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Uwa was raped and murdered in Church. Do you have any other questions?
When the Mirabel Centre launched the #JusticeForUwa campaign on the 31st of May in response to the violent rape and murder of 22 year old Uwaila Omozuwa at a Church in Benin, the fire spread quickly across the internet with many enraged at the incident and determined to pursue justice. Nigerians, home and abroad, lent their voices to the campaign and passionately asked for gaps they could stand in, to ensure that Uwa’s murderer doesn’t keep walking the streets after prematurely ending her life. We were still reeling from the all too familiar pain of that loss when we were hit across the face with another woman whose death in…
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He Called Me Ashawo
Two weeks ago, I was called a bedpreneur, or in popular Nigerian parlance, an Ashawo. On Instagram too, for that matter. But how did we get there? Summarily, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were caught exploring each other in ways that were sexual in nature. The adults present, horrified that something like that was happening with teenagers, reportedly proceeded to punish the girl while admonishing her. All the while, the boy, her partner in exploration, was almost excluded from the conversation, almost as if the words of reproach had nothing to do with him. A man, a witness to this spectacle, became angry and proceeded to give the…
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Silence, and our culpability as a society in the culture of sexual abuse
BY TAWAKALIT KAREEM Silence, That magic wand that we wave in the hope that what has been done can be undone. The inaction we exhibit to somehow dull the deafening crash that a certain action has caused. Silence is the tool that we have by ourselves, made a weapon in the hands of the abuser. Some people are of the opinion that the occurrence of abuse seems to have increased in recent times. I disagree. I think the difference in this day and time is; there is social media and the very real reality that a story can go viral in a matter of minutes. My friend, Adebola Aduwo,…
The Isle of Jade
