Hearing the silence - Panashe Chigumadzi (TEDxEuston)

It was one of the regular days at work. I have been going through some strategy documents for a project we were working on. Peter* had already told me he won’t be around that day, and I just knew the work was all on me.

It was a hot afternoon, but thanks to the chilling AC unit in the office, I didn’t get to notice that at all. What better way to crown it all off, than some background music playing from my Spotify playlist!

That’s like an ideal day to continue with my work, but that was cut short when I took a break and stepped out of the office for some fresh air.

As our office was located on one of the major roads in Enugu, it had become a norm to notice heavy traffic on the road, all thanks to the many cars in Enugu, and a nearby traffic light. But on this faithful afternoon, it was quite different.

You know how we get bothered if we get a steady power supply for almost 48 hours in Nigeria (the fear of it being taken for longer days, all thanks to a ‘not steady’ power supply system), that was the same way I was shocked to notice that the traffic that faithful afternoon had reduced drastically.

To heighten my curiosity, the few cars on the road were obviously revolting against the rule of the traffic light, as none obeyed it as they sped past. This scenario brought an uncomfortable silence, with the frequent zooming sound of speeding cars. It was as though the roads has been converted into a sports track for a formula 1 championships.

This quickly brought memories back to me; the riots I had witnessed back then as a child at Onitsha during our primary school days. I knew so well that this silence could only spell one thing, danger.

I had no idea, what the danger was, or how to go about taking cover from this danger and going out to ask the other drivers what was chasing them, as well as which direction it was coming from, so I would know how to join the championship race for my dear life.

That was when the second problem struck me, I wasn’t with my car that day, rather my sister was with it, so movement was another problem. I had to quickly call her to find out what the issue was and Thank God for timely social platforms that came to my rescue.

By the time I had checked a few WhatsApp statuses and some Tweets, I got to understand that this was the beginning of the EndSars protest in Enugu!!! That’s more like the EndSars hoodlums protest to be precise; a vandalization process that left the city infrastructures destroyed, lives lost, and people maimed. It even kept the whole city on lockdown for almost a week and more.

A week that brought the Christmas season effect to us closer than it should be, and with fear as against the joy that Christmas brought, all thanks to the almost incessant shootings that replaced the fireworks we knew Christmas for.

It was quite a horrible moment to remember and thank God I was triggered to take cover on time, by being able to hear from the silence of our ever-bubbling roads.

“Think about the silence”

As we go about our daily lives, we get to experience and hear so many things, and we have gotten accustomed to listening to what we hear, and a few times, what we also see. But one thing we are most likely to miss is the silence in all our discussions.

The questions that are not asked, discomfort not communicated but expressed on our faces, and even ideas that a missed, simply by ignoring a grin or by short sentences like “It doesn’t matter”, “Don’t worry about it”, “It doesn’t matter”…

Just like Panashe’s grandmother could also say, “Some things are just not asked”

When we use terms like this, it is as though we’re trying so hard to close a headway in our discussion, in research, or being an obstacle to a feedback report that is highly needed. But this ought not to be the case.

“Silence need not represent a dead end, but rather, a beginning.”

If we can understand this, then we can learn to push beyond rejection, just as I had shared in an earlier issue (click this link to learn about this now).

“What is not said is just as important as what has not been said”

One of the reasons why this silence could exist, could be a language barrier, and by language, we’re not talking about the traditional language you know, but also being able to understand the extra dynamics in the words people choose to use as a result of the lifestyle they choose, and how the meaning of these words could vary across different cultures and lifestyles.

If you can speak the language of the people you are communicating with, you can understand better, what matters to them, and you too could speak with them in the language of silence and still understand these silences as well as the words that have also been spoken clearly.

“If you cannot understand our languages, you cannot hear us.”

In all these, I hope we all are contributing in our little ways to make communication much easier and more effective for people, so that we would not be the reason why people are being silenced, rather, we would be the ones to urge people to speak up for good, or better still, in the case of tough scenarios, we would be able to interpret their various silences.

“Who else has been silenced?”

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