Girls Abducted in 2014
Bring Back Our Girls
In 2014 she was the oldest among the schoolgirls captured in Chibok, Northern Nigeria. She had delays in her education because of health problems, she said. She was called Maman Mu, our Mother, by her classmates.
Her name is Naomi.
During her time in captivity, she kept a journal. Though it was given to them to keep records of their time with Boko Haram, she used it to keep a diary and kept it hidden “in a makeshift pouch tied to her leg.”
She learned to fend off attempts to marry her, even though it got her beaten. She realized that she was valuable even unmarried. The leader of Boko Haram told her she was held so the government would release their own hostages.
The story continues:
They were moved frequently to avoid detection by the myriad armed forces looking for them, including the Nigerian military, foreign mercenaries and American drones.
Apart from a brief period in the town of Gwoza, captured by Boko Haram in late 2014, they spent most of their time in camps in the Sambisa forest, the group’s main hiding place.
She was finally released in 2017. She had to join the other 81, to be welcomed by the President. Another 100 girls are still to be released.
Bring Back Our Girls, another poster
She is still troubled by the sounds of gunfire. She is afraid of what the sounds may mean. Others should not have to go through what they did!
Why are more schoolchildren taken captive? She doesn’t know, but she guesses it is because they were valuable as a commodity. More recently, they are held for ransom.
Bring Back Our Girls by journalists Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw is based on hundreds of interviews with the girls. It is just out this week.
Nigerian Women Use Fashion To Create New Life
“In displacement camps in northeastern Nigeria, dressmaking helps women earn an income and dream of a brighter future,” says Alyona Synenko.
Aishatu Mohammed, 38, a widow and a mother of 10, is teaching her teenage daughter. They are working on setting a piece of fabric to their liking. “It’s the middle of the dry Harmattan season and clouds of white dust hover above the scorched, naked earth,” they say.
She was forced to bury her husband when no men were left! Aishatu recounts, “how she then fled the village on foot with her children, running past dead bodies decomposing by the side of the road.”
After she finishes her story, she goes out to fetch water. She is wearing a long fitted skirt, a top and a headscarf. The yellow fabric and the colors hold her. She has a long gauze scarf of orange.
She carries the water back from the watering point “as if it weighs nothing at all.”
These and other women are surviving in this hostile environment. By sewing, they are making ends meet. They are also sharing their success with their children.
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