‘We need to talk about Aisha and Faruk…’
Ill-equipped to handle the situation, her mother took up a cooking job in the neighborhood where she was paid monthly and fed lunch on a daily basis. Often times, the portion meant for Aisha’s mother would be shared amongst up to five members of the household. In order to relieve Aisha’s mother of some of […]
Ill-equipped to handle the situation, her mother took up a cooking job in the neighborhood where she was paid monthly and fed lunch on a daily basis. Often times, the portion meant for Aisha’s mother would be shared amongst up to five members of the household. In order to relieve Aisha’s mother of some of the stress she was going through, her employer offered to adopt Aisha at a young age. No agreements were signed but by word of mouth, it was agreed that Aisha would live with Hajiya permanently and all financial aspects of her life would be handled by her including her education. Aisha on the other hand would help take care of Hajiya who was an aged lady.
Without fanfare, Aisha moved in with Hajiya who immediately started spoiling her with the nicest clothes and generally, a better quality of life. But soon, to Hajiya, Aisha was too spoilt to be handled, no courtesy was exuded by her and no respect was accorded to elders by the girl. In Hajiya’s words, it was a manifestation of the defects of being brought up by a single working mother in poverty. To cut a long story short, the arrangement did not last and less than two months after it began, it ended.
Age has a way of taming people and for Aisha, it did. She became more responsible as she steadily approached her twenties. She hardly went out for social gatherings even when her age mates were eager to be seen at such places. She dressed modestly and became a shy young lady. She was mostly at home, practicing her sewing. She was young, beautiful and attracted all manner of suitors. She settled for a young man whose future held as much promise as would be expected for his station in life. Proceeds from her trade were utilized to buy stuff in anticipation of the couples’ marriage. The only thing both families awaited was the arrival of the date fixed for the wedding. But something happened.
A rather unfortunate discovery was made or rather; a certain confession was made by Aisha to her would-be husband. Out of the blue, she told him one day that she was carrying a seven-month-old pregnancy and because she had never slept with him, he was not the father of the child. Confusion, fear, anxiety and anger overcame the young man, as he had pledged his unending love to Aisha. According to him, she was a decent girl, therefore the situation they found themselves in was pre-ordained. His main concern was how to move forward. This was a secret she kept away from everyone else including her mother.
But Would-Be Husband confided in Would-Be Mother-In-Law and the same emotions, confusion, fear, anxiety and anger came on. She couldn’t bear to carry on her shoulders the weight of the shame that Aisha’s actions would bring upon her. How would she face the neighbours if her daughter bore a child out of wedlock? The seed of resentment for own daughter uprooted the full grown tree of motherly love in an instant. The plotting started that instant – how to get Aisha away, out of town therefore out of sight. It was decided that in order to keep the matter a secret, Aisha would be moved to Kano where the services of a doctor would be retained to abort the baby.
The move to Kano was successful and the services of the doctor retained but on examination, the doctor requested for a fee of twenty thousand naira which neither the mother nor the Kano hostess (Aisha’s sister) had. They desperately sought the money from all sources and succeeded in obtaining it after what seemed like forever. But this time around, the doctor told them that it was too late to try such a stunt, as it would endanger both the life of the mother and that of the child.
Then came their Plan B. Being that there wasn’t another option but to let her have the baby, she was allowed to live under very disturbing circumstances. She was abused psychologically, physically beaten and emotionally humiliated. The anger her mother harbored, the disdain her siblings showed and the total lack of self-worth Aisha felt was unmistakable. One thing her mother told her everyday was how she would never ever forgive her. Aisha cried her way through the rest of her pregnancy.
The birth of most babies would signify the release into this world joy and hope but it was not the same for Aisha, as she sank deeper into the pit of depression. Like a monster whose heads multiplied at every attempt to behead it, the resentment Aisha’s mother had for her manifested in too many ways. Crying was Aisha’s only outlet as she had no one to talk to.
A few days after her uncelebrated birth, mother and baby were relocated to Zaria but not Aisha’s home. She was received by her uncle, who also beat her. From that day, she stopped eating, talking and only cried. All she wanted was for her mother to forgive her. Her mother promised Aisha that till the day she died, she never would.
Aisha died less than twenty days after she put to bed. She left behind an innocent little baby named Farouk, who is over five months now and as small as a one-month-old baby, probably because he is malnourished. Sadder still, Farouk passed on yesterday, a life that could have been. A beautiful, smiling baby he was, oblivious of the circumstances surrounding his birth, or the bitterness that trailed his arrival. And now, he too is gone.
Mohammed wrote in from Maitama, Abuja