The first time I had sex I was 20. With 5 years’ experience in masturbation. I got an STI. She manipulated me into sleeping with her. With mandazi. Yes, mandazi. I was a nervous wreck in that bed. Called me a coward for not ejaculating inside her. It hurt. But I was used to insults […]
“What kind of lover would you want?” “A human Rumi.” “Human Rumi?” “Human Rumi. A lover who’d strike me into pieces with their words. Kiss me till my mouth runs dry. Scathe my back with her nails and call on my ancestors to help her take the life out of me. I want to disappear […]
Daddy, do you know how it hurts? Does sitting in a bar breaking bottles into your gut make you feel better than coming home to us? Is the banter sweeter than kissing mum? Is her mouth that bitter? Daddy, I want to learn your pain Every time I look into your eyes I see a […]
The demons stared back. Coiling in my bed at 2 am with a sleepless body in the dead of the night. A heavy bag of daunting thoughts. Mum and dad endlessly argued in their bedroom. My heart pounding hard. A woman had called mama, threating to throw her out of our home with us, her […]
I don’t blame women who are indifferent to the pain of men. It’s counterproductive arguing, “why don’t feminists speak when it’s men?””why do you keep quiet when it’s a man?” We have to look at the picture outside the frame.We have to investigate the impetus of this dissociation to balance our perspectives. It’s a trauma response. Women all around […]
I do digital storytelling and new media social justice campaigns. In 2018, Femnet Secretariat commissioned me to preside over a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) online advocacy assignment in 6 African countries tagged #SRHRDialogues. Zambia Mozambique Rwanda Tanzania Liberia Guinea Conakry The findings shocked me. You see as an everyday single African young […]
It is impossible for a man to claim he loves a woman if he does not actively create safe space for both her individual and structural growth. A woman shouldn’t only feel safe out of her relations to a man. A woman should feel safe because she’s a human being. And it’s in the small […]
Once I adored a gorgeous damsel. And she loved me. We got pregnant on the six month of the year but were not ready to parent. It was my first time (that I know of) to fertilize a womb. Hers was a heart brimming with glee and glam. And me, the Luo boy she charmed. […]
Let me count you the ways I love myself: When I was 6, I lost my five month old sister, Jael. Jael Apondi. She died while feeding, food went through her wind pipe. I helplessly watched her life fade away as she choked in the struggle. The lady tried everything to get the food out. […]
We sat put in the restaurant booth dreamingly gaping into each other’s eyes. It may have been just another date in the books, but this had a different air to it. “I am not wife material.” She muttered. Let’s talk about that. “I meet men who say they want this or that kind of a […]
