The Sacred Cut
THE SACRED CUT The agony in the room was intense. So intense you could feel it physically. I tried looking away to face the mud walls to erase the heart-wrenching scene on the floor. There is only so much a man’s heart can bear. Lying sprawled on the floor was Nyakio. His father Jackson Chacha […]
The Knife.
A fine morning it was at my mother’s homestead among the four wives who lived in harmony. Being the only girl that was born out of the sixteen male children, I was as fragile as an egg. Father therefore ensured that I was taken good care of and possibly even head to the infamous Lokichogio […]
LALI’S STORY
The room is dimly lit, and the air is musty. My twin sister and I are sat on the floor in a corner of the room while the adults are stood on the opposite end, discussing. They are too far for us to make out what they are saying, but we knew it couldn’t be […]
Memoir of an FGM Victim
They couldn’t stand the smell and I could not stand it either. They started talking about me from a distance, others pointed fingers while I passed by on my way to and from school. The journey to the toilet was the scariest of them all, the pain was nerve-racking. Last week while we were on […]
The Cut
The Cut On a rainy night, Mrs Huzuni, a dark petite weary woman in a ragged dress and a new khanga delivered her third child. This night was also important because her eldest daughter was going to meet the same fate as hers. As it was custom for a girl of her age, Shida had […]
A very painful period
painful story It was a bright morning when I was asked by my parents to fetch fire woods with some of my friends from the farm about a two kilometers away from our house just because of a new born baby’s christening. On the 8thof April,2002,a bouncing baby girl was born to our family (Egbeyode). […]
Who Am I?
To most women my age, among the questions that keep them awake at night “whom would I have been had no part of my body been tampered with,” does not exist. I did not think about it either, until I moved away from home. A big part of our childhood was filled with talks about […]
Was it worth it?
“Adaugo…..adaugo..get up…ada it’s me..please get up. You can’t leave me..not now”. I heard my husband crying like a little child but what I couldn’t understand was why. Why was he calling my name?.. why was he asking me not to leave him? I tried to touch him and tell him that I was not going […]
OUR WAY
‘It is our way.’ Those words echo in my soul and run shivers down my spine. It was what Mother told me as we walked down the darkened hallway two decades ago. What she told herself years after. To find meaning. To find closure. She whispered them with reverence with every step we took closer […]
LAST STRAW
I love the holidays, I love waking up in my makeshift bed and looking at the way light splayed inside my room. I shuffled my feet inside my slippers and grabbed my beaded shawl before ma’s shrill voice cut through the unsettled fog. I made haste and nearly collided with ma’s frail form,” is this […]