About a year ago, I wrote about a school friend who, despite the comfortable conditions described back then and today as “Better off” of his relatives and environment, gravitated to the dark side. And as a child, my guardian always said, ‘If you investigate the darkness, it will look back at you with a welcoming embrace.’

This lost school friend reminded me of a natural life observation on TV that cannot be remembered without recapturing this school time and classmate. The photographer who captured that footage must have been an anthropologist, concluding on this unexplained link between humans and primates. There was this family of monkeys, grouped together on a tree. Below them was a

Giant snake, coiled restfully on a much lower tree limb. This one monkey took it upon itself to first awaken the reptile, who still ignored him. From memory, another monkey or two intercepted their strange, intruding fellow but failed to do so. The eventual outcome for me and my family, who were watching this show in the early days of local TV, was shock and disappointment when the serpent, an African Python, it seemed, wrapped its body around the ape in a fatal embrace. No one spoke when the show was over; much later, I realised that we just wanted to return.

What is this inquisitive, reckless behaviour and dance with danger described as primate and human behaviour? What I have witnessed with this schoolmate of mine must not be confused with the severely underprivileged. His conduct was to defy and uproar against the very legacy that nurtured him, to defy gratitude. I was told that he had slipped into addiction, and the last time I saw him, I was in a minibus heading up the East Coast. He was standing on the public road outside of the village of BV, half-naked but with his clothing thrown over his shoulder, I later learnt that that village had a street populated by Drug outlets.

I believe that there are people who seek noticeable recognition at all costs, mimicking real-life models from society.