One Girl Carri Water 1 & 2 #Featured

Chapter 1

The whole village was buzzing with the news saying the wedding would bring money and development to the community. Amina was angry; no one seemed to care how wrong it was that her life, dream and aspirations were being traded for money and favours.

Isah her only brother wasn't any help either. He wouldn't let her be a stumbling block on his path to becoming the President's brother in-law and a member of the Federal Executive Council.
Amina learnt he even swore he'd go to any length to see it come through.

Her mother too was very happy to become the President's mother in-law. She walked around the village announcing how the President couldn't resist her beautiful Amina much like a peacock displays its wonderful array of feathers. It seemed her father Alhaji Saidu was her only ally. Amina knew him well and she had seen the look on his face as he read the letter from the President General informing her family of his plans to marry their daughter. He did not want to give up his little Amina who he prayed would succeed in her studies and make something of herself. But when she approached him with the idea of running away he rebuked her like any responsible parent would for he knew the price of denying the President General anything was life itself.

"Are you still here? Do you intend to disgrace me? Tell me if I am no longer your father or do you not realise how much splendour your marriage to the President would bring to this family and the community at large" he had said the words with thick drops of displeasure in his voice.

At that point Amina could no longer bear it, drowning in thoughts; in her mind's eye, her dreams flashed before her. She saw herself kissing them goodbye. All she wanted to do was to become a doctor. Sometimes she helped out when the kids at the neighbour's had flu and she even volunteered on weekends at the Primary Healthcare Unit some distance away from her Grandma Dije's house.

Oh Allah! Help me and if not, let me die now in peace, please take me away forever she cried. Her knees could no longer carry her, she felt the weight of the entire community hanging on her delicate collar bones. Amina wished she hadn't gone to the market that God-forsaken day the President came to Gusau, and maybe he wouldn't have seen her. If only she had remained in Zaria where she lived with Uncle Saleh and hadn't have come home for the long vacation. But wishing was useless because the President General's men were coming for her.

"I am only 15" Amina said to herself as she managed to drag her feeble framed body to take a look at herself in the standing mirror in her mother's room.

"Why is this happening to me?"

More tears gushed down her cheeks as she tried to imagine what she'd look like when she got pregnant. It was inevitable, news had it that all of the President's wives turned pregnant within a month or two of the marriage. His Harem was full of women from all the different regions of Africa.

Every year he held a search much like a competition where every family offered up their daughters for him and his equally pot-bellied Ministers to pick from. They called it the Bride Choosing and Amina had only entered once at the age of 12 because it was mandatory for every girl to enter once after reaching puberty. She had believed strongly that no one in his right state of mind would pick a girl of her age for a wife but the President had chosen another girl who looked even younger than her. He had not even speared Amina a second glance then and she thought she was free from him. But then he saw her once again after three years, this time on her way back from the market in the capital and things changed. He would have her even if it meant breaking his own laws.
Amina prayed that someone would just walk in and rescue her. She thought of all the brave women she had learnt about in political history at school which apart from biology was her favourite subject. She thought of Hajiya Aminat Titi Atiku - wife of a former Vice President of Nigeria and Founder of WOTCLEF - Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation. But what on earth would bring a woman like Hajiya to Rigasa, as remote as it is? Amina thought to herself almost immediately. It was women like her who were at the forefront of the war whose end led to the creation of the United States of Africa.

The war had started because the rate of child marriages and pregnancy related deaths had escalated to an inhumane level in some African countries. There had been a disturbing rise in the occurrence of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF), a condition where because of a child's pelvis being too narrow to give birth, the tissue necrotize leaving a hole through which urine could involuntarily pass through the vagina. Amina remembered every detail because she had paid extra attention when she was taught about VVF at the PHU.

In order to put an end to the child marriages, the African Union had suggested that child marriages be made illegal in all African states and that it would be a crime punishable by death but not everyone agreed. Soon war broke and after many years of fighting, the opposition won the war and created the Bride Choosing as a way to remind Africa that they would always be the winners. The President was a descendant of the original opposers from the Northern Africa who set up his capital in Nigeria because of the oil, the ever increasing work force and not to mention the large economy of the country.
Amina once heard the doctors at the PHU speaking in hush tones about Women Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), but nothing much about how to contact the agency, not even its replica now initiated in Zambia where her friend Salma's aunt worked as a doctor for the UN.

The woman now called Dr. Mwanza who was always talking about how unfair the Bride Choosing was had married a Zambian man and moved to Lusaka a few years back. Amina concluded within herself, that although people had long forgotten because of fear, this marriage was child labour. Whether correct or not, she didn't have the means of reaching out to any of those agencies nor their founders and neither could she even get a message across to Dr. Hilda at the PHU. She had been locked in since the day words came to her father as regards the President General's intention because she had disputed doggedly and spoke of running away. If Amina could by any chance, she would run to Zambia where Salma's aunt mingled with great women every day. She had read in a letter written to Salma, who also volunteered at the PHU, had brought there from her aunt of how the lady doctor was now the spokesperson at the United African Women Rights Advancement Campaign in Ndola. But no magic could bring her or Hajiya all the way from Zambia.

It wasn't one of her brightest ideas but Amina had found a way out of the compound and just before leaving she had written her father a note. She had waited and until everyone was asleep before sneaking out into the night, her heart had never beaten so fast. Amina feared that Isah might have heard her and was following her as she run down the gravel roads of her village. Her destination was the PHU and although it was a long walk but if Amina moved fast enough she would get their before sunrise. Hoping beyond hope that Dr. Hilda would help her find a way to get to Zambia, Amina ran even faster despite her legs aching for her to slow down. The President's men would be in the village by morning and if her plan didn't work Amina would either be dead or married by the time tomorrow's sun went down.

"She's gone, Baba!" screamed Isah waking both his parents.

Alhaji didn't quite understand what madness had taken over his son and was about to give him a shouting about being disrespectful when Isah handed him a note. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and read what was written on the piece of paper. His hands trembled as he read the last sentence as if almost hearing the written words in Amina's voice saying "Sorry Baba!!"

"Where could she have run to?" he asked.

"The clinic" offered Isah.

He might have been prideful and self-centred but no one could accuse Amina's closest childhood pal and brother of not knowing her all too well.

"How could she bring such shame upon us" wailed Alhaji's wife "All the village will say I can't control my own daughter"

"Woman is that all you worry about? If the President's men don't find Amina when they come we'll all be arrested not to mention that when Amina is found she might be executed"

Alhaji turned his attention to Isah "Go and find your sister right away. Don't tell anyone what has happened."

Isah was out of the compound before his father was done speaking. He would find that selfish little brat of a sister if it was the last thing he did. She wouldn't come back without a fight even if he found her so he called on two of his friends that he trusted with his own life to help carry her back.