By Elizabeth Nzembi.
Left-handedness is a minority trait in the world with roughly 10-12% of the population being left-handed. Left-handedness is thought to be influenced by genetics or even the environment of a child. It may be learned through observance when a child grows and spends quality time with a left-handed individual.
Some people find left-handedness weird, strange or generally unusual, with a lot of biases and misconceptions about left-handers being handicapped. That may be why August 13th is not marked in our calendars as a day to celebrate left-handedness. August 13 is International Left-Handers Day, when left-handers celebrate their unique attributes and qualities. How are left-handers unique?
Brain imaging research indicates that left-handers are more whole-brained than right-handers. Left-handers seem to be able to recruit resources from both hemispheres more effectively than right-handers. Studies also report that left-handers have more neural connections between the two hemispheres of the brain when compared to right-handers.
In a world designed for the right-handed, left-handers endure distinctive experiences and oppositions but that does not minoritize their strengths and perspectives. For instance, left-handers are associated with luck, creativity, art, problem solving skills as well as verbal fluency.
They may at times be noted to multitask better than the right-handed. They even tend to remember events, recognize and process bodies and faces better. In addition, they happen to have competence in sport activities and some people say they have good handwriting.
You must have experienced bumping elbows when you sit at a table with a left-hander at your right or noticed a left-hander struggle to use a pair of scissors, a tape measure, a vegetable peeler, a guitar, a ruler or writing on spiral notebooks and swiping credit cards.
Devices such as scissors and can openers designed for left-handers are readily available, but, hopefully, left-handers will continue to be flexible, when necessary, and adjust to the constraints of a right-handed environment.
Think of measurements calibrated in cups and ounces, they face the right-hand users. Some of these are the challenges they face and may result in social underdevelopment in some of them, but the amount of patience they bear is noticeable. For the same reason, the right-handed wear their watches, bracelets and other arm accessories on their left hand, while some left-handed individuals prefer to have theirs on the right.
There are some renown left hands in the world including the third president of Kenya his excellency Uhuru Kenyatta as well as the former president of the United States Barack Obama.
Left-handedness has been celebrated in other cultures, where the lists of enduring empire leaders such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Leonardo Da Vinci-one of the finest minds in human history-, Albert Einstein-celebrated as the quintessential modern genius, juggernaut corporation leaders- Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, and movie stars are esteemed. Six out of seven past presidents of the United States have been left-handed.
Their achievements and success are a demonstration that being left-handed does not make one lesser of a person and can even be of use in certain instances of life. Obama admits to being pressured to change his left-handedness when he was growing up in Indonesia, but he resisted those attempts and remained left-handed.
In Africa and Kenya, to be specific, some cultures view left-handedness as a taboo, forcing parents to tie the left hand to force a child to use the right hand. Ridiculous right!
In many African cultures and many cultures of the world, there has been a history of discrimination and many stigmas associated with left-handedness. The stigma of ‘dirty’ lefties has persisted due to societal norms in Africa. Throughout much of Africa, and in the Middle East and so on, you get this thing - you eat your food with your right hand, and you cleanse your body and do the unclean parts with your left hand. Whatever you do, do not touch African food with your left hand. That is not an uncommon set of beliefs and social processes throughout Africa.
Left-handedness is extensively disapproved in most cultures: African tribes and ancient pre-Christian superstition also equate left with bad! At the very least, being left-handed was considered unnatural and peculiar in antiquity.
There may well be a deeply social or biological instinctive reason why left-handedness has traditionally disturbed some. Perhaps it is merely a form of xenophobia, a kind of fear based on the subconsciously off-putting physical movement of those who are left-handed. The deficits come not from being left-handed but from being treated as if there is a deficit. For Southpaws themselves- the affectionate term for lefties- this biological peculiarity has been everything from a source of stigma to a point of pride.
In a world where left-handedness is not common, awareness of their existence should be created. This helps make the world more inclusive by designing products, materials and generally environments that are friendly to both individuals. Let us all work to create and grow a society that is comfortable for all by accommodating one another in our spaces despite our shortcomings and differences.
Comments