No, I would not just use my right hand!
There is a common tradition of not using your left hand to give or receive things from your elders. People consider it rather disrespectful and demeaning to do that, and some even go as far as not collecting anything given with the left hand as it is seen in some cultures that collecting things with your left hand can lead to bad luck. It is frowned upon in Asian countries like Nepal, India, and the Middle East to do some things with your left hand- it is often seen as a disrespect to the chef when you eat the food with your left hand and travellers are often advised not to use their left hand in public settings. Many people see the left hand as unclean, and therefore it is meant for doing unsanitary things. In Ifa, they consider the left hand sacred and for performing rituals only. So with the amount of cultural ideaology regarding the use of the left hand. We should regard it as respectful of cultural values to use your right when politely asked to do so, especially since it requires little to no effort to do so, right? Wrong!
I am all for respecting the culture or traditions of people- I think it is important to understand different perspectives of people, and people should make an effort to learn and respect different traditions and cultures. My belief does come with a caveat. I would gladly respect and honour your cultural values and beliefs, taking off my shoes when I come to your house or bowing down my head when I come to meet your father to ask for your hand in marriage- which would happen sooner when you stop airing me on iMessage, Jola 🥲.
What I would not do is be implicit in a culture that has marginalised, diminished and segregated people for a feature that they were born with. Left-handed people have been marginalised for a long time throughout history. A lot of vicious and hateful ‘old’ catholic practices (I say old in quotes because the practice is still happening today, albeit on a smaller scale and economic impact is still going on till today) have been based on marginalising left-handed people because they believed that the devil was a southpaw from flogging to punishing, these tactics were used to force children at an early age to change their dominant hands from left to right and were ostracised from social circles because they were thought to be the devil’s incarnate and were branded as Osu’s- a derogatory Igbo term. This caused a lot of trauma with children growing up because they were not allowed to be themselves in public. In Yoruba land when you give directions with your left dominant hand they would call you a bastard: saying omo ale lo ma fi owo osi juwe ile baba re which means only a bastard can give directions to his father’s house with his left hand.
This segregation did not only have a cultural impact but a huge economic impact. Normal tools people do not even bat an eye too like scissors, knives, school desks, or even drawing a line using a ruler! Are designed for right handed people making it harder to succeed when you are left-handed in the economics of scale, and you would find yourself struggling with the most basic things when growing up as a kid.
Even Western literature was designed for right-handed people. Famous artist Leornado Da Vinci, was known for writing his works from right to left because writing his notes from left to right kept smudging his ink because he was left-handed.
This is more alarming given that over 800 million people are left handed and have to go through these silent struggles because of a system that has been designed against them.
In conclusion, when people try giving you a hard time for collecting things with your left hand, be insistent. Know that you are not being disrespectful but you disrespecting system that oppresses a group of people. Up gen Z, and keep being the bad boys and girls that you are!
