Sekinat: Muted Voices

Chapter 13

Halima existed in a world of her own independent and indulgent design, where she was both servant, master and the all in all. A world where she was in firm and total control, where she alone determined her final destiny.

So she found it frustrating that she had no one to share these conflicted notions running through her mind with. Everybody in her world had their own share of challenges they were burdened with. And besides who in their backwater hamlet could really understand and engage with the depth of her feelings and emotions she queried. Her mother who seemed like the only person that she could confide in had other priorities to contend with, she was also unable to read or write, a situation borne out of her late father's insistent policy of not educating the girl child.

Halima's late grandfather had been a taciturn but painfully pragmatic and complex character who had often surmised that female children had no use for Western education, considering their sole usefulness for domestic chores and childbearing. Hence he considered it a wasted investment when the educational knowledge acquired became dormant and ineffectual in her husband's house. All that was required of a woman according to Mallam Suleiman of blessed memory, to bear fulfilment were the servicing the husband's every needs, which included cooking and bearing children a filial charge Sekinat had dutifully adhered to without complaint.

Halima's little sister Saratu still too young and naive was of little use to her in the present predicament she found herself, hence she lacked someone to share her innermost thoughts and sentiments with.

Halima's reverie was punctured by a set of verbal warnings being shouted out repeatedly by her class teacher Aunty Felicia over the gaggle of animated students rushing outside the classroom chattering excitedly.

-Children.... Children shouted Aunty Felicia in her distinctive shrill voice over the din of excited chatter.

-remember principal's warning, don't pass through Guza Mallam!! She warned but only few students took notice as they rushed outside the classroom.

She was reiterating the warning announced earlier in the day at the morning assembly by the school principal urging them to avoid passing through the main Guza Mallam market thoroughfare in town. There had been a spate of wanton and indiscriminate explosions which had occurred from bombs detonated by suicide bombers in sections of the big market with several loss of lives. Even though areas of the market had been closed off to the general public, in addition to some combined forces stationed at the junction the security reports had become worryingly insistent about an impending explosion hence the safety warnings.

The undulating spate of explosions involving very young suicide bombers, intersped with stationary detonations had spooked everyone in the town, especially with the increasing consistency in the last 5 months. Nobody had an idea or even a working notion about the cause of these frequency, so they discussed under a realm of confusing speculations and rumours. Many in the town had lost friends and family members fostering a climate of fear and insecurity. Frequency of attacks in the town and even neighbouring towns had severely altered social landscape of the whole community. In response to the explosions, like most members of the community Halima's mother had reduced her weekly sojourn to the market. Only going there once a month. There was a really frightening period a few months prior when Boko Haram insurgents had captured several towns, and on the verge of capturing theirs if not for the heroic efforts of the Army ably supported by the fearless Civilian JTF members who mounted a vigorous offensive and pushed them back with heavy losses. Sekinat seriously considered relocating to Abuja with her children and squatting with Adamu's Aunty who had assured her of support in settling down, she was on the verge of moving but then the security situation was brought under control by the forces attached to their town. The only thing holding her back from relocating with her children was the harvest of the produce on her farm. And she had promised herself that as soon as she harvested and sold her produce, she would move with her children in fulfilment of her late husband Adamu's wish.