WHEN UNCLE KNEW I WAS NOT ALONE



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



 



 



 



 

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