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

Name of Institution: Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT)
WhatsApp Number: 07082413052

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

AUTHOR: LadyInk

CHAPTER THREE
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I was in the class but all of a sudden felt a terrible headache. It was as if my head was about to leave my body and I was rushed to the school clinic. The school authority quickly phoned my parents and they in turn sent Yusuf our driver to fetch me. I felt weird but couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I knew within myself that something was amidst.
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I got back from school to behold a crowd in my compound. I turn to the driver to inquire what was happening but discovered that he was weeping uncontrollably. I was surprised since I just got out of the car with him and he wasn’t weeping then although I guessed he was unusually quiet.
One of our neighbours rushed to me and held me while weeping. She then informed me that my parents were dead. They had died in an accident on their way back from a wedding function. I didn’t know what happened afterwards as I had a blackout. I awoke in my room surrounded by mourners. I wanted to shout but it seemed my voice had lost sound....
Days that followed after the burial of my parents brought hell on me. My uncles seized my father’s properties and sold me to a motel where I would be working for aunt and she in turn would be paying them 5% of the money I make for her. I was just business for both parties.
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The tap on my door woke me up and Chidube the psychiatrist who saved me when I was hit after escaping came in as usual smiling. He told me that we would be going for a ride. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy but I was at peace with him. He led the way and we proceeded with our journey.
After driving for about twenty minutes, we arrived in a secluded environment mainly surrounded by trees. We got to the gates and the security saluted and opened the gates for us. We got down and a group of young girls ranging from 12-22years welcomed us. I was ushered in to a well decorated sitting room and offered a drink.
The elderly lady there explained to me that the girls I saw were now my sisters as they all leave together as one family. They were all looking good but I discovered that 6 of the girls there were pregnant and I inquired but the lady told me that Chidube in his magnanimity welcomed and accommodated the girls whose parents threw them out when they discovered that they were pregnant. I relaxed and with time bonded with everyone there. Chidube left me with the girls but still came every day to inspect the affairs of the house and check-up on me
I later learnt that Chidube runs the place and that it was like a semi orphanage. He is an oxford graduate and holds a PHD in Psychiatry, he came back to impact his knowledge to his father land. He told me he had found me unconscious by the road side and decided to take me in. He was like my guardian angel and I practically owe my life to him.
The Sunday that followed brought me to a place of worship after a long time. We were all conveyed in a bus that took us to the church. On arrival we were seated in a seat specially kept for us. Chidube was among the officiating pastors. I was amazed on how he handled the crowd during deliverance session. People were practically falling under anointing, I wasn’t in exception
Days ran into weeks and weeks ran into months, I had practically healed and was going through a therapy session with Chidube in order to heal psychologically. I enjoyed the time I spent with him and I began to look for to our private session. He was just so caring and loving, and the fact that he took a stranger like me to his home and catered for me further endeared him to me.
In our of our sessions, I got bold and ask him why he wasn’t yet married and he opened up to me about past painful breakups, he said maybe he wasn’t destined to find a lover. The way they ran the affairs of the house marvelled me. Everything had it own time down to sleeping. Everything was catered for even schooling. The compound was like an estate with several buildinng for different purposes.
The girls that I met few months back gave birth but we didn’t get to see the children as they told us that two died because of the harsh weather and that the remaining four were taken to the nursery outside the compound for proper monitoring in order not to die. They were to return when they were a year old. I found this absurd but somehow Chidube convinced everyone and nobody questioned him nor asked of the kids again.
Two months later, three of the girls there with me were found pregnant. Chidube was angry at first but allowed them to stay. The matron told me that Chidube was just too kind and caring, that he couldn’t afford to throw them out to suffer and that was how the case died down. I was thrilled by this kind gesture.
One sunny afternoon, almost two year after my stay in the estate, Chidube came to speak with me. I noticed he was kind of tense which got me worried. He told me he has been fasting and praying for a long time now for an answer on his life partner and finally, he got his answer. He knelt down to ask for my hand in marriage. I was overwhelmed but excitedly accepted as he was the kind of man I wanted plus he was my saviour without whom I may not have survived in the street.
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CHAPTER FOUR
My inability to conceive was a major source of concern for me. The frequent miscarriages were just unbearable. Chidube was just too caring but hated to see me sad. He was also frustrated that he would pray for other barren women and they would conceive while I couldn’t bear him a child. He always told me that I will have my baby in my own time.
A church member who is also a friend of mine came to visit me when I returned from the hospital after my miscarriage. We were alone in the sitting room and she told me that she may just have a solution to my constant miscarriages. I was to go with her to see a prophet. I was sceptical but she told me that if I didn’t act quickly, my husband may go to another woman to bear children. I agree since I would do anything to bear my husband children and make my marriage last.
I left immediately my husband had gone to work to visit the prophet with my friend. I told my maid I was going shopping and left. It was a stressful journey of about three hours which got me angry and afraid but my friend reassured me that it was all fine.
Finally, we arrived and to my surprise, it was a hut. I looked at the white chalk drawings on the hut, blood stain, untidy environment; human bones hung on strategic places and needed no soothsayer to tell me that I was in a shrine. I was so scared that I wanted to run away but my friend held me back. She told me that she was able to conceive through the power of the babalawo, that he solved all her problem and would solve mine except I want to remain barren forever.
I was about to leave when I received the shocker of my life, I saw my own husband coming out of the shrine! I pinched myself to be sure that I wasn’t dreaming but it was really him, he was wearing the cloth that I brought out for him this morning. I just slumped to the floor. I watched as he ran to the car to avoid being seen. He couldn’t recognise us as we covered our faces with scarf. My friend consoled me and still begged me to still see the babalawo of which I agreed.
We were ushered in by the maid in waiting who was only tying a white wrapper and white chalk drawing on her body. My heart jumped into my mouth when we came face to face with the babalawo. He was so skinny and scary. He was guarded by two hefty men. The stench from the room nearly chucked me. We were directed to seat on the floor by the babalawo and we complied.
My friend was about explaining why we came but he instead told me to open my palms. He chanted some incantations, looked at me and shook his head. He told me that the man that left a while ago is my husband of which I confirmed. He tonarrate my husband’s history to me.
He told me my husband was a ritualist; he belonged to a fraternity of which his father was the leader. He succeeded his father when he died after being stabbed by me. My husband got to know that I was the one that stabbed him and decided to marry me in order to punish me. I was to have fourteen miscarriages of which the blood would be donated at their altar and on my fifteenth miscarriage, I would die alongside the baby which would make his vengeance complete.
He further told me that his prophetic power was from drinking blood and that he already had four children with another woman. He also runs an orphanage of which he takes in pregnant stranded young ladies or young ladies and then impregnates them, at birth he kills the child and they would hold a feast with it in his fraternity thus giving him more power.
I was totally dumbfounded with all this revelation, he also further explained that he controls the mind of everyone he met which makes no one to oppose him including those ladies whose children were taken away. I sat back and wept. I did not believe that my husband who couldn’t hurt a fly could commit all those atrocities but what convinced me was his presence at the shrine.
The babalawo told me that it was the spirit of my late parents that directly my meeting with him in order to prevent my death. I was to remain there and perform some ritual cleansing to buy back my soul from the clutches of my husband and return on the third day to be greeted with the news of his death.
I obeyed and followed all directives even though it was against my fate. On the third day, I returned home to be greeted my mourners in my compound. They were all wailing and consoling me and I joined in the wailing since there was no need revealing what he did as he was already dead and couldn’t affirm nor deny the accusation. I learnt from them that he had a heart attack while preaching and died before the arrival of the doctor.
A week later, his burial was arranged. All dignitaries from far and wide came to console m. I was to speak at his funeral and I spoke well of him since there was no need to slander a dead man. One of the pastors working in the church came forward and told me that ‘after him there is no holiness’ I just pretended not to hear and the burial ceremony went on successfully.
Three months later, I visited the orphanage that Chidube ran for the first time after I got married, I called a man of God to do total deliverance and dedicate the place to God which he did. I then restructured the administration and turned it into a proper orphanage, with the help of the church; we built a skill acquisition centre for the ladies to keep them busy.

THE END

AFTER ME THERE IS NO HOLINESS

AUTHOR: LadyInk


CHAPTER ONE
It all seems like the world came to a standstill when I heard from the doctor that I had lost yet another baby. I was seeing my husband cry and talk to me but I couldn’t make sense from what he said. Then lo and behold I saw my child beckoning to me, I got up to carry my child but the person wearing a white gown whom I presumed to be the doctor held me back and then I felt a sharp pain in my arm and before I could react, the environment began to turn around; my husband was in twos and so was the doctor.....
I woke up to a serious headache and to behold as always the face of my lovely husband. The doctor came to check up on me and assured me that I would be discharged later in the evening. I was excited that I finally would be leaving the hospital with its awful smell of drug and at times blood...
On arrival, I was welcomed like a princess of an unknown land, ushered to a sumptuous meal of which I had no appetite but managed to eat a bit. I got to bed after greeting a few guests that came to console me after the miscarriage I had. I still can’t come to terms with it, I just don’t want to show any form of relapse in other not to land back to the hospital and putting Chidube my husband to yet another trauma. It is one thing to get married and an entirely different thing to remain married. For me , I am determined against all odds to remain married till death do us apart but of late , I feel even death has to wrestle me to keep my man from me.
Life as they say is unpredictable. I was so full of life that I believed I had the world under my feet. With so many school awards of academic excellence and church awards of good behaviour etc I was an example for other girls of my age.
Chidube’s arrival into my life further made my life more colourful. He was every girl’s dream and I was more than lucky to have him in my life. He is a source of support, my biggest fan, best friend, brother and lover. I smiled each time I remember the way we met.
We are happily married for five years now. There is but only one issue that cuts my matrimonial happiness short which is lack of children. We have been trying to have a child but to no avail. I will go to any extent to give my husband a child.
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CHAPTER TWO

Hey! If you really want to survive in this neighbourhood, then you have to work for it! My aunt said while slamming the door. I recoiled to the side of the bed and wept for a long time. I couldn’t bring myself to do what she asks of me, how was I to sleep with a man that is old enough to be my father! The pain in my heart was just unbearable plus the hunger pangs I experienced since I wasn’t given any food in order to bring me to comply with their plans.

When the beating I got became unbearable, I was dressed up and taken to Chief Badmus. Chief Badmus is my aunt’s lover who runs her motel. He has practically slept with almost all the girls working for aunt and demanded that I was next as he needed something fresh and young as he was fed up with other girls. This is a man who had children old that Were way older than me.
As I entered his room, I nearly swallowed my heart. He was already tying a towel sitting on the bed waiting for me. The security men slammed the door behind me leaving me alone with Chief Badmus which made me wish for the ground to swallow me. He approached me and the smell of tobacco nearly chucked me up. His arms that ran through my body was cold, I remembered aunt’s warning that if I struggled with him, I will be bruised badly so I lay on the bed like a lamb to be sacrificed, shut myself like I always do from my environment and allowed him into me.................
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I woke up to an unfamiliar environment; I was lying on soft foam with colourful beddings. The scent from the room was sweet and peaceful. I wanted to shout but somehow I found peace in the surroundings.
A man in his late twenties entered the room full of smiles. He calmed me down and gave me food to eat, it was by then that I looked at myself and discovered that I was dressed in colourful yellow dress. I ate hungrily with the man smiling and beaconing me to eat more. He told me he would be back in the evening to discuss with me as he wants me to have my rest. I thanked him and continued with my food, when I was done, I slept off again.
I was awoken with a tap on the door. The man I saw earlier entered smiling at me. He sat beside me and begged me to narrate my story to him as he wants to be of help. He said he was a psychiatrist and I should trust him. I began to talk and tears filled my eyes. The experience I had with Chief Badmus was unbearable.
When I was done narrating my story to him, he offered me a white handkerchief for me to clean my wet face. He told me that he would help me but he had to start with treating my body before my mind. He gave me some pills which would help with the pain I experienced and they indeed worked wonders.
At age sixteen, my life was messed up badly. Being a victim sexual and physical abuse made me act half mad. I sometimes hallucinated and wasn’t sure of what was real or not. I wasn’t even sure if this new environment was real or just existed in my imagination. The man who I saw when I regained consciousness that I later learnt that his name is Chidube gave me those pills which worked wonders with the pain.
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I woke up to find Chief Badmus snoring beside me. I was in pain and irritated at the sight of him beside me, then everything he did to me all came back to me in a flash. I looked at my dress and beddings which where all stained in blood, I made to stand up but I felt dizzy.
I looked at the man beside me and filled with rage and self pity; I got up with my last strength and left the room to clean up. On my way to my room, everyone laughed and mocked me, aunt came with smiles to congratulate me on my first, and I just ignored her and left. I sank in the bathtub and wept bitterly, all my body irritated me.
Two days after the incident as I was still nursing my pain, Chief Badmus requested for me again. Aunt gave me the news with smiles as he had already paid her double for me. I have no choice but to comply but I had a plan in mind. Aunt on seeing me excited, gave me more than enough to eat and personally dressed me up, I was like her hen that lay golden eggs.
I was ushered in to Chief Badmus who was happy to see me. I sat while he fed me apple from his plate, he was happy that I was coming around and no longer struggled with him. I allowed him have his fun with my body and when he was satisfied, he lay back exhausted and started snoring, I don’t know what came over me but I took the knife he used for his apple and buried it in his manhood.
I took to my heels before anyone could find out. It was easy getting out of Chief Badmus’s room since I requested that he sent the guards at the door away as I didn’t want them to hear me moaning. I took the back door and the heavily armed guard opened the door for me to escape since I bribed the guard with my body the previous night, I was just happy that he kept his own side of the bargain. He had taken pity on me when he saw me come out of Chief Badmus’s room the first time he raped me and agreed to help him but if only I helped him with his own lust.
I passed through the underground tunnel to the outside world. This tunnel was used by robbers as a hideout, they paid aunt very well and she in turn satisfied them with girls. I discovered this tunnel while ears dropping on aunt and one of the robbers’ conversation that the girl she gave them died while they were sleeping with her. I tiptoed and followed them to the entrance of the tunnel. Aunt brought the corpse of the girl and told us that she tried escaping and was shot dead, this further instilled fear in the heart of other girls.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and reach the end of the tunnel. I opened the small gate and I was finally free and in the outside world. I was now confused on where to go but I still kept on running when all of a sudden I felt a big blow at the back of my head and everything became blank................
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