Mama feared the river for what it took; I loved it for what it carried away.
The river knows my name. It has whispered it since I was a child, its voice curling through the reeds, dancing over the rocks, and sinking into the depths where secrets sleep. The current…
My name is an African daughter
They took my childhood from me
I became the daughter of Achilles
I’ve been worried
I’ve been hungry
I’ve suffered
I was a kid.
I grew up early,
Like all the unfortunate women of this land
Life is too hard –
Life is cruel, unfortunately cruel
Life is unfair to women of this land
Life…
I was 12 when my world crumbled. It happened suddenly, without warning, like a storm that had been gathering silently in the distance. My father married a second wife, and my mother, his partner of so many years, found out about it the same way I did—when my father…
Here is the thing about the weight of the world…
Sometimes it might feel like the darkness is swallowing you whole.
And you are tangled in a blanket of despair,
Wondering if anyone else feels the same way.
And if there even a sliver of hope left?
Maybe your mind is a constant battlefield…
I am a female, bold and bright all day long
I sweat and still go on
I pull up and show up in my hood
The compliments from my peers sometimes overwhelm
Reality strikes and weighs on my shoulders
It is the pressure that comes with a compliment
I go to my hood with pride
I…
Mama, you traitor!
Mama promised me a quiet holiday,
While he promised me a quiet night,
Just us and the stars.
Two days, he said,
Two days I’d promised him,
Two days at Mama’s village.
A land where whispers linger in the fog,
Where news travels faster than curious neighbors peering over the fence,
And where the thatched…
My name is Prisca, a young, dark African girl. I grew up in the southeastern part of Nigeria, West Africa. This is the story of how I moved from a fearful little girl trying to survive the societal impacts of her community to a confident young lady who is…
In tender years, life’s storms began to rage,
A matriarch’s loss, a heart’s turning page.
Four and a half, with my sister by my side,
Left in aunt’s care, our father went abroad to reside.
South Africa’s call, a new life to unfold,
Education’s promise, young dreams to mold.
But stepmother’s shade cast darkness on…
