Words for the Stolen

A collection of words in solidarity with victims of Boko Haram.

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#BringBackOurGirls #OneYearLater

t-shirt designed by Nigerian streetwear brand #SkinyBlink

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Transplant List for a New Hope

The well we fetch tar from to heal ourselves is drying. We clean house for visitors from our future- we said we’d do better to darn, dress our wounds and rise within; we’d seek to line chaos into reasons, rhyme frisky circumstance in these crude surgeries where we attempt to transplant understanding into each other, with those analgesias that can numb the tiredness of this flight; we’d skirt lapping tongues of places the road is hungry, hoarse from placating relentless marches, in fledglings, of sly decrepitude. But I’ll mend you with hope yet.

This is an excerpt of a poem written by Tolu Oloruntoba ‘After the Garissa Attack’. Read the full piece here.

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I have nothing to write

But I have tears.

I don’t know how the passage of time feels to a mother whose child is suffering a fate worse than death.

In two weeks it will have been one whole year since the girls were stolen from Chibok.

Today Nigeria announced the booting out of a President who danced in the sun mere kilometres away from the place where 59 school boys were slaughtered.

460,000 of the people whose lives have been ripped apart by Boko Haram in Borno state sealed his fate.

There is joy.

But in two weeks it will have been one whole year since the girls were stolen from Chibok.

How can crying and writing ever be enough?

- theloulette

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It’s been eleven months since I heard her say ‘mama’

What do you do

on Mothering Sunday

when you do not know what tense

to use in speaking of

the child of your body?

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Day 328 since Chibok Girls were stolen.

#BringBackOurGirls

Is anyone even looking anymore?

What is this thing that we are asking for?

Awa

Maryam

Rhoda

Rikatu

Esther

Saraya

Magret

Maimuna

You started that trek [eleven] months ago

by now your feet are surely

too tired

to trace the path

back to safety

and what is that?

How do you catch a word like that

and tuck it into your mouth

when [three hundred and twenty-eight] repeats

of a night horrible past comprehending

separate you from it?

Maryamu

Hauwa

Amina

Glory

Moda

Dorcas

Baraya

Comfort

What is it that we are asking for, 'bring back our girls',

as if they were stolen from their beds

to be carried preciously

by rapers and stealers

religious killers

who want that we but ask politely;

"please, would you kindly

bring back our girls?"

We thought it was a fight we were starting,

We thought everyone knew you were deserving

of your own lives

We thought our voices would sound

a war cry:

It was not meant to be a plea

Nor a desperate broken whisper,

fading like the memory of

the sound of your laughter.

Fibi

Patient

Rose

Yagana

Naomi

Rahila

Lugina

Filo

Tabitha

Our girls' beds are cold and wet

with the tears of mothers whose arms ache

with the memory of holding them safe.

Please, if only for their sake

bring our babies home.

We miss them.

We are afraid for them.

You mustn’t let murderers keep them.

Please let us fix them.

Hajara

Lugwa

Kauna

Lydia

Hannatu

Bolomi

Falmata

Mairama

[Eleven] months is a long time -

if you were a bride borne gently into the night

your womb [would] be empty again

and the child you bore would be

your heart living far enough outside your body

that someone could take her away

just far enough

to keep you and your hope

faintly alive.

We hope they are alive.

We hope they hear us calling out their names,

if only faintly,

We hope their hearts are not as broken

as their bodies must be,

we hope they remember that

there is love waiting for them here,

We hope

that someone will #BringBackOurGirls.

Fatima

Nguba

Ruth

Rebecca

Rejoice

Grace

Hadiza

Noami

You were once children whose dreams set your eyes alight;

are there any stars left in them?

We are keeping a light on for when you are brought home.

This poem has been edited to reflect the 61 days that have passed since it was first published. Listen to the original poem here.

Written by theloulette

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Adopt-A-Camp

This organisation, led by #BringBackOurGirls Campaign Strategy Committee Member Bukky Shonibare, was created to complement the government's (inadequate) provision for the over one million Internally Displaced People in the North East of Nigeria.

You can join the relief effort by donating here.

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Two/

Hundred/

Eighty/

Nine.

Two hundred and eighty-nine days of darkness,

and the Esan children 

halfway across the land

who trace their years along 

the spreading borders

of bloodshed

and oil spills,

whose tumbling ears have heard 

about their sisters,

these children are tired

of the wait.

They know the moon disappeared 

two hundred and eighty nine nights ago;

they know their sisters sit

in darkness heavier than death.

Their eyes are turned to the sky;

glistening with tears and effort,

bodies stretched thin with dying hope.

They wait.

We wait.

Let the Esan children cry,

‘Omiokhun henlen!’

Let their patriarchs draw patterns of rebirth

in black sand

To guide their sisters’ weary feet home.

Let their voices rise in relief,

“The child of the sky has emerged!”

Let their fathers’ prayers for peace be answered.

The sky has been at its darkest

too long

too long.

We beckon the light.

“Omiokhun henlen!”

Bring back our girls.

This post was inspired by Victor Ehikhamenor's Instagram

Written by theloulette

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#PrayForNigeria

images by anibrendan (Instagram)

[thregvgdtv]

1. We were all at home when my brother, at age 7, drowned to the point of unconsciousness. I was 13. After he got dragged out of the pool, the first thing I noticed was that his belly - now distended - looked like it could be the sun. It glistened brighter than everything. 2. It was a...

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Dear Mr. President,

I know you are well because there are smiling pictures of you everywhere, on bags of rice and posters on the walls. If you had brought your posters just two weeks ago we could have put them on our own walls at home, but now it is too late. Many men came and shot at everything for many days, and when our roof fell down because too much sun was coming in from the bullet holes, we knew we had to run. I did not know it was possible to miss a simple thing like ordinary walls, but now I know. The people here are all missing something, and so few people smile. It is nice to be reminded by your face that people can still smile.

I haven't been at school in a while, so my counting isn't very good. But I can still remember how to count to twelve - in Hausa and in English, but not in French because we never had a French teacher. I know you can count to twelve, at least in French. That is why you know how many people  were lost in the Charlie Hebdo attack. Can you count to two thousand? I can't, not even in Hausa. I know because I tried. There were many, many bodies as we ran, but I counted so many twelves that I forgot how many I saw. And when my baba let go of my hand because he was so afraid, I couldn't remember to count anymore. 

I don't know where my baba is. I know you are travelling all over Nigeria. Anywhere you travel, can you please help me look for him? His name is Sarkin. I know you don't want to come to Borno because you are afraid, but if you find him, can you please bring him to me? I have been afraid too, many times. I know how it feels. If you want I can hold your hand. I will not be afraid anymore if you bring my baba, and I know if you see how happy we are to be together again you will not be afraid either.

I know you are a very busy man. Taking care of all the Nigerians must be a very hard job. But I know that because your job is to take care of all of us, you will take care of me too. I am a Nigerian, and they told me that you promised to make my life better. My baba told me promises are never to be broken, so I trust you. I know we are many in Nigeria, so I will wait for my turn. When you come to Borno, I will show you my house. When my baba has a new job and we put our roof back and build new walls, I will put your smiling face there. I like your smile. When I go back home and we are all safe, I will smile too. Then you, me, baba, and all of us will smile together.

God bless Nigeria. God bless you.

With love,

Gari.

Image source

The details in this piece are from this story.

Written by theloulette

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Bring Back Our Girls || Theresa Lola

"I hope you know that you are a lighthouse and that this wave will not swallow you. I hope you know that you are a lighthouse and that this wave will not swallow you.” — creativeshot

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I hope you know that you are a lighthouse and that this wave will not swallow you. I hope you know that you are a lighthouse and that this wave will not swallow you.

Theresa Lola (via theijeoma)

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Boko Haram's 'deadliest massacre': over 2000 children, women, elderly- all dead in Nigeria

In two days, it would be 273 days since 273 young secondary school girls were taken from the safety of their boarding school and families. It would also be one week since over 2000 children, women, men and elderly people were massacred in a town called Baga, in the north-eastern part of Nigeria (400km from Chibok where the girls were kidnapped in April); and two days since a 10 year old girl who was strapped with a bomb, blew up in a busy market, killing 20 people and leaving many others injured. International reports have it that hundreds of bodies – too many to count – remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from the extremist attack in Baga that Amnesty International described as the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram. For over five days, Baga and 16 other nearby villages were pillaged and burnt to the ground by members of the Boko Haram sect. The response of the Nigerian government to this issue has been poor as the country is preparing for political elections. In less than five weeks, it's citizen would be voting for their next set of leaders. It would seem that there is a real war going on in Nigeria, but only the Nigerians aren't fully aware of this fact. Too many innocent lives are being lost because actions that must be taken are not being implemented...these mounting issues are not being addressed as priority. That is why we need to keep demanding that world leaders get involved, they must pressure and collaborate with the Nigerian government to strategize and undertake the necessary steps that would bring this persistent terror and bloodshed to an end! We ask the government to take action! We ask the world to take action! #TakeActionOnBokoHaram #BringBackOurGirls http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/09/boko-haram-deadliest-massacre-baga-nigeria

This is the latest update on the change.org petition that was created as part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign

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The Mind Of A Child

The mind of a child is pure and free It has no guile or calculation Knows no scheme or machination Only pure joy, innocence and trust But the sad part will be When the beautiful minds of these young 'ins Start to become clouded with hatred and hurt *This is for the children living in Internally Displaced Person's camps and those who have suddenly become orphaned and minus a parent as a result of this violence. This is for those that have become kidnapped or violated or hurt in one way or the other because of Boko Haram. This is for the children whose innocence and knowledge of all that is good and pure in the world has been forcefully snatched away. This is hoping that someway, somehow, they find a way to heal and be free of the hurt. P.S - Initially posted on ronnieotega.com

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The Displaced: a Documentary on the Impact of Boko Haram Violence

This documentary tells the horror stories of Nigerians displaced from their homes in the northeastern parts of the country as Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, attacks villages, towns and cities...

Source: Testimonial Archive Project 

Twitter: @ArchiveProj

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Source: bringbackourgirls.ng

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"Six months

Is almost enough time To create A new person.

Over two hundred Should be enough To garner some Consistent, persistent, resistance..."

- Read the whole poem here