SEXUAL ASSAULT: MY BODY IS NOT THE NUISANCE
One day in May 2008, my mum sent me to Akesan market to buy fish and on the way back, I had crossed the road just after the town hall’s roundabout and was about to step down into the Oke Ogun motor park when I felt a blinding pain on my ass. It was sharp, painful, sudden and I will never forget how much pain I felt in that moment. It was a man on a bike. Him and the bike rider guffawed loudly and zoomed off; then the old men who usually sat by the entrance of the park also burst into laughter. All except one. First came the pain. Then the hurt. Then I broke into tears. Hot painful tears that wouldn’t stop. I did nothing to deserve that. I didn’t run into their bike, I didn’t walk on the road, I didn’t see their faces, they didn’t see my face. They just saw a little girl and decided to spank her right on the road. I did nothing wrong. If you knew me when I was growing up, then you know I was one of the skinniest kids around. I was a scrawny, bony kid who wore Ankara dresses larger...
