DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Growing up as a child, I watched him beat my mother like a beast in the beauty of the beast.

Not once, twice, thrice, but again, again and again and again

I could feel those heavy punches of 1,450 pounds of force heating my mother like Mike Tyson , The great biter, tiger.

She screamed and cried leave me, stop heating me! You are hurting me! You are killing me! Stop squeezing my neck! I can’t breathe.

But he continued beating, punching and heating her!

She cried like a baby who has been separated for the from its primary care giver.

Do you know what it means to see your mother cry in your presence?

Sometimes I wanted to fight, but if I did, I was going accrued some paternal curses.

So, I had to suppress my aggravated emotions.

The stored tears continued to flow, and the sobs wracked her body, robbing her of the ability to speak. She coughed, and sobbed;

Tears of frustration blurred her vision.

I hate it; yes, I do

I don’t hate him; the gullible act of Gender Based Violence is what I hate.

Sometimes we misdeem the difference between punishment and discipline.

Beating a child for wrong doings depicts two things:

First to forestall indiscipline and then to unconsciously promote aggression.

And then when I became a man and got my spouse ;

At little things I became rouse

The gloomy thoughts kept leap frogging me as to whether to accept or refute the desire of beating my wife.

I struggled internally with this unfriendly friend for a while.

And then one day the bad blood fueled my emotion,

I sprang upon her with brutality,

And beat her with every bit of vitality.

The neighborhood gathered to watch us like a drama

Poko a Poko as we released the grammar.

But she hammered by head with a hammer

I went into comer but gradually got resuscitated by the redeemer.

How I wish I had a hammer to hammer into her head a little manner

But then I became enveloped into the pool of connection regret

And to be a man I kept it a secret

Her eyes burning with tears.

And then she brushed off the tears and asked, "Daddy do you really love me?"

I felt down in the dump.

I puzzled over it for a while.

But I could not proffer an answer.

Gender based violence anywhere is a threat to peace and security everywhere.

A violation of women’s human right.

It affects the physical, mental, and reproductive health of women,

It threatens family structures,

Children suffer emotional damage when they watch their mothers and sisters being battered by the society.

Homes will breakup, leaving women as heads of household to struggle against increased poverty and negative social repercussions.

Let us abolish those negative cultural norms that rob women of their pride,

Let's make Gender Based Violence a history,

A history we will never gladly explain to our children.

Yes, we can! If we want to

Yes, we can abolish it

The only time I will be proud to be a man,

Is when every woman around me is safe and happy.

Because Gender Based Violence anywhere is a threat to peace and security everywhere.