IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS - AN ACCOUNT OF LIVES IMPACTED BY 'EVERYDAY ADVERSITIES.' PART 26.

'Like death and bereavement, at times when we are experiencing what seems like 'our worse nightmares.'  

We tend not to be aware of the fact that, 'our worse nightmares' are in fact no more than everyday adversities which many other people are having to contend with.'

So, how was it, they pondered, that their son now seemed to have been over-identifying with the ethnic group to which his ‘persecutors’ belonged? 

Of course, for those who understand something about the psychological context within ‘victims interact with their abuse perpetrators. 

The phenomenon of the victim ‘identifying’ with the perpetrator, is not unusual. 

In this case, Kazaliwa might not have been modelling himself so much on the ethnicity of those who had been abusing him.  But rather on the ‘strength’ and ‘power’, the ‘popularity’, he perceived them as having.

Or their expression of what it meant to belong to that ethnic group. With there having been only a few peers from his ethnic group in his neighbourhood and social network.  

It was not surprising that most or all of Kazaliwa’s friends belonged to an ethnic group other than his own. 

But it was a big surprise that, some years before, Kazaliwa had ended up in a violent confrontation with another lad, who happened to belong to his ethnic group. 

An encounter which left the lad with a serious injury, and, if memory serves right, his first Police record.

To be continued!