Sometimes we would all wake up without food to eat and at some other times the neighbors would buy us breakfast leaving us to fend for ourselves for the rest of the day.
But when mother find a petty job, well we would fetch water leaves somewhere around the house and we would cook it and eat it with garri.
This was the kind of life we lived .
Then I remember a day mother went out as usual to do her petty jobs then my elder brother came to me and said 'let me take you on swing , of course I didn't know how to do it but I gave in, we got to where the swing was and so he put me on the swing and pushed me forward ,but instead of swinging back I fell forward and hit my jaw on a stone.
It was just as if we were living from hand to mouth in Ibadan. Ranging from malnutrition and the ill treatment from people around. I remembered vividly a bad afternoon I was walking through the passage and unknowingly stepped on a broken stool and the nail penetrated through my leg.
Mostly we boil beans and once it's done we mix garri with it right on the stove so it will fill us or satisfy our hunger.
Until one day we couldn't bear the hunger anymore so we decided to move to ondo where we stayed with an Igbo man, obviously mother friend
Life in ondo
We got to ondo in the middle of the night although it was a village so we entered Undisturbed . We arrived at a home of which was owned by an Igbo man so they welcomed us well and we were well attended to. They offered us dog meat you know but we refused even though I wanted to taste it so badly because I was hungry.
Our life in ondo wasn't a very long one and by then as little as I was I was already been harassed.
Well later on we started noticing the younger brother of the Igbo man we were staying with was sleeping with mother even though we are staying in the same room. Sometimes we would watch him make love to mother we couldn't say anything because we were really young and all we could do then was just watch and keep quiet. Life went on and we were living our lives there then there was a day I and my elder brother went to the farm to get somethings and as we were on our way back I mistakenly stepped on a trap, that was how I got a dislocation on my right ankle well I still have it now.
One fateful morning we were in church then suddenly we received a news that gramma has been looking for mother and her children and she wanted us back at her place immediately and so that was how we got to my gramma village... a very remote area called (agbogun) I really don't think it exist anymore.
Life in Agboogun.
Believe me when I say life was worst in Agboogun .
On the night we got there, gramma welcomed us with Amala and Orunla (dried grounded okro) and Tinko (dried meat)
We were given a warm welcome by gramma and mother's so to believed third son....after that night we never really enjoyed anything in the house anymore.
Now gramma who was popularly known as Iya Alakara was a popular Akara seller who was known far and near the neighborhood. After about a week of getting to her place , she started making me hawk Akara alongside her grandson.. but one funny thing about Iya Alakara is that she loved her grandson than any of us including her daughter (mother) to the extent that whenever we want to hawk , she would have prepared her grandson own and by so doing he would have sold to people in the neighborhood of which I was supposed to sell to before leaving for the next village and so I would have little or no customers to sell to.... on the day that I finish selling my Akara , I and mother and mother's bastard last child would enjoy free meal from gramma and other good things and she would be so happy with us... but on a day I didn't sell all my Akara, she would starve us for weeks and wouldn't interact with us even if I later go out in the afternoon after school to sell the remaining she wouldn't still care so far I didn't make all the sale in the morning.
Then I started growing breast and mother's bastard was noticing me without much ado we started having sex ... when everyone was outside we would lock ourselves indoor and do all kinds of naughty things, well as a little girl I never knew what it meant but we were doing it almost everyday and we were enjoying it.. at some other times when we go to the farm we would end up doing nothing than sleeping with each other (I hope God forgives us)
I was also harassed and raped by some big guys in the neighborhood when no one is around even though I was just a child... I tell u life as a child wasn't easy especially when it comes to farming, we would work on the farm for a long time and only for us to start going home and they put a heavy load on my head that sometimes I cry so much cause my neck hurts.
So that's how we continue our life at the village until we started noticing mother's stomach getting big day by day until we were told that she is pregnant well of course you should have know by now who owns that child. Our Igbo landlord brother in ondo. ...
Fast forward after nine months she was delivered of a beautiful bouncing baby boy and we named him Oluwasegun meaning "God has won the battle" but did God really win our battles back then?
Mother kept to her petty job as a palm oil maker and with that she was able to send us to a public school in the locality and pay other bills meanwhile all those times she had one big swollen on her face that keeps getting swollen everyday...Incase I didn't mention it none of gramma children is successful because they all have one problem or the other and so not one of them was successful and even the one that was doing well at his work one day we heard he was burnt from head to his toes and that was how he lost everything and so with that I tagged her a witch ...all that until one day my elder brother came to the village to pick me down to (Gbogan)! To fathers house where I was only privileged to spend little time with my aged father.
Fathers little story
I called this fathers little story because it's the little I know and can recall about him..... now father ( May his soul continue to Rest In Peace) married two wives right from time and he was a devoted Muslim who died while praying... the first wife had 5 children of which one is late while the second one had 5 children and one bastard making six children altogether.... father was a wealthy man during his days so one day the elder children of the first wife decided to marry another younger woman for father because he was old and he needed someone who would take good care of him and that was how mother's story came into existence. Now mother has three legitimate children for father and three bastards of which one was late , luckily for me I was among the legitimate ones.
All of a sudden things started turning upside down and father was losing everything he has and so mother as a young woman was panicked and she still needed to be *fucked* sometimes then she started complaining about fathers misfortune and how the family were not taking care of her so that she needed to leave father to look for someone better but of cus people pleaded with her not to go and yeah she eventually left with us of course and that was the origin of this story.... I couldn't recollect where we started the journey from but I remember it all started in Ibadan.
I left Gbogan with the second son of fathers first wife for Lagos.....until sometimes after that we lost father.
Life in Lagos.
I could recollect vividly as a beautiful looking woman asked me gently "will you go to Lagos) in Yoruba language and I said yes happily since I have never been to Lagos and neither do I understand English language,the only language I understand was the native Yoruba language so I didn't even think twice before I gave them my answer and that was how I came to Lagos with my new parents.
Staying in Lagos was not so easy for me especially when I couldn't speak any form of English, not even come or go....
I could remember myself being in the middle of two little children speaking English and I couldn't even defend myself..
Back in Lagos I was put in a public primary school and due to my brilliant performance I started with them in primary one (1) and that was how my Lagos journey started, it wasn't all rosy believe me because I was not loved the way a child should be loved...there was no parental love or care that I needed at that time of my life and so I keep to myself mostly ( I wouldn't be going into full details but I'll say some)
My new mum started acting up and she get made at me at every lil chances she gets and at that time I had no one to talk to and couple with my inability to express myself in English I started feeling inferior but thank God I was doing great in my academics... and I was loved by my teachers and some of my classmates....I remember a day I was so depressed as a result of multiple insults from my new mother that I didn't notice a vehicle coming and so I was hit and I fainted, thank God for passers by....all that and more were my experience until we moved to our new and current place, things didn't change as it went on for a long period of time...Now at our new place we sell water so people come from their places to fetch water at our house and pay and it happened that I m the one who sweeps the compound and outside our gate and by so doing I get the chance to sell water as I m sweeping. Then come a day as I finished selling for that morning and I had prepared for school my new mum called me back and accused me of stealing...I cried till I reached school because one thing I hate most is false accusations....All this and more went on till I began to over grow them......
Life as a teenager growing in the neighborhood
Growing up wasn't easy either .....from wanting to mingle with friends and all....I started getting advances from different guys of course I dated some except that we end up breaking up because I couldn't offer sex to them, but in my dear house it was as if I had slept with all the guys In my street and so I had to also deal with that in the house....no one even believed me and it's saddens me more seeing that the people I call family doesn't even believe me.....did I mention the kinds of treatment I got when my elder sister came to join us...that was when comparisons became the order of the day.....thank goodness I was doing great In school...
Life before and after my Jamb
The need to further my education made me register for Jamb examination
So I met this guy online (Facebook) and we got talking, of which we later fell in love (stupid love) and as he was my first love , I was so much blinded by his love or should I say I fall in love easily.
We had so much great talks and the love was getting deep all this was while I was in senior secondary school 3 ( sss 3) we were sharing our happy moments online and this went on without seeing each other until the day I was to write my Jamb meanwhile I had filled his supposed location as my Jamb center so that I can see him and maybe send some times together, but unfortunately I misheard him so I picked the wrong center.
The day I wanted to write my Jamb is the following day and so I had to leave the house the day before because I picked a very far location and so I need to be close by so I won't be late for my exam . I left the house that day but instead of going straight to my brothers place who I'm supposed to spend the night with , I went to my boyfriends place hoping to see him and then leave for my brothers place immediately but unfortunately for me it was late already so I couldn't spend time with him so I just saw him briefly before leaving for my brothers place of which I got to my brothers place around midnight.
Now getting to my brothers place I couldn't go home with him because he had friends over so he asked me to sleep at one of his friends place . My brothers was who also had intentions of getting doing with me tried so much to rape me but I was left alone after so many attempts and so many cuss words. All this I didn't say a word of it to my brother.
My Jamb came and go and I needed to get back home but I was stranded because my bus fare wasn't complete (first of all I wanted to see my boyfriend before I go back home and second of all I didn't want to return back to my brothers friend place because of the harassment) so I called my boyfriend to help instead of my parents so he asked me to manage the one with me so when I get to his place he would give me more and I was happy my dream came true. That was how I got to his place and I had my first sex after a long time and of course without protection (meanwhile I had to switch off my phone so that my people won't have access to me ...that was foolish of course)
Reality
Jamb result came out and I did good but without the knowledge of the sex result.... After two weeks I started feeling sick ( thank God for health education and Always pad , I knew I was pregnant ) and viola mum started noticing me and she started giving attitude, meanwhile I was already texting my boyfriend about it and he is already changing attitude too .... sometimes he wouldn't reply or pick his calls, sooner than later I realized I was on my own. At first it was hard for dad to take cause he at one time trusted me . Believe me I lost his trust since that day..Now I'm pregnant and all I needed was the support of my family of course I have disappointed them a lot couple with the fact that my boyfriend denied getting me pregnant. My family were against me and I was just alone all my myself I couldn't go out or do anything because I was ashamed of myself.. sometimes I would cry my heart out , at another time, I would drink harmful substances just to kill myself or get rid of the pregnancy.. so one day I couldn't bear the shame and hate anymore I came back to Gbogan my fathers (late now) house. Already my mom was back there too....so my plan was to do something about the pregnancy then go back to Lagos to further my education/career.
Life back in Gbogan.
I got all my depressions back here .. I would lock myself up and cry for days without food I tried to poison myself because life there was a terrible one and I had never imagined myself back to that place but I was there. My mom would knock and knock until she gets tired so she would drop money for me and leave to where she is wants to go but trust me I didn't lack anything to eat cus I was being taken care of and they kept giving me hope...and at a point I started developing passion for the baby that I had even given it a name ....my family back in Lagos never for once called to check up on me either I was dead or still alive and I hated my them for this ...All this while I was still contacting my boyfriend but he refuses to show up still. And I was living miserably until after five or six months that I received a phone call from my brother , he wanted me to come to oshogbo to get some clothes he no longer sell but on getting there he had another plan for me..
Abortion experience.
I got to oshogbo in the evening of the day he called me and on getting there I met his friend who was questioning my smartness " as beautiful as you are someone got you pregnant" meaning he was hoping I should have been smarter than that.
He then told me to wait till the following day so I can see a nurse and see if there's anything I can do about the pregnancy...the following day came and I met a nurse and she told me I'll have to undergo a D&C because the pregnancy is more than two months now which unknowingly it was close to six months already.. I under go the D&C through the help of my brother friends girlfriend (she explained in details for me because it wasn't actually easy for me and I was sent out of the hospital initially because I couldn't control my tears and my noise) so I had the abortion unsuccessfully ( we all thought it was successful so I got home and I kept drinking hot water as instructed by the doctor and I was feeling little pains which of course the doctor said it was normal...it became unbearable the next day that I couldn't do anything, I couldn't walk properly, I was bent i still kept on drinking hot water until it was dark and I couldn't get out of bed...it was as if I was dead (literally I was almost dead) then my brother remembered an holy oil he collected in church and so he gave me ... few minuets later I had contractions. Before I could gather myself I gave birth to a baby ( a whole baby ) it was so little and I cried so much.. the following day the nurse came and said to me "sister the God still have a use of u , people don't normally survive this" ....the following day my boyfriend now ex called me asking of the pregnancy I couldn't answer I just wept.
Life after abortion and trauma.
After I got back to Gbogan,and after so many pleading I was accepted back by my new parents and there i had admission into Obafemi Awolowo University that same year.
Dad always says I'm lucky.
After all this life hasn't been easy but hopefully it will all make sense sooner.
My ambitions.
My ambitions are first of all to be a writer and to be a journalist....
Check out for My life in the university and how it's going In the next part of THE LIFE OF AN ANONYMOUS.