My oh my!
It’s not easy to be a woman in Africa.
My oh my!
It’s so tough to be a woman in Africa.
Lebo was a country girl who never had an education.
For her father had more children than he could send to
school.
So he sent the boys and left the girls.
And Lebo was forced into marriage at the tender age of
fourteen.
Though she bore two pretty girls, yet it hurt her so bad:
For she cried every time she thought of the life that
awaited them.
As she was sure it would be as bad as hers.
And her husband’s demands for a boy-child made her sorrow worse.
Her life took another turn for the worse one day,
For her husband got arrested for what they said was theft
at work.
He was sent to prison for 2 years with hard labour.
And so Lebo’s fate was sealed.
She and the children were left with nothing to live on.
Hunger and rent haunted them like preying hyenas by their door.
Then she started to sell her household items one after another,
Till she was left with nothing left to sell at all.
For she no longer had a bed to sleep on.
She no longer had a chair to sit on.
She no longer had even a pot to cook in.
Yet she still needed money for food, rent, you name it.
She got a job but left it after just one month,
For the pay of a general hand would not cover her
expenses.
Moreover she could not afford to pay for a child-minder,
She could also not afford to pay the taxi fare.
She started to pray to God for a knight in shining armour;
For a man who would love and care for her and the
children.
But men did come, only that they disappeared soon after,
Living her more broken-hearted and in more despair.
She then got attracted to walking the streets at night,
For the first time in her life money started flowing in
like a river.
And like a well-watered plant her beauty blossomed
tremendously.
But one night her luck ran out as the police arrested
her.
They said it was illegal for a woman to charge money for
sex.
They charged her with the crime of loitering at night for
purposes of prostitution.
And as they took her down to the cells, Lebo cried and
pleaded;
My oh my!
Who will look after my children?
For I have two little girls whose father is in prison.
My lord, please don’t lock me up for they will die
without me.
In the morning Lebo was brought before a judge.
The judge condemned her actions as immoral.
He sent her to prison for six months with hard labour.
And as they led her from the court to prison, Lebo cried
and pleaded;
My, oh my!
Who will look after my children?
For I have two little girls whose father is in prison.
My Lord, please don’t lock me up for they will die
without me.
In prison Lebo met women like her.
Each one had her own story to tell;
Stories of shattered childhoods and of betrayals,
Stories of girl-children who all ended up as fallen
angels.
She listened to each one’s story with a painful heart,
And with each story she would think of her two little girls,
And each time she would feel her heart-beat stop.
Till one night she suddenly she fell ill.
The ambulance came to take her to the hospital.
But she died as it was on its way to the hospital.
The doctor said she died of a heart-related condition,
But everyone knew she died of a stress-related condition.
Every woman prisoner cried that night.
And the prison cells reverberated with their singing and
stomping;
For Lebo had become a symbol of their suffering and
struggle.
And they sang her song as a symbol of their struggle and
liberation;
My oh my!
Who will look after my children?
For I have two little girls whose father is in prison.
My Lord, please don’t lock me up for they will die
without me.
At Lebo’s burial they all gathered to bid her farewell.
They sang and danced to her song of their struggle and
liberation.
But as her coffin was lowered into the grave the wind
began to wail.
And everyone thought they heard her wailing voice in the
wailing wind.
“You,
who shall emerge alive from the dungeon of injustice in which I have perished, please
remember me by fighting the injustices which have brought me down, so that my
children may find pride in my memory and not shame. Remember also women in
other countries who are oppressed through culture or religion. Unite with them, for the
bond of womanhood transcends everything”.
(This is a
musical in the making. To be continued ...)
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