Echoes of growing up in my local community: Mutilated Not Humiliated
I was nothing but a young girl when my sexuality got damaged. Yes, I mean damaged by ignorant people. Not by rape, penetration, or loss of my virginity. It was through a heinous act called Mutilation. My story is a call to action and advocacy for my community leaders in Ariyo to abandon this inhumane […]
The Indelible Taint
“Why do you always lie motionless whenever we are communing together sexually”? Abikes’ husband of barely three months asked her before he resignedly collapsed on the bed out of frustration beside her, feeling emasculated. “Do you not enjoy it…are you firewood..”? He had borne her lackadaisical attitude towards intercourse right from their marriage inception and […]
I wish I had Known
I WISH I HAD KNOWN Born and raised in a community where my voice is meaningless and that anything my parents and the community deem necessary becomes the order of the day. Children had no choice then than to abide by that, my friends and I even took it normal because we were raised never […]
October: Call for Stories
Call for StoryTelling Competition for the Month of October Call For Stories (October) 100 USD Cash Prizes Appel à histoires (Octobre) Prix en espèces de 100 USD Call For Stories (October) 100 USD Cash Prizes Are you a young African seeking creative ways to advocate for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation? YouthHubAfrica in partnership […]
Mabel
In an isolated community, miles away from the city where folks before the cock crow are already preparing their tools for the days business(dominantly farming). Mabel, going about the morning house chores was interrupted by her mother’s voice, calling her name from the other end of the compound. She rushes to meet her and it […]
RED ALERT
It was the second time someone was screaming out on our door late in the night. The first time, it happened with this young girl from our neighborhood, Fanta, who run away from her uncle’s home the day before he was to send her back to the village. – “They will kill me. They will […]
Moving against the silence
Zazu finishes her dressing by wearing a white dust coat bearing her name on it with a plastic tag. This is all she had dreamed of since her childhood , to be a social worker who would sensitize her community on the evils of female genital mutilation. Turning on the door she looked at her […]
EXIT THE GRAVE AND FIGHT WITH THE LIVING
The place Adana knew as home lies desolate. All the six sons, born of her grandmother passed on with their wives. Each family left behind helpless young children. They are now under the care of an old, ailing and helpless widowed woman. They say whoever neglects culture is a prisoner, yet one who’s had a […]
ALONG THE HIGHWAY
ALONG THE HIGHWAY This is contrary to the curse that she would die like a brute animal with no one to close her eyes. I see a young girl, tears trickling down her chicks and her whole body shaking, her left hand covers her crying but muted mouth and her chest rises in short spurts […]
HAFSA, THE COMMUNITY HEROINE
It was in the wee hours of the night. The three of us sat under the bonfire, trembling, not sure if Hafsa’s plan would work. She was yet to show up. I looked at the beads on my wrist. They reminded me of my son, whom I had bore in pain. Could he be crying? […]