Author: LadyInk

THE CIRCUMCISION

AT MY PSYCHOLOGIST’S OFFICE

Dr. Mark was a man in his middle age and has the aurora of calmness, he motioned me to the seat beside him and I complied. We exchanged pleasantries and he told me some stories of his younger days which made me really relaxed with him, he paused after making me laugh hard, looked straight in my eyes and said ‘young lady, let’s get to work. Tell me what brought you to my office; let’s see how to tackle it......’
I looked down and reality dawned on me, I opened my mouth but tears flowed feeling my mouth with salty liquid. I sniffed and began my story.......

SIX YEARS AGO
I was playing with my two elder sisters when we heard shouts from the backyard and we rushed to see what had happened. My mother was motionless on the ground while my father was seating helplessly on the ground with two men holding and counselling him, also on the floor was my oldest sister whose nose and ears were covered with cotton wool, the type my mother uses to treat my wounds when I injure. I later overheard that she had died while giving birth to her child as her body had not developed enough to go into labour.......
Few months later, it was I and my twin’s turn to be initiated into the women’s group in my village. My parents had counselled us the previous night though all efforts to get information on what was expected of us proved abortive, it was a tabor to talk about the initiation ceremony.
We were 15 girls to be initiated, we were taken to a forest; a part of my village I never knew existed. We were stripped and tied to different dwarf trees with both hands and legs separated. The oldest women then began cutting us one after the other. The scream from the first girl and the next girl and the girls that followed was excruciating. It got to my twin’s own and she kept screaming till she lost her voice. The movement of the scissors around my thighs with warm liquid which was the blood from other girls’ cutting sent shivers to my spine. The first cut made me scream and I passed out. I woke up when water was splashed on me by the older woman telling me to be awake, she was stitching my privates’ part, and I felt numb.
They congratulated us on becoming women and left. We were left there with no treatment for three days. Younger women only returned to feed us; we were still tied up as they claimed the wound will heal faster. On the last day, my mother and the mothers of the other women came to celebrate and take us home after a successful initiation ceremony.
They brought us down from the tree one after the other only for a woman to let out a cry, her daughter was dead. They brought I and my twin but she was motionless, my mother collapsed, I fell to the floor and awoke later in my house, my twin was already buried, she died from the hell we have been through. My father came in to congratulate me on being a strong woman and making him proud. He fed me my favourite food and went on about as if nothing happened.

TO BE CONTINUED