I wrote this one evening almost 2 years ago…
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 11:56pm
My name is WOMAN,
Mother, Sister, Feeder, Bearer
Call me any name
But without Me there is no You.
Silently , raped when they fight for power,
Mutilated in the name of ancient customs
Sold as slave by my parents for few days of food supply!
Victim of anger, victim of hunger!
My name is Maria
Lliving in luxury,
Emotionally abused
By the man I chose to spend my life with « for better and the worst »,
Downgraded, Beaten, Abused ,
but still fronting like a lady with my jewelries and my high class car,
Mirage of life filled with pain…
Where do you go when you depend on your torturers?
My name is Furaha,
Chased by rebels,
Beaten by soldiers,
Raped by all of them;
I am a widow, a mother mourning my children,
An orphan : they killed my family and annihilated my humanity!
Where can you flee when your so called protectors use your body to ease their stress?
My name is Bintou,
I lost a piece of my feminity,
Cut for the sake of outdated traditions,
Almost died from an infection,
Never understood why some women say it’s so good to make love!
Where can I hide when my torturer is my grandmother?
My name is Natalya,
I ran away from the loss of equality
and the harshness of capitalism,
with the man I thought was my savior,
my lover, my husband to be;
And now here I am
A modern slave trading sex for money,
my body as a cash machine in the streets of Paris
Threatened to death day & night by my so called lover!
He took away my dignity and my identity!
My name is Daughter, Sister, Mother, Wife,
But my tears are not shed and my flesh is so sore.
You can call me slave, bitch, whore, thing
but without me there is no You!
My name is Woman
I don’t want you to forget that
Sometimes, somewhere ,
Maybe next door my life is a Tragedy!
To my sisters around the world:
Beaten, tortured, threatened, raped, chained to prostitution or slavery,
don’t give up because your voices are heard!
To my brothers love your Woman,
Mother, Daughter, Sister
Because without Her there is no You!
From me, to all the assaulted women of the world.
©Nabou Fall 2008