Something Worse Than Death
Okay, let us call her IMA-OBONG, she doesn’t use to have those tears you see in her eyes, she was born happily and the earth received her with joy as usual, her community welcomed her and blessed her existence.
Amazing how fast she grew, she was a bunch of blessing and a ray of hope (at least to her generation) her outstanding personality sparked even though it was in just a small community, she had dreams to become a lawyer, to be able to protect her people when she grows up…
She only wished that one day, her community will feel her impact, but just at the peak of her dream came a tornado, a shock, a night mare, a hurricane, just before she realized what was happening, her very own heritage…THE BAKASSI PENISULA was ceased before her very own eyes. It was obviously a pity…..
Before she could speak up, her parents were no more, just when she planned on getting bold and saving what she had left, she realized she was only a refugee in her once peaceful home.
And all she and a thousand others could do, was watch their own taken away from a wooden fence.
The night had set at noon and her dreams were shattered, her hopes were cut short by a “verdict” that probably didn’t know what it was doing; her once wonderful dreams started hunting her.
Ima-obong wasn’t alone, out there lived a thousand other kids who had their dreams, hopes and aspirations shattered within a blink of an eye.
Maybe their dreams were even very much bigger than hers, where they are today is unspeakable, a lot of them languish in slums and camps.
And literally feed on crumbs from tables that are originally theirs. They now live on pity and support all because they lost a fight that “ended before it began.”
Now my idea of death and suffering!
It is about none existence, when you cease to exist, but when you can slowly watch your own life fold up before your very own eyes, and feel your dreams come to a halt, while they seems to be no hope and you have no other choice than to watch helplessly….. That on its own is worse than death.
For further reading see Bakassi Families Decry Cameroonian border raids
Christiana Ukung Alawa is a 20 year old student of UNICAL and writes from Calabar
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