At eight years I was prey
To a vulture-man
My future doesn’t seem too good
I was happy and young
When he came into my life
That day I was in bed
As I lay in bed that night
He came to say good night
And then he changed my universe
My uncle really hurt me that night
He turned out the candle
He pulled me close to him
He lay on me
He devoured me
He threatened me not to shout
As he had provided always
Days and nights passed
Hurting inside and out
Four years down the road
Same thing happening over and over
Again and again
I felt alone and sad
He could not stop molesting me
He was a remorseless bitch
But now I knew it must stop!
At 13 years I gathered
The courage to tell my stepmother
The Police got involved
It’s investigations took a long time
He sent me warnings and threats
Saying he would kill me instead
My Aunt kicked me out that day
I was hated by my poor Dad
For Mum had long died
I wished I would just die
Because nobody understood me
My future seemed so dark and dim
The next week I was 14 years old
I had gotten pregnant
I just didn’t know what to do
I was in a world of sadness and pain
I felt something growing inside each day
Then the day came
I gave birth to a premature
Which lost breath on the spot
I put that tragic night aside
I told a couple of teachers
I feel helped now
Someone took my hand
I have stepped back to school
But there’s something you have to know
There are a lot of abused children
Out there, they have done nothing wrong
Please someone take their hand
Its a heart breaking story. But it is good there is hope
Thanks Bridget for sharing your story. It feels nice that you have learnt to live a normal life dealing with such a catastrophe. Hope many people acknowledge that there are many people out there who need help on how to deal with such issues. You are such an inspiration.
Bridget,
Thank you taking the courage to share this experience. I admire your writing skills too. This is a beautiful piece of work. I’m glad you are back in school and that some teachers listened to your story. We need more teachers listening and reaching out to their students beyond academic subjects.
Quite a touching and educating testimony. I have read the testimony over and over and each time learned something new. I think the poem is addressed to different target audiences:
(i) As parents, we need to be selective with the people we entrust our children (especially the girls) as caretakers. Often we are happy that these caretakers are helping us by taking the responsibility of providing for our children but with time, they think of unethical ways of getting returns on their investiment by raping or defiling our children.
(ii) As teachers, we need to create an open, welcoming , non-judgemental space were students can open up and share their social challenges because a number of them are pushed to the wall and are looking forward to their teachers for help. Unfortunately, we teachers are so much taken up by grades and look at students as academic robots forgeting that they are social beings and that if they are psychologically unsettled, we cant get the grades we are looking for from them.
(iii) As program implementors, we must have specific interventions targeting parents and caretakers aimed at positive behavioural change because most of the Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) challenges faced by young people originate from home. We also need to give a voice to the young people so that we hear from them what affects them and how it affects them.
Bridget,
Great writer that you are. I am humbled by your courage to speak out. This is testimony to like-minded people to advocate for action in our midst. Your voice will not be in vain. The sky is the limit for what your powerful testimony will achieve.
Brave and God bless you!
This is so intriguing. I reckon it is a good testimony for others to hear and also come out.
So sad and touching a poem, but it’s good that it didn’t push you to suicide. I like the strength and courage that is in you.