THE OUTCAST
“Anyone with a defiling (skin) disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp. (NIV Leviticus 13: 45-46)
As long as mankind has roamed the earth, all manner of afflictions have plagued him. Since the dawn of recorded history, the spread and attempted containment of infectious diseases have warranted mention in religious texts. The sacred scriptures of the three Mosaic religions of the Middle East have devoted screeds of text to visible skin diseases and lesions that were considered ritually offensive. The deeper scholars delve into these texts, as well as those belonging to cultures in other far flung corners of the earth, the clearer it becomes that early civilizations created a regulatory framework they deemed essential to contain the spread of infections they found perplexing, and for which the cure eluded them. The lines were often blurred between actual threat to life and limb by the spread of disease, and that which was simply deemed to be ritually unclean.
The skin being the largest organ of the human anatomy, is also host the most obvious and visible lesions and scars of various types. It is, too, the most noticeable part of the body that acts as the interface with the physical world. Poor hygiene, infections and diseases have their outward manifestation on this magnificent organ. Skin lesions, ulcers and injuries to limbs drive fear and revulsion. Societies tend to respond to witnessing unknown and grossly misunderstood physical anomalies by isolating the afflicted to contain their spread – erring on the side of an abundance of caution. Self-preservation lies at the heart of much abuse inflicted upon hapless victims of dreaded skin conditions.
It was only in 1873 that Gerhard Hansen (a Norwegian physician) identified the cause of Leprosy as Mycobacterium Leprae – this bacterium unleashing skin lesions, peripheral nerve and eye damage. Leprosy (since also referred to as Hansen’s Disease) manifested itself in the loss of pigmentation on patches of skin, diminished sensation, tingling and numbness in the hands, feet, arms and legs. Painless open wounds and muscle weakness resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves, were soon recognised as the most reliable indicators of the presence and proliferation of that insidious bacterium, and not the scores of other skin conditions that were erroneously misdiagnosed by the likes of priests and laymen untrained in medical science. Sadly, misinformation, superstition and the belief that God was somehow visiting punishment upon the victim due to sin, disobedience or heresy of some kind, led to the ejection of scores of sufferers from mainstream society over millennia.
In South Africa the “Leprosy Repression Act” promulgated in 1892, regulated the detention of people living with Leprosy. Segregation at the (misnamed) “Hemel en Aarde” sanatorium near Caledon had long been the site of confinement (since 1817). This was moved to Robben Island, in Table Bay some 7 kilometers from Cape Town, in about 1845. The Island had been home to undesirables, usually for political reasons, since the Dutch had first set foot on the shores of the mainland. Repurposed for medical quarantine, it was truly a site that served as a dumping ground for outcasts – one that could be seen from Cape Town, but to which mainstream society was inaccessible, particularly due to the shark infested waters that surround it. Robben Island had remoteness emblazoned all over it, and served as a “Leper Colony” until 1931 when its incarcerated patients were moved to Pretoria. The shift happened in the same year that the first successful antibiotic treatment began to filter through the world of medical science to infiltrate its darkest corners – mandatory quarantine and segregation of “Lepers” being the starkest manifestation of that murky history.
It was during the time that Robben Island was used as a location of remote isolation that an event seared itself in the minds of the residents of Cape Town. Leprosy had largely been viewed by the powerful elite in society as an affliction associated with poverty, unhygienic living conditions and something that strikes the “underdog”, so to speak. Rightly or wrongly, this was the perception. It was viewed as something that affected “the other”, so little compassion and consideration was given to the manner in which the poor were treated.
In the Old Testament scriptures the rare occasions that the elite in society were rendered “unclean” by a skin affliction deemed to be Leprosy, they were either healed by the intervention and intercession of a prophet of the time, or they had to endure the consequences visited on them due to their own disobedience or some heinous deed on their part. (Vide 2 Chronicles 26 relating to King Uzziah and 2 Kings 5 concerning an elite general of the King of Aram)
In the New Testament, Jesus is chronicled as having stepped into history and being the Incarnation of God in human form as the third person of the Divine Trinity. It is only then, that the concept of compassion and deliverance come to the fore in a profoundly egalitarian manner. All mankind secures access to the redemptive intervention of the Messianic presence in the world of mortals regardless of their station in life. All are deemed worthy to participate in and be beneficiaries of redemption, grace and deliverance, regardless of their station in life. Humanity, though, has been tardy in accepting this concept. The extent to which a society can consider itself to be civilized is premised on the way it treats its least powerful and poorest. Humane and compassionate treatment of the “outcast” is a mark of the extent of progress along this trajectory. Certainly the injunction of Jesus is to dispense grace and reach out to the struggling and dispossessed in society.
The banishment of those suffering from Leprosy as evidenced in the 1920s in South Africa – and still in some parts of the world today despite treatment options being readily and cheaply available – points to a society that had not yet reached that rung on the developmental ladder. The discrimination was pursued further on the island as male and female were separated to preclude reproduction, even though there is no evidence that the bacteria can be transmitted from mother to child. Leprosy is actually very difficult to contract – only about five percent of people are susceptible to it and then only concomitant with prolonged exposure to mucous droplets of those already suffering from the disease. In addition to this, the diets prescribed for different race groups in seclusion on the Island were discriminatory – black sufferers were fed less than Eurasians and Caucasians. Socially distanced visits from relatives on the mainland also reflected this discrimination, although for all islanders these were severely limited.
In the 1920s Leprosy was viewed as an affliction that mainly affected politically and economically marginalised groups, so scant attention was paid to the poor souls that were left to wallow in dire poverty and suffer the consequences of their dreadful infection.
The event that galvanized public attention in Cape Town has been alluded to. Conversations with adult residents of the city from the beginning of the twentieth century have suggested that there is an element of truth in reports that a particular case gripped Capetonians’ attention. Whether the case was real or imagined, an actual event or merely the stuff of urban legend, many attested over the years to its veracity.
Be it conjecture or solid truth, the turn of events that followed was of a young (eighteen year old) Caucasian girl from a wealthy upper class community becoming infected. By most accounts, her father was a provincial councillor, her mother a socialite of note, and she was in attendance at a finishing school. The elite of Cape Town high society, the story goes.
The beautiful young girl, with fair and delicately translucent skin, was the belle of the ball at upper class dinner dances. Sporting a diamond tiara in her hair and a designer outfit replete with the finest ostrich feathers still in vogue at the time, she oozed confidence and beauty. A young damsel around whom eligible young fellows gathered, she was set on the path to a life of glamour and genteel elegance.
In a bitter blow and a cruel twist of fate, she began to observe loss of pigmentation and sensitivity on her extremities. Numbness and muscle fatigue began to set in and the services of a medical practitioner were called upon for a diagnosis. Tests, such as they were at the time, revealed the horror knocking at her door. Infected with this communicable disease with the legal injunction to report the occurrence to the authorities, she found herself in an ambulance on her way to Somerset Hospital and thence to Robben Island.
Not only was this young lady an outcast from Cape Town society, but the stigma that clung to Hansen’s Disease in those times, led to her upper crust family cutting her out of their lives. Ne’er again would she see her relatives (and the toffs who masqueraded as friends). She would slink into oblivion – seven kilometers off the coast in Table Bay. Robben Island was in view of Capetonians, but its unfortunate and largely forgotten quarantined were out of sight. It is not known what became of her – buried on the Island or transferred to leprosaria elsewhere? Even her name eludes the folk who assure one that they recall the events with clarity.
For some weeks the events surrounding her isolation gripped the attention of news reporters and the public. Feigned empathy abounded, then dissipated and ultimately an ostracized young girl epitomised the cruelty of a dreaded, stigmatised affliction. The harsh reality was that it reflected the very worst elements of the human condition. It was, even by those who lucidly recall the story that swirled around Cape Town society in the 1920s, a deep and bitter tragedy that was a poor reflection on all at that time. It presaged the later banishment of political “outcasts” by the powerful ideologues of the latter half of the twentieth century.
In another twist of fate, Robben Island, the island of the “outcast”, came to be juxtaposed with the state of the country as South Africa, too, became politically ostracized in the community of nations. Economic, political, diplomatic and sporting isolation dogged South Africans until the ironic turn of events that occurred in the closing decade of the twentieth century. It was from Robben Island that most of the political “outcasts” would be released and a new society established.
Human development beyond isolation of “The other” and banishment to “outcast status” ought to be a goal on the path to self-realisation and advancement as a civilized society.
References:
https://www.robben-island.org.za/files/publications/Integrated%20conservation%20management%20plan/icmp_chapt3.pdf
Dr PD Winter: “Leprosy and its control in South Africa” in International Journal of Leprosy (1950) Health Department Union of South Africa
SA History online: Susana Helena Kok (1911-85)
©Paul M Haupt
Comments
Post a Comment