My Cry
A Spoken Word Poem by Chisom Ndubisi
Oppression
Depression
No progression
In many African societies and indeed the world over,
the plight and treatment of women has engendered many a discussion on both the national and international scene,
This treatment of women is not seen as a sin because we have all been blinded by our personal desires and quests for other material possessions,
This may not affect us directly, but what if tomorrow it is not some unknown child that has been abducted but your own sister,
Then you would come to a conclusion
That your decision
And lack of compassion
To ignore this women’s position, their situation
Has led to your own devastation.
But it’s not only abduction
We are also faced with domestic violence,
We are silenced
They cannot hear what we have to say
They do not want things to go our way
They pay him more
But what for
He is not better than us
So I don’t understand what’s with the fuss
They take away our independence,
They want us to seek dependence
They do not want us to rule,
They don’t even want us to go to school.
They want us to cook and clean,
But what does that even mean.
They want us to submit,
But I’m here to reach the summit.
I am not a doormat and I refuse to be walked all over
Because one day we will take them down like a bulldozer
One thing I came to ask was why?
Don’t deny,
You know it’s not a lie
I am an African woman of colour and here is my cry.
“This piece is significant to me because I believe in the equality of the genders and I am an advocate for women’s rights. Writers are creators, gods in their own right, capable of bending and twisting realities at will. Writers wield a knowledge of how to paint words so vivid they fill the imagination, thus writers wield power to change minds tell through the stories they write; stories of the society they live in.”
Born in Nigeria, Chisom Ndubisi entered ALA in 2017. Email her at CNdubisi17@ALAstudents.org.
