he conveniently abandons his children. He does not stop for one moment to thick that his action will drive his children into the sanctions imposed by society for this behavior. In fact, he appears to receive tacit support from his relatives. Maa Tsuru’s recklessness in allowing Kwei to impregnate her again and again, even after he has shown he he has no serious intension for her, contributes to Baby T’s awful plight. After kwei has abandoned them, she takes in another useless man, Nii Kpakpo. In her naivety, she does not recognize the danger to which she is exposing her family. Eventually, Kpakpo sexually abuses Baby T. Onko, a co-tenant also proceeds to sexually abuse Baby T and blackmails the family into keeping silent over the issue. He threatens that he will, expose Kpakpo’s sexual abuse of Baby T if Maa Tsuru makes any complaint.
Nill Kpakpo is in-strumental in plotting Baby T’s terribe fate. He acts as the go-between the sale of Baby T to Mama Abidjan who eventually sells her to Maami Broni for Poison to exploit, Baby T meets her terrible end as a prostitute in Poison’s brothel. Her murder at the hands of Onko is a culmination of reliance on superstition as well as years of neglect by society. All the main architects of her destiny escape justice; Poison, Maami Broni, Mama Abidjan, Nii Kpakpo and Kwei. This speaks volumes of society’s responsibility for the harm which he has done to Baby T. Men like Kpakpo and Onko are a danger to society. They prey on young girls and abuse them physically, emotionally and pyschologically while society. They prey on young girls and abuse them physically, emotionally and psychologically while society looks on, either unwilling or unable to take any action against them. Thus, Baby T falls victim to them.
Points to Note:
i) Identify the backgroung of Baby T
ii) Broken home
iii) Irresponsibility: Parental, Societal, Institutional
iv) Poverty
v) Exploitation
vi) Belief in superstition