Akosah-Sarpong, simply and aptly described PHD – ‘pull her down’ or ‘pull him down’ syndrome – as a moral disorder which makes people see things in negative realms.

Chihota, expounds further and asserts that the syndrome is particularly wide spread among Africans, to the extent that some consider it the most dangerous disease afflicting Africans, more lethal than HIV and AIDS.  

PHD is widespread among Africans, perhaps, because of tragic events, such as slavery and colonization, which greatly dehumanized us, it is asserted.

Worse still, our modern day African cultures’ socialization processes seem to have sub-consciously internalized our dehumanization as a people.

With internalized dehumanization comes the moral disorder of feeling inferior to another, especially so to our slavers and colonizers.

When one of us seems to rise and to excel, instead of celebrating them and celebrating us, our socialization seems to have hot-wired us to search for the negative from whence we attack.

In many cases, we seemingly do this sub-consciously, even without realizing that we have done so. Among my own people, for example, the Iteso of Uganda, the propensity for PHD is mind blowing.

Perhaps, this is because in recent history the Iteso have been subjected to atrocities, such as the Mukura massacre.

And, in addition, there is, in fact, a school of thought that Teso has been deliberately marginalization in governmental allocation of resources by the President Museveni Administration.