Villain to Hero

I met Tunde ‘by chance’ and he seemed like an interesting personality. Well, interesting that we chat but I knew nothing about him yet I had a feeling there was an interesting story around this man. I had randomly asked a group of friends, Tunde inclusive, what could push them to ever hit a woman. I did get various interesting responses except that Tunde added that he always hit all his previous partners until three years ago.

Wow! Yes that was my exact mental reaction. I had never, ever met a man who owned up to constantly hitting their partner.  After I recovered from my amazement I decided to have a chat with him. This is his story.

My name is Tunde.  Until three years ago, I always found a reason to hit my partner and I never really saw it as a big deal. The first time would be way back in 1996 or 1997. It started out as fun as I would always pick on my childhood crush ( a friend’s sister), watch her cry and I would apologise. That was very interesting for me.  She never had to do anything  to prompt this. It was fun at first till it became more like a habit. Did I know it was wrong? Yes I knew it was wrong at first but over time, having gone into more serious relationships, I had several reasons to justify my actions. Another reason that never made me feel bad about my actions was because I had always held the erroneous belief that I was above everyone, irrespective of the gender. Once, I nurtured the idea that I was the best thing my partners could find. One of such times,   I accidentally hit my mother on the shoulder while she tried to put a stop to one of those fights. She had come visiting and a fight ensued between my partner and i. it was very embarrassing when she called her elder brother who had always held me in high esteem to report the issue.

My wake up call came the day I hit the mother of my kids in the face and it was swollen for days. She did not bother visiting public places with the injury and I was very ashamed when friends would ask what happened and she would lie that she was hit in the face by the small mortar that dropped from the cabinet. This still hurts me.

We all have the volition to do wrong or right. I had to speak to myself first.  Since I made the decision to stop this barbaric act, I have used various methods to keep off it. Personally, I would warn her sternly on the likely outcome of any argument and sometimes try to walk away or out of the house.  If she tries to stop me, I usually come up with the comment that wealthy people do  not act the way we do. Thankfully, she finds that amusing each time regardless of the extent of anger dwelling in her. I am proud to say that I am no longer the villain. I stopped hitting my partner over three years ago and I am positive it will NEVER happen again.