A miserable childhood

On a bright and serene Sunday morning,Ajah was given birth to. All the villagers of Liru gathered round her mother's grass thatched hut as soon as they heard the screams of her delivery. As a habit, mama Ajah had delivered fearlessly on her own without the help of a midwife. Some of the elderly women came scolding her for taking such a risk and not bothering to call for help during her painful delivery. The villagers in the compound sang their songs of joy as some helped clean up mama Ajah and the baby Ajah. As Ajah grew up to eight months, merchants and men wealthy in cattle started showing up with gifts and groceries as they visited Ajah and her mother. Baba Ajah couldn't be happier as he knew his little daughter was a promising source of wealth from the visiting wealthy men. Many of them,as in their culture, approached baba Ajah with proposals of booking the little girl, paying the dowry early firsthand and aspiring to ultimately make her a wife as soon as she clicked thirteen. Baba Ajah who is known as Elder Mayom, didn't hesitate to take the gifts and dowry exchange as this was the way he married his wife who is now mama Ajah. Men the age of Elder Mayom got into massive dowry competition, spending alot to prove their worthiness of the beauty- promising tender-skinned Ajah. Ajah at the age of seven started asking her mother why men always visited them with lots of gifts,yet they were not relatives nor very close friends to her father. For few months mama Ajah hid the reason from Ajah and finally disclosed the truth to her on her ninth birthday; not out of awareness but rather so as to sparkle a mindset of maturity in Ajah. Despite being a little girl who barely knew what marriage is or what is means to be someone's wife, Ajah was caution and grounded to stay away from playing or hanging out with boys on the grounds that " you are someone's wife". The pressure from home became a burden to Ajah who had to pull away from social gatherings and play grounds just to avoid mingling with boys as her parents warned. She never truly understood the reason why,but chose to respect her parents. Again and again the same words were echoed in her ears as she grew up. She became very unsocial and traumatized by the pressuring expectations of her dowry-loving parents. Her grades and health dropped as she felt deprived of her childhood, which indeed she was. As she turned thirteen,in her primary five class,she was forced to drop out by her father and kinsmen to fulfill the expectations of the man that booked her right from her birth. A man she had never communicated with,a man plus the age of her father. Poor girl had no one supporting her on her desire for education _ all including her mom,were determined to have her go start living with her pre-age husband. Having no choices,she dropped out and left to start her life as a woman. She conceived a year later and had terrible complications during delivery. There were no medical personnels save for the traditional midwives who weren't able to help her have a safe delivery. Ajah lost her baby upon birth and had additional complications of fistula. Nonetheless,it didn't seem to bother anyone much,she still continued in her marriage and conceived two years later. This time round,not only did her baby die but so did she. And that marked the end of Ajah's miserable marriage life. Ajah's life example has however served as a loud lesson to the people of Liru village. Since then,no girl has been forced into marriage until they were at least sixteen years old. Ajah's life story serves as one of growth and warning on early marriages.