what change shouldn't become ...

I had been asleep for a fraction of fifteen minutes when I heard a bang. My blood curled as I clutched hard at my 15-month old baby. I said a silent prayer hoping it was a distance away but then I heard footsteps and a deafening silence ensued. After what seemed like eternity, which could actually have been seven seconds, I heard what sounded like the cover of my pot move and the mumblings started. I made my way to the door, still clutching at my baby, peeped through a crack and saw them. Oh my! I ran back towards the wardrobe, placed my sleeping baby in it and locked her in, praying every second that she doesn't cry. Then I waited....



After eating what was left of the stew and bread in the house, they walked into the very first room and brought out my husband and three sons, I clasped my right palm over my mouth as I saw them land blows on my husband. They kept asking for more food as he tried to tell them that they had eaten all we had left. I now counted the men to be five. "Where is your wife? Where is your wife?" they asked but my husband wouldn't say. I recoiled but had nowhere to hide in the largely unfurnished room. It had barely been a few seconds when the youngest man walked into the room and grabbed me. As I knelt beside my sons Ak 14, Baron 12 and Meshack 9, I saw the terror in their eyes, they had been crying long before they had been brought out. I started to plead for mercy. I glanced at my husband who hadn't as much as said a word, I read his thoughts....



How did we plunge this far into the pits of hell? Our nation, Once the envy of many, how did we give birth to such poverty and wickedness? The fight had started so good, we all wanted the revolution. A few politicians had gathered and decided to impoverish our people. After many years of watching the rich get richer, the rebels stood up. We cheered their courage and urged them on. Slowly, the revolution had turned into a full-fledged war. The rebels had killed, and killed, so much that they didn't know how to stop. People say they have become animals, deciding to kill their kind just to force the Government's hand. We left our home in the City to our Village, people are hiding in bushes, there is chaos everywhere. If we are killed tonight, nobody would know until they begin to smell our rotten bodies. The media houses lie in ruins, The international media has been blocked out. Our politicians insist that things are under control. Like many others, we hear that our house in the city has been taken over by hoodlums. When the fight started, we supported the ousting of this Government. Now the rebels cannot remember why the fight started, they keep chanting "There will be no peace". Has this war taken a toll on their mental health? A baby cries out....



I am brought back to reality.



We pretend not to hear the cry. They make for the room, I attempt to block the entrance screaming "Please leave my baby!!!". I am thrown hard across the room and as I make to stand up, paying no attention to the excruciating pain in my right shoulder, my baby is brought out. She is wailing and shouting "No! No! No!" one of the few words she knows. My husband grabs at her and a bullet goes through his head.



There is blood everywhere, my boys are covered in their father's blood, shock in their eyes and yet crying quietly in fear. I hear my voice in my ears differently, screaming and throwing myself to the ground to the amusement of the rebels. They pull a gun to my daughter "shut up or we shoot" and like the beginning of an opera, there is dead silence. "We are fighting for you people, our families are getting killed because we are fighting for you people. Do you appreciate it? No! You people have turned on us after we have lost everything, we neither have homes nor families anymore. The military has taken over our camps, razed our homes, killed our people... His voice trails away as yet another wail rises within me.



Ak is being led into a room by one of the rebels as I struggle to find my voice. "Where are you taking him? Where are you taking him?" A gun is pointed to his head and the man says, "He is a big boy, leave him alone". I start to beg, tears streaming down my face as the door is shut. One man says to me "Madam arrange food" and I tell him that I have soup but do not have garri - Just then, I hear a loud scream from the room AK had been forced into. My heart stops. I hear the sound of slaps and Ak crying out calling "Mummy help!!!". I make for the door and a kitchen knife is held to Baron's neck. There is a familiar grunting from the soldier as my son cries out in pain. "Madam I say arrange food make we chop go" I reply in a whisper with a bit of relief at his mention of the word "go". "No garri, only soup". He bellows at me in disgust, pulls out my mortar and pestle, hands me the pestle, throws my baby into the mortar, and with a gun to my head says in the calmest of voices



"Pound or Die"



"War is never the answer, Nobody gains from it, let us not tire of dialogue, Our knowledge is our weapon. Get Education today.