BEYOND THE RUINS- A NEW DAWN FOR THE GBV SURVIVORS

it's another year as we join our voices to speak on gender-based violence and the way forward. This is a movement that brings great unity among women, communities and organisations. it sets the pace for what must be done to end the gang rapes, the brutal assaults, battering, physical as well as the emotional abuse the female gender continue to face most especially in wartorn regions. Here is where I stand on the matter;

•  I RAISE MY VOICE to beckon on women and young girls who are victims. SPEAK OUT! Your silence is the first sign of consent to such gruesome acts of violence. Do not be the woman who protects the abuser with excuses. Don't be the mother who turns a deaf ear to the hurt of her daughters because of some monster she chooses to call a lover/ partner. Come forward and end this nightmare. Nothing good comes easy but something good will come from you taking a stand. 


• Also, the more violated victims speak, the stronger the stand for the right penalty to be implemented. violators are becoming brutal in their approach, so we need to take a tougher stand in ending this prolonging mayhem. We need powerful policies that attack the situation and amend the error by encouraging gender equality for global advancement giving women the confidence in all spheres of life.


•  Finally, we need more people willing to help survivors overcome the trauma. When we go through pain, the memories are evidence of an overcomer, not a quitter. Suicide and depression should not be the answer to GBV victims. Hiding away in silence or becoming unbecoming due to past experiences, cannot respond to the fight against GBV violence. We need survivors to join the fight and share their stories so we understand how to bring down these culprits.

We all must rise up, take the hand of the violated, help them emancipate and lead them into the new world where we march together to succeed. This is my stand and I wish to use this POEM as a boost therapy to all GBV survivors. You are HEROINES. 

(This is a tale of an abused mother and her daughter; the fruit of violation. She is ready to move forward and let her scars be her story).

A glowing beauty beyond compare

A gazelle gazing in total awe,

She stared,

Emotan, the pride of her childhood,

The wind that blows in stillness,

That is Emotan.

 

Like the markings of an old scar,

She has a tale that tosses through time,

She… A vision of womanhood,

Her chiselled visage embodies the strain,

Strain from years of boisterous silence,

A silence that spurred her firmness to fight,

Emotan, a beauty from indifference,

What makes her the star of scars?

 

Ah, it is the embrace with adversity,

A tradition that trickled down,

Ah, yes, her shame,

The fruit of slashed hymen,

The burden that toxics couldn’t wash away,

The urchin from her torment,

Amenze, the reason for the ruins,

She casts her eyes away,

Her begetter buffers her away,

Her heroine clasps her like a sack of soil,

This weight, a burden of joy,

My Amenze, the calm in chaos.

 

The heroine looks with head up high,

‘I conquered,’ she soliloquises,

Smiling strongly,

At the recurrent relics of her ride,

No, not ride, her emancipations, 

Emotan, she sees triumph sparking flamingly,

Amidst the crackling pile,

She knows no fear of future,

She feels no regret certainly,

Like the Queen Esther from Mordecai,

She readily stands,

Awaiting patiently.

 

No more raining eyes and soaked adires from nights of vicious victories,

No more cradling to the cave for shelter from slashes,

Emotan now sees,

Beyond the borders of brawls,

Beyond the ruins,

Emotan!

Amenze!

The future is flowered.

 

Written in response to Gender-Based Violence.