Author: LadyInk

THE CIRCUMCISION
(CONTINUATION)

I and the other ladies then joined the fastening room six months later were we would be trained on the etiquette of a wife and from there, those we were betrothed to would come to take us at the end of the three years study. We were allowed to visit home thrice a year. They fed us and made us add weight as they believe would help in child bearing.
A year after completing the training school, my betrothed husband came to take me home. I remember weeping but my mother assured me that she would come visiting and also one of my co wives was her friend whom she spoke to look after me. The man in question was way older than my father; he was in his seventies with eight wives, several children and grand children.
Like a sheep led to be slaughtered, I went to my new house. The women of the house took a week to drill me on the customs of the house and prepared me for my first night. I sat waiting for my husband with my heart in my hands. Every touch felt like ice cubes been poured on my body and his attempt to penetrate me made me spring to my feet. I couldn’t bear the pain. At the end of the day, he ended up raping me. He relished every moment he took to in forcing himself into me. That was the most wicked sight of my life.
The older women came in to clean me up; I was just numb and covered in my own blood. He repeated this act everyday for a week as he wanted me to get pregnant and it worked. My months of pregnancy was the most peaceful I have had in years as he no longer requested to sleep with me. The pains and sickness of pregnancy were bearable.
All hell broke loose the day I entered labour, the pains from interval contractions were unexplainable. I was so afraid and wished I died but the thought of bringing a new life kept me going. The midwife then asked me to push and I did so with all my strength but the baby couldn’t come out as my birth carnal has been narrowed from the circumcision I had earlier, I did all I could but to no avail. I experienced a lot of tears but still to no avail and by the time I finally gave birth, the baby had died.
I quickly braced myself from my grief and decided to take in again against the advice of other women as the thought of sleeping with my husband made me sick, pregnancy was the only escape route. Two months later after a few excruciating intercourse, I took in again. I was now used to the whole process. I had a little peace for the next nine months.
My second labour lasted longer than the first. I was in labour for two days, the tears and cuts was something else, I was more courageous but I guess my body couldn’t take it. I finally birthed the baby but because of my narrow birth canal, the mid wife couldn’t discover on time that the umbilical cord was around my baby’s neck and I pushed the baby with it and it strangled the baby. The baby simply let out a weak cry and died.
As I licked my wounds, I discovered that before I would want to use the restroom to urinate, I would urinate on my body. I also began bed wetting. My husband discovered and sent me back to my father’s house. He then collected the yams in my father’s barn as repayment of my bride price and compensation for killing his two children. When he left, my mother came consoling me but my father sent me fleeing with a cutlass as I brought disgrace to him.
I spent several days without food and when all hope seems to be lost, I came across a man who found me motionless on the ground, and I awoke in a hospital for the first time in my life.
PRESENT DAY
I spent six months in the hospital undergoing treatment and surgeries. My physical body is fine but my mental health is in crisis and that is why I am here............

THE END