STORYTELLING COMPETITION FOR AFRICANS

Meera was a little girl who had just attained the age of twelve years. She came from a small remote village which was located in the deepest part of the Kankara forest. Her parents insisted on a daily basis that she should get herself ready for Uklaudi; a sacred cultural ceremony which every girl in the village partook in order to be viewed as a woman who is eligible for marriage. The ceremony involves mutilation of female genital parts using pocket knives.
Her parents made arrangements with the traditional priests from the village for Meera to undertake the ceremony as soon as possible so that, Meera could be wedded to an old wealthy man in the village known as Mr. Kitenge. The old man was known for regarding women as mere tools of pleasure. Her parents agreed to the marriage agreement despite her objections.
One afternoon, as Meera was heading back to school after lunch break, she was attacked by a group of men who beat her mercilessly for refusing to voluntarily present herself to the council of elders who administered the Uklaudi. After the beating, she was dragged to the sacred grounds of the Kankara forest where she was forced to undertake the Uklaudi . The mutilation process was done using a rusted pocket knife which led to a tetanus infection. The infection almost took her life, because the village was located in a remote area and Meera was unable to receive appropriate care in time.
The merciless beating, resulted to loss of her left eye and also placed visible permanent scars on her body. Mr. Kitenge refused to marry her on the grounds that Meera had lost her beauty and sexual appeal. Meera remains unmarried till today because of the way the society treats her. People from the village regard her as the ugliest girl in the village. The village boys nicknamed her “Meera the Ugly.”
Ten years down the line, Meera is still traumatized by the entire experience which has led to loss of her self-esteem. Meera remains an uneducated woman, begging for bread on the streets of the village because of the community’s customs which do not permit women who have undergone the Uklaudi ceremony to go back to their parents’ home. She also has pneumonia from sleeping on the cold streets every night and it remains untreated because people from the village have shunned her.