In the Company of Men by Véronique Tadjo

In the Company of Men by Véronique Tadjo

Author:Véronique Tadjo [Tadjo, Véronique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2021-02-23T00:00:00+00:00


IX

It’s not the uniform that makes the man; it’s circumstances that reveal his noble heart.

I’m a prefect, in charge of the outreach teams that are currently visiting my part of the country. Their brief is to explain at length. They give detailed information about the illness: its mode of transmission, the risks, the available treatments. They must stress the need for people to go straight to a treatment center at the first sign of symptoms. In certain cases, people will be placed under quarantine. The teams have to go over the strict safety regulations again and again.

Science alone is not enough to bring the virus under control. We need so much more than that. We need to reduce the level of ignorance. The tension. The fear. Human beings are not just vectors of infection. All that callousness is contraindicated. All that cold, scientific reasoning just undermines our efforts.

That’s why I keep telling my teams that they have to practice the art of persuasion. They must convince people that they should stop visiting the sick, and that dropping in on patients’ families and friends to support them in their ordeal is now out of the question.

The sick woman is slumped in her armchair. Her clothes are creased, her braids undone. She looks bad, and her hands are trembling. There are a lot of people milling around. Young girls are busy in the kitchen, cooking porridge. In one of the corners of the house, children are playing. The boy is her son, and the little girl belongs to the neighbors. She’s only eighteen months old and wanders around among the adults, holding on to them. The sick woman’s husband is in the bedroom. He’s not well either. His sisters, come to take care of the household, are cleaning the house. No one knows that the disease has staked out its territory and will gain ground at great speed. Before much time passes, not many of these visitors will be left alive. But from time immemorial, solidarity has been expressed in this way. It was like that in the villages, and also in the working-class neighborhoods in the town. “If I help you out today, you’ll lend me a hand tomorrow”—that makes them stronger, and it’s how they were brought up. Rejoicing together, weeping together. You show compassion, give some money for medicine, or bring along a few soft drinks. It’s the gesture that counts.

My outreach units are tasked with explaining that this way of life has to end, that shaking hands, touching, embracing one another are no longer allowed. Instead, you have to keep your distance from other people, stay at home, and wash your hands with disinfectant before entering a public space.

The teams emphasize that, even if a person doesn’t show any suspicious signs, he or she may already be infected. And, as soon as they get sick, they remain contagious for several weeks—including after their death. As a matter of fact, the corpse is more dangerous than anything else. Above all, don’t touch it.



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