Malingose the Tom boy
At age 13 Malingose looked like she was 16, hips a little wider than her peers she was a replica of her late mother. Innocent and un aware she was presenting the telltale signs of puberty, her menstruation was just around the corner, the only female in the family of 4 boys she had taken […]
Her Experience
Kami was cold. She had been cold when she was woken in the middle of the night and was covered in lesos. She was even colder as she was shoved through the house while her mother refused to meet her gaze. Frozen as she was smuggled under the cover of early morning darkness on boda […]
Boarding school tales
Jane a grade 9 pupil at Kambezi boarding one friday afternoon had just knocked off from school going to the dormitories when she met her friends talking about the benefits of genital mutilation. She easedropped and become anxious about what it was all about and was eager to find out more about it. The next […]
THE BLADE THAT MAR MAR MY DESTINY
The Blade That Mars My Destiny “Congratulations, Mrs Ruth, you are four weeks pregnant” Doctor Samson said grinning from ear to ear. I sank into the nearby chair and screamed. “Oh no!” This news should have made a normal woman happy but I’m not normal. The joy of womanhood has been stolen from me a […]
Chidinma Ibemere’s August Storytelling Competition Submission
One of the memorable activities of the New Yam Festival at Nrobo Community is the tales by moonlight sessions organized for children. It always seemed like the unofficial grand finale of the festival. The year is 2035 and this age-long tradition is about to commence. Boys and girls from the seven sacred clans of are […]
Blades in a Decade
Today makes it 10 years since I became an orphan. Ten years since the evil that infests my body was awoken. My father just got home from work and had cashed out a cheque for his trip to Abuja. Since my mother died, it has just been us. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was […]
SORROWS AFTER CEREMONY
One day in the evening, Bhoke was outside their house sweeping the ground while singing one of her favorite songs. She didn’t know that the day had reached to make her a real woman by circumcising her as the customs and traditions of the Mahema village during the harvesting seasons. She continued sweeping, Later her […]
A New Dawn for Bargain
“From this day hence shall I call you daughter nor you I mother no more” The water pot fell from the old woman Agata as she tore her blouse to expose her chest. “These breasts did not suckle an unfilial seed.” Said Agata, lifting her breasts to the heavens. Hope Acaki stood speechless as she […]
Tradition breached my Sanctity
It may have been decades since the privacy and sanctity of my femininity was breached and violated without my consent , I still live the consequences today and unless technology intervenes, probably for the rest of my life. The pain of seeing a mother loved-up with her child, knowing you cannot experience the biology of […]
FGM August short story competition
My wedding night was incredibly nerve-wracking, but not for the reasons you might assume. I had to undergo deinfibulation, the surgical procedure that would correct the mutilation done to my genitalia twelve years ago by my grandmother, Kansime In the hospital operating room, I look up at my husband, Dele and I see him looking […]