The Unforgiving Cuts.
The first cut happened just a fortnight before I turned eight years old. The memories are as vivid to me today as they were fifteen years ago, of two cuts that completely changed my world, cuts that give me night terrors and chills. On both accounts, I recall everything more than I would like; the […]
YouthEndFGM August month edition
According to the customs of my community, children were considered a source of wealth. Interested suitors reserved girls at birth. My story is not any different. As soon as my mother gave birth to me, I was earmarked to be married off as soon as I attained the age of twelve. The memories of my […]
I NEED HELP
“STOP, STOP, STOP I NEED HELPPLEASE” were the words that came out from the mouth of my friend Annett in a deep voice with a lot of pain, when she was in a small glass roofed hut in the middle of the Jabuluni forest for her circumcision, I remember. I am Anna a close friend […]
The brutal reality of FGM
When the schools close and everyone is excited to usher in the holidays, there are thousands of girls somewhere around Africa who are worried dead sick, and only wish that the holidays were not here as the season is here with them, what is termed as the rite of passage the door to womanhood they […]
Sankha’s Pain
Sankha recollected about how happy she was when she found out about the scholarship that she had been awarded. She was going to go abroad, to a country called Beyaha Republic. She was the only person from Zjava Village that had won the scholarship. A few months later she travelled to Beyaha Republic to do […]
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION (Short Story)
“FAUZI” The cold in the early morning was so piercing that it could quench the heat from the fire at the center of the household. The compound was quiet, and the sound of cock crows was the only sound ears could pick up. The murmurs from Maa Kudi’s room were faint under two tongues of […]
Scarred!
I remember… The glint of steel, The slow carving, The searing tear of delicate flesh, The muffled screams afraid of hard knocks. They said that the marks of our elders was our pride. They were a proof of our purity and sacred standing. Our mothers had worn their marks, and they had no issues. At […]
Gone Too Soon
Gone Too Soon It was a cold Thursday night when Kaai’s mother walked into their smoke-field hut that served as the kitchen and Kaai’s bedroom as well. This time, her mother bought her smoked lamb tail which was a delicacy that was served to the older women on important cultural celebrations. Her mother told her […]
MY STORY
What inspired your fight against Female Genital Mutilation? The interviewer asked me. I sighed and I said answering this question means taking a stroll down memory lane. After I lost my parents, I lived with my grandma in a community bounded by several rituals and norms one of which included the practice of FGM for […]
I FLEE FOR SEPINA
I FLEE FOR SEPINA. I am sitting under a tree facing the breathtaking sunset in Samburu. The horizon here is very beautiful, more than my story. I have thirty minutes to take some fresh air, before I go back to the house and prepare dinner for my husband and my precious eight month old daughter […]