Knocked Down, Not Destroyed!

Every morning she wakes up not knowing her fate, with little hope, she waltzes through life without knowing who and why she is on earth.
She awakes trembling, worrying how to multitask every demand placed on her each day. She arises early to break the firewood and set the fire to serve the entire household with food and bathing water.

She goes to school late, and returns hastily to hawk her mistress’ goods. She is beaten and denied food when she doesn’t make sales. As soon as she drops her basket of labour, she goes on an errand to the market. The day she loses her sales money, she is punished, thrown and locked out.

She cooks, does the dishes and laundry. She is answerable to every issue, summoned if the milk is spilled, there’s no water, a child breaks a glass, money or an item is missing. She’s held accountable and takes the blame for everything, yet nothing she does is appreciated.

There is no time for her to read or sit, she rejoices as dusk sets in. At last! She can settle down to read at midnight, sleep for three hours and arise early for another busy day.

She is a girl with an outstretched hand desiring support, crying for help. Her heart bleeds and no one sees nor hears her outcry. She is battered, demoralized, violated, mistreated and malnourished. She is the scum of the society, the downtrodden, the homeless, the poor from the lowlife of the society, the minority. She is the slave girl called “The House Maid”.

She is forcefully introduced into sex at a tender age as she hawks on the streets, attacked by robbers, abused by irresponsible men. No one pays attention to her; no one is interested in her stories of woes. She falls sick and gets beaten for laziness. She suffers psychological, emotional and spiritual trauma. Her clothes are rags; he smell is like stale fish. A victim of rape in the hands of her master, she’s thrown out by her mistress.

Viola! She has no where to go. Rejected and not pitied. Who fathers the child in her womb?

The level of suffering changes because now, she has to beg to live. She wishes only for her mistresses’ home – that she can endure than roam the streets. She makes her bed under the bridge, hope is gone as she suffers molestation. The baby couldn’t make it, it was a still birth.

Tears of relief corners her eyes as she survives in the midst of thieves and drug addicts who used her body for their sexual pleasures. Yet she dares to dream for a better life and prays for deliverance. Menial job is what sustains her.

She works herself back to another master’s house and hope for a breakthrough. She uses her earnings wisely by seeking education but no man is allowed into the doors of her heart. She is low self esteem personified.

Yes! She has been broken, abused and emotionally damaged. She is grown up from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Now she is self-made with no self-image, a degree in hand, a good job, a nice apartment and a good life but no fulfillment. She cries to sleep; she is lonely, bored and insatiable. She wasn’t created this way, she was made for a purpose - she goes down discovery lane.

Finally, she meets the master: a new life, a fresh understanding of who she is – who she is supposed to be. She has conquered the feeling of being inferior to become the person she was designed to be. She’s the virtuous woman. She is fulfilled in her husband’s house, she is a strong role model to her children.

She is a woman, the strong woman! A conqueror, a survivor, an achiever. She is Queen Amina, she is Queen Esther, she is Rosa Park, she Lady Diana. She is Today’s Woman. She is Oprah Winfrey, she is Joyce Meyer. She has been renewed, reformed, re-branded with an upgraded image - she is celebrated!

She is knocked down, not destroyed!