"Whatever you do the least of my brothers, you do it unto Me." This is probably one of the greatest lessons from the Bible and definitely a lesson that figured prominently on my mind as I was reading The Hounding of David Oluwale by Kester Apden.
This book is more than just your run-of-the-mill crime story since it revolves around the tragic fate of a Nigerian man, David Oluwale, who stowaway-ed to the United Kingdom from Lagos, in the 1940s in search of a better life, only to be treated as an outcast in English society at that time, when discrimination was still rampant against people with dark skin.
He ended up in the north, in the industrial city of Leeds, where after a few years of trying to nail a stable job and starting a family, his life slowly deteriorated into a life of a homeless man, and eventually, a victim of excessive police brutality.
It was disheartening to read that Leeds' society at that time turned their backs on people like David Oluwale. Even the policemen who were witness to the brutality he suffered chose to look the other way, for fear of internal reprisals.
The book paints a grim picture of an English society that no one wants to read about. It's never easy to read about people who are outcasts in our society - like the homeless - especially the homeless, mentally deficient immigrants. It's tough to read about their mistreatment and the utter haplessness of the society to even give them a break in life.
However, with the tragedy surrounding Oluwale's life, I'm sure the people of Leeds, especially its black African community, its police force and the rest of its civilized society were horrified by their inaction and have taken steps to ensure that this dark episode in modern-day Britain would never ever happen again.
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