The price of being a nigerian girl child

missed childhood

“Chi, why are you still sleeping by this time? It is already 5 a.m, have you forgotten that you have to prepare for school? The plates are not going to wash themselves”

Mama Chi’s voice could be heard clearly through the single wall separating our one room apartment from each other. I no longer have to set an alarm to wake up because I am rest assured Mama Chi will wake me up latest by 5 a.m with all of her screeching.

I sit up in bed and say my prayers trying to tune them out but I couldn’t tune out the piercing cry that follows the sound of palm hitting flesh; apparently, Chi didn’t get up fast enough. The consistency of this morning routine cannot be trumped by even a well functional clock. Mama Chi always wakes Chi; her 8 years old daughter by 5 a.m, while her 3 eldest sons; Nnamdi, Chike and Peter remain sleeping until 7 a.m when they wake up to get dressed for school. Chi always fails to wake up as soon as she is woken and that always earns her a slap that makes me want to check my own body for marks as a proxy. It is always followed by a piercing cry that I’m sure is a wake-up call for the neighbors within a 20 mile radius. The cry is usually followed by mama chi’s ranting.

“I have been telling you Chi that this laziness will cost you your marriage someday, don’t you know that men don’t like lazy women? They don’t want a woman who will become a liability to them. You better put yourself together if not you will end up being 20 and not married and if that happens you won’t stay in this house and become a disgrace to me o, do you hear me Chi?”

Apparently, she chose to go with the marriage angle today; what does an 8 year old know about marriage or what should an 8year old be concerned with marriage for? She is just a child for Christ’s sake. Other days, Mama Chi tells Chi that as a girl child it is her responsibility to wake up, wash the plates_ I wonder, how clean a plate washed by a 8 year old would be_ go and sweep her shop _which is about a 10 minutes walk for myself, I wonder how long it will take a little girl to get there, in fact should a kid be allowed to go out that early all alone? _ before she has to come back and wake her elder brothers up to get ready for school.

Every morning after witnessing this my day just loses all appeal to me. I failed to mention that Chi is the one who also prepares and puts together their breakfast while her brothers take their sweet time waking up and Mama Chi? I have absolutely no idea what she does while Chi does every morning chore. On more than one occasion, she has said she is trying to bring Chi up to know her place in the society and I wonder, what is the place of the Nigerian girl child in the society? Mama Chi goes as far as to use her own upbringing as a reference point for Chi; she tells Chi, that she (Chi) is lucky; she only has to fetch water from the well outside. She says when she (Mama Chi) was growing up; she had to go to a stream almost an hour away from her home to fetch water.

Of course, Chi who is only in primary 2 because she keeps repeating is always late to school, always scrubby and always hiding and timid. The few times she talks it’s always violent and it is not just talks; she absolutely can back up her words with actions_ drawing water from a well consistently for a year will do that to you. Of course Chi is the problem child, the already black sheep of the family who almost always comes last in the class while her brothers come first. Of course, she is the one who receives the most beating and takes the blame for anything that goes wrong, including her elder brothers wearing dirty uniforms to school or going late occasionally.

This was about 6 years ago, before I finally moved from that apartment_ thank God. However, Chi is very much alive in my mind, I still wake-up by 5 a.m without an alarm clock, I still hear her cries in my mind, I still see the look of resignation in her eyes whenever I close my eyes, I still see her sad and tired 8 year old face whenever I look in the mirror.

Chi is almost every Nigerian girl child, residing in at least a little corner in all of us. I think of Chi and I wonder; is it a crime to be born a Nigerian girl child? If it is, then is the price the Nigerian girl child pays not too steep?

Chi should be 14 now and I wonder what she is like now?