WHEN UNCLE KNEW I WAS NOT ALONE
Feb 25, 2022
Story
Hi family! I hope everyone is doing great and we are all keeping safe. I am very pleased to share with you one of my recent poem on corporal punishment. This is a true life-story poem. Ending Corporal Punishment in Sierra Leone is a fight I must win with the help of the world and you that is reading this poem. Let the poem speak and my request will follow later on.
I never knew my passed mother was listening to my cries
Praying with me in the darkest night to be free
Though I heard her name whispering in the sky when I called
I never knew she travelled through hunger and pain with me
Until my body became a drum to be beaten
By uncle, neighbours and family members
With sticks, belts, slippers, canes, hands and feet
And my crying voice filled the sky with murmurations
It became a sad language that flew far away
To be interpreted only by ghosts
Or future-tellers associated with beautiful devils
Whose role is to free caged souls from evil spirits
I never knew mother was a living ghost
Until uncle took me to Freetown on a holiday
One morning he called my sister and grandmother
And revealed his dream from mother in Themne
‘E worrip memuna: orh bansr me mor neit eng pa ng sorilol
Org kong meh sepeth orh wan kong ang
Orh mem me mehreh-mehreh keh me tae gbog kor soh
Orh meh koh sorh, orh dae beng koh’
‘I dreamed of Memuna: she was angry as bush fire about Sorie Lol
She asked, why am I beating her child?
She warned me twice not to beat him again
If I do, she will come and take him away’
Before that I had called my mother’s name a hundred times in tears
Sitting somewhere lonely in my heart incanting like a sorcerer
Daily, my blood whispered pain over victory
Now, I am free from corporal punishment
If it were not for the help of a ghost
This poem would not have been told
With or without a ghost parent
Children should not be drum kits
Not every ghost can read and understand sadness
Not every ghost can communicate to the living through dreams
If we want a prosperous and active future for all
We must protect and save every child