How Flogging a Child Can Get Out of Control: My Experience

My father was strict and used to flog us very much. The fact that flogging didn’t kill us doesn’t mean it didn’t kill anyone out there.

One of our relatives in the Village flogged his child for not washing dishes and ran after his child to cane him some more; the child stumbled upon a sharp, protruding rod from the ground. It pierced the child’s stomach and killed him there. Just for washing plates. The police left the man alone since His son’s death was enough guilt on his conscience. That was in the 1990s.

Another happened in my primary school where a teacher flogged my classmate and she fainted on the spot.

I am alive but I didn’t grow up very fine. I was violent. I used to beat up my kid brothers with sticks on their bare backs whenever my mom asked me to help them with homework. It was a shock the day she discovered the bruises on the boys’ backs.

Years later, we realized we were all violent in a family where we thought discipline reigned.
Anytime I got angry, I physically shook like I should hit the person even when the cause of my annoyance took place over the phone.

I flogged a junior when I was in ss2 and she collapsed and had to be admitted in the hospital for days.

It scared me and got me asking myself why I felt high whenever I was with a cane. Why I felt good inflicting pain on another. What power it gave me.

I never flogged anyone with the mindset of gentle correction that is why I can’t trust anyone beating my children cause I know firsthand that it’s not everyone that spanks with a good mind. That’s why we should limit right of spankings to very objective and reasonable parents.

My best friend is the opposite of me. She was never flogged all her life and she doesn’t have the kind of issues I struggle with. Whenever I get angry, she’s calm. She’s the best behaved lady I know but her dad had never beaten her. She respects him still. Love him dearly and she’s very disciplined.

I resisted hitting children when I turned 16, whenever my neighbor’s little girl misbehaved, I quickly took her home to avoid hitting her. Taking her home always worked cause she’d always apologize and come back to my house to play. It was far more effective than beating so I changed a bit but the anger took a much longer time and a loss of a relationship to bring me to my senses. I will not hit my kids for any reason cause I don’t understand how inflicting pain help anyone learn.

It’s a struggle. It’s not normal being violent around kids. It gets into them and they later act exactly the way you did. And just because you didn’t die doesn’t mean using your children as a trial. Asking neighbors and anyone to “discipline” them. It’s too risky to try out with a human being.