Celebrating Women’s Month

My heart aches as I look at the atrocities that now defines what once stood as the beauty that came through my birth canal. This is the beauty that I once embraced, one I hoped would last forever.

I remember sitting in the first high-powered meeting like an invisible force, super proud. We all held that ladder of his ascendency in deep expectation. We hoped, when he finally sits on that highchair, he would quickly remember his kindred and the cry of the marginalized. When he took over the presidency, suddenly, the powers that be that the citizenry look to for justice, started riding on the wave of pride, greed, arrogance, selfishness, and thirst for the blood of innocent souls. Now, any opposing voice is quickly silenced by the arm of terror. The state of affairs of the nation, is now in the hands of the most ruthless and power hungry. Is this the world that I birthed?

Chosen by the wicked before time and brought up in a cult hiding under the guise of religion. Taught and passed from generation to generation, they pluck and eat fruits when they are still raw. Robbed of her innocence; the precious destiny of the girl child is reduced to mediocrity. I watched her in agonizing pain, she was only nine and already in the labor room being prepared to welcome her first child. The supposed “husband”, old enough to be her grandfather. We all knew she wasn’t going to make it alive. The baby survived and we all wondered what we will tell her when it’s time – You were birthed by a child? Is this the world that I birthed?

I walk down the streets gasping for fresh air, there is a battle raging between my two lungs. The stench of drug addictions engulfs the atmosphere, one can almost touch the tangibility of moral decadence. The youth are dying and yet, the powerful drug lords keep them coming, the unending supply of death traps. Our once revered societies have suddenly turned into Sodom and Gomorrah as this seems to be the only way to hide from the harsh realities of life. Like a time-bomb waiting to explode, is the future of generations to come. Is this the world that I birthed?

We have given them all sorts of names sometimes calling them disorders, the unknown demonic viruses that have entered our households ripping families apart. From the terror of the narcissists to the vultures of mental health, they lay in wait to devour their prey. Amid the whirlwind, the souls of innocent children are sent off to roam the world in search for meaning, only to get caught in the web of lurking predators. Is this the world that I birthed?

I watched as he plundered his food. The fear could be seen through the constant shivers of his body. In a country rich with resources only channeled to the “chosen few”, illegal immigration was now the norm. The three day’s journey in the deep jungle called for stamina as many rarely made it alive. Just before midnight, he only bid his wife farewell. The pain of being separated from his family was unbearable. That was the last the wife heard from her husband. A year later, no one knows if he made it on the other side. Poverty had scored once again successfully turning the mother and children to beggars. Is this the world that I birthed?

Molded in the marvelous image of the Creator Himself; the hub of innovation and habitat of the world’s greatest architecture has suddenly turned into immateriality. Everywhere I turn, the scourge of suicide is now the anthem, a quick response most especially among the teenagers to life’s vicissitudes. In tears, he gently bids his friend farewell, “I am tired of this world! I am tired of life. Today is the last you will see me.” True to his word, the next day he is gone! There is a rope leading many into the dark abyss. Is this the world that I birthed?

All I ask as we “celebrate” this women’s month, is this truly the world that I birthed?