My father forced me into marriage at age 15 to a ritualist from Ghana
My dad grew up in a family that had nothing. Poverty is all he knew while growing up. According to my aunt who is his sister she says the people in our village treated them very bad.
Because they were poor, they were treated as such. Their parents (my grandparents) were the village's drunk couple. People would get them to do odd jobs for them then pay them with alcohol.
Their parents were the village's laughing stock. They humiliated them so much and their home had no dignity. My dad then ran away from home in his late teen years to try and find a brighter future away from home.
Unfortunately things didn't work out as he had hoped. In his late twenties he apparently went back home with a toddler and a pregnant wife. That toddler was me and the pregnant woman was my mom who at the time was pregnant with my little brother.
When my dad returned home with us, his parents had already passed. He had been gone for over 10 years so he was shocked to hear about his parents passing. This meant he didn't attend his parents funeral.
Even after he returned home he still isolated himself from everyone in the village. This was because he had a very low self esteem and the fact that he left home as a nobody and returned as a nobody was not helping much at all.
My mom finally gave birth to my little brother but her entire life changed soon after that. My mom became someone who was mentaly ill. Even the memories i have of her are that she was mentaly ill. My aunt suspect that my mom saw something that she was not supposed to see at night.
Her mental illness happened after she gave birth. When my little brother was 8 days old, my mom had a runny tummy around 2am.
We use pit toilets that are outside at the village. So she went to the toilet despite my aunt telling her not to. My mother was coloured so witchcraft was something my aunt said she never believed.
A few minutes after going to the toilet my mom had my mom screaming and running back to the house. She got into the house and banged the door closed. She apparently looked very terrified. White foam started coming out of her mouth and her eyes were blood red. They say she looked as though something was choking her and she was struggling to sleep.
My aunt screamed for my dad to come help. In our African tradition when a woman had just given birth she and her husband cant share a bed until the baby is 3months.
So my dad came running from the other house. They managed to get my mom to open her mouth then put a spoon between her tooth so she doesn't bite her tongue.
They grew up in the village so basically they knew what was happening hence they knew what to do.
The next day they took her to the hospital where she spent almost a month unconscious. When she became conscious it was when they realised that she will never be the same again.
My aunt says there's a man from Ghana whom the villagers suspect that he is behind all of this. Apparently every beautiful woman who goes to the village should be his. If he can't have her then something bad happens to her. But no one has ever confronted him about this because the entire village feared him. He was very wealthy and he
was doing a lot for the villagers. He has donated so many things to many people.
So they really feared him. I grew up knowing that i had a mentaly ill mom. My dad never turned his back on her, he continued living with her and raising us. My mother was always locked in the yard because if we don't lock the gate she leaves for days and for her to come back home we had to search everywhere for her. Anyway when i was turn and i was coming back from school i found my mom's mental health in it's worst condition. She was moving and jumping up and down like all kinds of animals. She was banging her head on hard objects and bleeding. It was like she couldn't even feel the pain. She was then taken to the hospital and she was admitted.
Two days later we got a call that she was no more. That she had passed away. I was 10 years old so i knew exactly what was happening. Shame it's my brother i feel sorry for my brother because he can't even remember her face or voice. Even though he had grown a bit he seems to have no memory of her.
My father continued taking care of us. But he had changed. You could see that he was tired of life and couldn't wait for his own death. I guess he just didn't have the guts to take his own life.
When i turned 12, my father became friends with the rich man from Ghana. They became so close that the man started helping my dad out financialy. He would buy us food and clothes. His presence in our lives improved our lives.
He used to come to our house only on weekends when i had not gone to school. He would always make shady comments which my aunt hated a lot. Whenever the man arrived, my father would summon us to go greet him. Whenever i greeted him he would always hold my hand tight and say " my product is almost ready for me". My dad would never say anything.
He would always look down in shame and pain. My aunt would always pull me away from the man while giving my dad the death stare. My aunt never had kids of her own so she loved us like her own kids.
I didn't understand what was going on at the time but clearly my aunt and dad knew very well. I once walked in on them yelling at each other because my aunt refused to cook the food the man brought. When my brother and i walked in they stopped yelling immediately but my aunt was in tears.
At the age of 13 my aunt sat me down and explained to me what was going on. The Ghanaian man had promised my dad riches in exchange of me being his wife. All he had to do was to wait until i was 14 and done with primary schooling.
They agreed he would marry me at that age before i go to high school. The man specifically chose that age because if they wait until i get into highschoool i might lose my virginity to other men.
When I was starting my highschool, I was 14 years old and I got a bodyguard. It was an elderly woman. She would walk me to school and back. That was to insure that I don't talk to any boys at school. My aunt was getting sick from all the stress and depression this was causing her. So she couldn't protect me anymore. She was sick for a very long time until she gave in and passed away. This was a few months before my 15th birthday. Sometimes I think my father had something to do with her death. She was obviously very against me getting married at such a young age, especially to that old man. He was above 50 years old at that time.
Immediately after my aunt passed away, my dad seemed like someone who's been ready for her passing. Buried her too quick and a few days after her funeral people came to pay my bride price.
I begged my dad to give me a chance to complete my schooling so that i can get a job an improve our lives. He refused to hear me out. He even threatened to chase my brother and i out of the house if i don't marry the man. I stopped fighting his decision and accepted it. I however wished my mom and aunt were still alive. Maybe they would've known what to do.
I got married at 15 and left my home to go live with the man at his big house. It never felt like home from day one. I felt like a prostitute who was bought from their father.
I lost my virginity to that old men. I watched him living like everything was fine. I wasn't his only wife. There were 2 more other wives there. Apparently he had been married to over 25 women in his lifetime and that made me the 26th wife at that time.
But what is weird was that he had no children, not even one child. But that's a topic nobody ever spoke about.
At the age of 16 i had to quit school because i fell pregnant. He knew before i even knew that i was pregnant and he bought pregnancy test kit for me. It confirmed the pregnancy and that is when he told me that i can no longer go to school.
I stayed home from that day and at my second trimester i wasn't even allowed to go out of the house anymore. My pregnancy wasn't even registered at the clinic and i wasn't even allowed to go there at all.
I stayed home with my two sister wives and they took care of me. They were ordered to take care of me and you could see that they had fear and sadness in their eyes. They also looked very young. They looked like they were just a few years older than me. They looked like they were in their early 20's.
It was just weird how we lived together and how we were always together but we hardly ever spoke to each other. It was like we feared each other. But one thing i noticed about that house was that it had this heavy aura around it. It felt like there were more people living there but they were just invisible. My third trimester came and i started asking questions. I wanted to know how and where I'd be giving birth and i was told not to worry about that.
The man i was married to used to sleep with me everyday from the day we confirmed that i was pregnant till the last day. He used to blow some white powder from his mouth after sleeping with me.
The day i got labour pains i was told that my midwife was on the way. That night an elderly woman came indeed. The pain kept getting worse. She then gave me something to drink with a table spoon. She said that the pain would be less after drinking what she gave me. I drank it and within a few minutes i started feeling dizzy.
I passed out. When i woke up the elderly woman was gone, the room was locked. There was a plate of food and a jar of water on the side tables of the headboard, also pain killers. I tried getting up but my legs were numb.
I crawled to the door and i was right. It was locked. My mind came back and i realised that i crawled with so much ease it means something is not right.
Touched my stomach and it was still big but not as big. I could tell that there was no baby. Crawled back to bed and started pinching and slapping my legs but i felt nothing. I was too scared to stream or yell because i felt that my life was in danger.
I cried till i fell asleep. When i woke up the second time, i could feel pain on my private part. I was no longer numb. I could feel my legs too.
My baby was all that was in my mind. But a part of me told me that Maybe my sister wives have my baby until i recover.
The next day, one sister wife brought me salt warm water to wash my private part. When i asked her where my baby was she said that question will get you killed and walker out. I heard locking me in, i ran to bang the door and screamed for her to help me which she never did.
This happened for a month. Sister wives coming in to give me food, water and bath water then lock me in. No one had answers as to where my baby was.
After that month the man that married me showed up. He told me that i suffocated the baby while giving birth. He made me believe the lies. He told me that i should be glad he didn't press any charges otherwise I'd be in jail. I hated myself for that for the longest time.
I fell pregnant for the second time after a few months. Everything happened the exact same way. My baby just dissapeared. One night while i was sleeping my aunt came to me in a dream and told me that I'll never have kids just like ths rest of his many wives. She told me that, that man uses his babies as a sacrifice to his dark world to maintain his wealth. I call him "the man that married me because my husband disgusts me.
She gave me a black wool and vanished. When i woke up i had the wool in my hand. That was a sign to confirm that i really had a conversation that was true and real in my dream. From that day on i started being very scared of the man.
I confronted and the sister wives and they refused to have that conversation with me. Now, one of my sister wives also fell pregnant.
I decided to be very vigilant so i could have answers to my babies. The day she gave birth te elderly woman showed up. Later that day a group of men wearing black suites with white T shirts but barefoot walked into the house. They just passed me without even greeting me and went straight into that bedroom where delivery was supposedly taking place.
Next thing they were singing and clapping hands loudly. Then i heard the baby cry for a few seconds then it completely went silent.
Then the men and the elderly women walked out of the room in a straight line. They were not even talking to each other just complete silence.
I ran into the room and my sister wife was in deep sleep. Tried waking her up but nothing. The other sister wife had a tray of food, jar of water and pain killer tablets. She then said snooping around will get you killed. She put the food down and Asked me to leave.
I walked out then she followed me and locked the door. That very same week, my dad passed away. I was so hurt then the man i am married to allowed me to go home for the funeral preparations.
I went home knowing that this was my chance to escape. I knew i was never setting foot there ever again. After my father's funeral, i packed my brothers things and we left. We went on a journey to look for my mother's side. Thank God i had some information about them. When we got to them they welcomed us warmly and acknowledged us.
I want to avenge my daughter's deaths. I want that man to feel the kinda pain he inflated on me and many others.
It's been three years since we left but i am still traumatised and can't seem to be able to find healing.
Social Plugin