Baskadia

THE SAVAGE

Yes sir! No sir! No. Yes am saying no.

Nationalization... This is Advocation.

What is Nationalization in your understanding?

Where care is rare,

Justice and Peace... Absent sir

Discrimination and abomination... Present sir

Like Pythons in green grass you bite;

With voices not heard we hopelessly fight.

Am born in an era of confusion,

Was my birth as a girl an error? No, rejection.

And with disgust you viciously say:

"You wrecked orphan,

I said there is no school for stupid brats like you!

Have you done the dishes?

Have you washed my clothes?

Have you...."

Like a donkey I work for my employer

Heavy luggage I carry

With lots of emotional baggage am crying

A slave I am,

Born to suffer,

Child labor

Detestation

Brutality.

Mama, why did you leave me?

Why did they had to take your life away from me?

Why?

You left me in anguish.

Am now living in a house not a home,

Am seated to contemplate about this contemporary Africa

Full of distress,

Insecurity, slander and perpetrations

Hatred, mistreats,

Discrimination!

Mama, wake up:

Come and back me up

Come help me to lawfully disturb for my education

Come stand for me and resist my mutilation

Come let's make justice and peace be our advocation

We have to restore human dignity right?

But Mama, I know that you are rioting in your grave

Perhaps it was poverty that engulfed us

The leadership qualities in you

Your intellectual abilities

Your gender

Which made them loot you to death

Political assassination!

Or maybe it was fathers love for the country

His strength as a KDF soldier

The rank and the file

The agony and pity

That he was shot to an anguish death

Which left me in pain, helpless orphan

Perhaps it was my brother’s agility,

The biceps and triceps

The judicature,

Perhaps it was his voice for the voiceless

That he was suspected for the murder of a politician

And without any court hearing,

He's now rotting in jail.

Maybe it was my aunt’s success

Her advanced lifestyle,

The graduation,

That her slashed head was found in the bath tap

Pregnancy tormented;

Painful death,

Cold blood,

Excruciating distress

Abomination!

Mama, my sister's death was horror

Enslaved with no wages by her employer

He quarreled, burned and assaulted her,

He raped her!

Sexual harassment

Intimidation

Discrimination.

Am crying...

Cry of humanity;

Crying for the nation...

But No! Don't flow with me in my tears

Travel with me in my thoughts.

For, this is my inspiration;

Here is the one person who came and said;

"Young girl with vision,

I have come with a solution

To stop this reputation.

This is your mission...

To flourish in education".

From red to white I’ve won the fight,

To read and write I have achieved my right

To sour the greatest height.

Discrimination, I burry!

Rejection, I burry!

Intimidation, I burry! And now, it is my graduation;

I should sing and dance in Jubilation

As I reap sweet fruits for the Nation!