TOILETS: THE BINDER OF RELATIONSHIPS?

A writer once described toilets as the window into the secret soul of a destination. Some believe a lot can be said about a place by its bathrooms/toilets. A lot can also be said about people’s behaviour in a given society by their toilets.  Architectural designs for toilets have evolved since the last twenty years. So also has the social interactions surrounding the use of toilets. The complexities or otherwise surrounding the toilet mirror the ubiquity of the different names by which toilets are described. Some call toilets bathrooms, lavatories, loo; bog, khasi, thuner bov…You can add your own name to the list.

Shitting can be more complex than you think. Forget how easy it seems to sit on your toilet seat in that en-suite apartment where all the rooms have private loos. It was not always like that. In the late 80s when 3 bed room flats had only one toilet and bathroom…my cousin can relate very well to this. Growing up, most middle class families lived in this kind of accommodation. In these homes you had to wait your turn before using the toilet. There was a roll call, your mum and dad had priorities over your older sisters. You, as the last born would be the last to use the toilet.

Using the toilet was a much regulated action. There were permissible length of time per user but my cousin defiled all the rules of engagement pertaining to the use of toilet. He liked to spend a lot of time in the toilet… it was really a “rest room” for him. Unfortunately, his mother, my aunt was notorious at holding back till she became extremely pressed before rushing to use the restroom… you can imagine what happened when she rushed to the loo and met my dear cousin relaxing and trying to have a quiet time in the toilet.

Thank God for modern architectural designs that now make it mandatory for flats to be en-suite. That is why you can be in the comfort of your private loo and take for granted the complexities that come with using a toilet. The complexities also vary between rural communities and their urban counterparts. Sanitary behaviour in rural communities are relatively simple. People typically defecate in open rivers which they often use for other purposes such as washing and bathing. These open rivers sometimes served as sources of food, drinking water, as well as for fishing purposes.

Shared community toilets are basic improvements to the open space system popular in many rural areas. The public toilet, also known as the latrine is very popular amongst poor rural dwellers. Latrines are simple and easy to construct. The simplicity of latrines (squat lavatory) is characteristic of a Gemeinschaft arrangement - a simple community. There are very few dependencies required to build and maintain such toilets. The component parts are simple and less complicated compared to the private toilet. A local carpenter can easily get planks from a local logger and hammer locally sourced nails into the right angles to keep it firm. There will likely be no need for AutoCAD designs to determine an appropriate architectural plan for the shack… I also doubt if any surveyor would be employed to map out the survey plans for land acquisition and subsequent erection of the building. Local public toilets are truly local, simple and require little or no international dependencies.

Modern toilets (water closets, flushing toilets or flushing lavatory) are far more complex than that described above. As you sit on your toilet defecating and probably reading this post on your devise, think for a moment about how that toilet got to your room. The designs were probably done in Italy, the bolts and screws possibly built in Germany, the pigments used for the paint were possibly extracted from flowers grown in the Netherlands. The labor possibly came from one of the numerous Asian countries.

Because nothing is completely made in Nigeria, your toilet is most likely imported from China. The distance between China and Nigeria by sea is roughly 12,164nm, which is approximately 50.7 days at Sea…that is how long your toilet journeyed to get to your bathroom. Hopefully, you now understand that shitting is more complex than you thought – it is a global affair. What you thought was a simple private affair is actually an international activity. Next time you sit on that toilet just know that you are literally sitting on top of the world. You are engaging in a global conversation that transcends your immediate restroom. You are partaking in an international trade, perhaps determining the custom duty that would accrue to the importing nation.

Pulse for a moment and think about what it looks like to share a single lavatory with a community of over 200 people. Imagine what happens when a whole community depend on a single public toilet. The deep social interaction surrounding the use of toilet reveals a deeper meaning than just doing the number 1. During my field work in a village at Oloibiri, I discovered something fascinating. The community had two public toilets (one for males, the other for females), and this was shared by more than 200 members of the community. To maintain order and avoid the likelihood of chaos, the community developed some social norms to guide the usage. 

Different levels of social action were involved in the use of these public toilets. They were required because of the number of “unrelated” actors that made use of the toilets. All users of those public toilets were expected to obey certain codes of conduct relating to when and how to use the toilet. Elderly users were accorded due priority when it came to using the toilet. Younger ones were responsible for sweeping and keeping the toilets clean.

In this village, I was told that whether you are a gentleman or a respectful lady can sometimes be based on your toilet conduct. But I wondered how much of a gentle man you will be if attacked by runny stomach - would you still be a gentleman? That will actually be tough. Respect is also defined around the use of the loo. Young people are expected to allow the older ones to use the toilet first. The younger ones, particularly the females are expected to keep the toilet clean. Gender differentiation also comes to play in this context. Males are typically not expected to sweep and as such the responsibility to keep the toilets clean rest on the females.

The toilet is more than just a "rest" room it can also be a fulcrum of social interaction.