This Is What It Means To Be Deaf In Nigeria

Yetunde is a 23-year-old living in Ibadan, Nigeria. She goes to school, freelances as a graphic designer and runs a small perfume business. She has a fantastic sense of humor, that’s how we met anyway. She’s also deaf, and to her, that look of amazement when people find out about her disability is not something she’s very comfortable with.

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People have difficulty believing that I’m deaf when they find out because to them, I don’t look like a deaf person. I usually say to them, “so what do you think a deaf person looks like?” because as far as I’m concerned, we all look the same. Deaf people don’t necessarily have a marker (nor should they) that says “look at me I’m, deaf”.

But things were not always this way for Yetunde. Although she wasn’t born with a disability, it’s all she can remember.

I have been deaf for the most part of my life. I was not born that way, I lost my hearing when I was 2 years old. I can’t really explain how I lost my hearing because it was my mum who told me about my deafness. When I was young, I was sick, my mum took me to a nurse’s home. While treating me, the nurse gave me an injury by mistake. That was the cause of my deafness.

A lot of people don’t know this but not all deaf people lose their hearing because they were born that way. There are other things that could cause hearing loss like:

• – accident during pregnancy 
• – mothers getting drugged during pregnancy
• – injuries by mistake at hospitals
• – disease during pregnancy 
• – infant illness

When asked about the things the government could provide to help deaf people that are absent now. Yetunde chuckles and cites some existing programs but then her story about her early education is proof that the government still has a lot to do in minimizing disparity between the abled and disabled.

I’m not sure what the government could provide for deaf people that they don’t have, because we have deaf lawyers, teachers, and lecturers in Nigeria.

I didn’t go to a special school for the deaf early enough. I started out with a regular school. The teacher would speak to us but I would not hear anything. I never wrote well either. Because there was no special education for deaf people in this school I wasn’t able to learn until my parents found the deaf school for me.

After I went to the deaf school, the first thing I learned was sign language because if I didn’t know sign language I wouldn’t be able to understand what a teacher taught us in the classroom.

At the deaf school, they trained me and taught me how to sign. I also practiced myself. Learning sign language was not easy at all. I had to keep practicing for a  few months before I understood it properly. I don’t think people know this but not all deaf people can learn to sign fast. For some, it’s a struggle.

Yetunde’s day-to-day is very simple, but like anyone, she also has pet peeves. Things she would rather not experience on a daily basis.

I live my life without hearing what the world says. When I wake up, I communicate with God then, do some of my freelance design work. I also run a little perfume business, so I check in with my clients frequently. But always have the concern that I might run into people that might behave negatively towards me because I’m deaf.

In the past, people have mocked me for my English, when I speak and make grammar errors. It’s very disappointing. You shouldn’t mock people when they make mistakes because no one is perfect, everyone can make mistakes.

On things you should never say to a deaf person, Yetunde had a lot to share. For starters, never tell a deaf person that “they must be really smart to be able to talk”.