They alienated me from my own people. I had no one around me to offer guidance or support. They no longer saw me as a person. I turned into a ghost, a hideous symbol of my disease. Something had to change.
Africa
The elephants sway their huge ears and trunks with satisfaction, and I feel joy. The colorful mix of zebras, buffaloes, antelopes, and birds paints the landscape.
I was terrified and could feel my heart beating out of my chest. I never anticipated my own daughter would fall victim to these cooking stoves. I knew something had to be done.
On the shores and in the sea, we find plastic pieces. Some are as large as mattresses, while other pieces are so tiny, they are hard to collect by hand. At the end of the day, the flip-flops will become the material to make works of art, but we collect much more waste from the sea.
Behind the breathtaking beauty of the place, there are many children born into a stark reality and a daily life marked with hopelessness. Poverty is the order of the day in these stunning islands.
When they discovered what I had done, my employer descended on me with severe beatings and made me go without food for days. I became a shadow of myself, unable to work.
Walking passed the mirror I saw the dressing pad on my wound. I murmured, “Did you see that? I have no right breast,” then I began to sob. I no longer felt whole. My knees dropped out from under me, and the shock resonated throughout my body.
Over 400 private jets carried world leaders to the COP27 environmental summit. According to Forbes, these private jets are 14 times more polluting than commercial planes and 50 times more polluting than trains.
Business began to return, but the period of conflict and the transition of power devastated me. With a new government, I lost my entire network and faced extreme tribalism. My wife and children depended on me, and I had no funds left to my name. How could I start a new business?
One day, while saving corals underwater, a group of dolphins swam next to me. I surfaced from a dive when people on the boat began pointing and shouting the word, "Dolphins!" I turned around to see a pod of dolphins swimming toward me. I watched their dorsal fins pop in and out of the water at high speed.
I immediately made an appointment with my doctor to discuss an abortion. I felt ready mentally but did not understand the physical implications of the process. I remained very careful throughout my life to ensure I did not get pregnant, so the slip-up proved to be an unexpected one. I documented the entire process on my YouTube channel.
Grown women taught girls as young as 10 years old how to “please a man.” The girls, taken away from their families, go into isolation for between two weeks and one month. They receive “coaching” on how to be a woman with a strong emphasis on sexual performance. Men immediately prey on the girls who graduate from camp.
Through the rigors of training, the men encouraged me. I got little medical help, unlike my female counterpart, and the men would say, "This is your only chance to prove them wrong. You are the first black girl here, and you are making history!" Their words strengthened me.
In Nairobi, people generate 500 metric tons of waste per day. A very small percentage of that waste gets recycled. After quitting my job, I set up a small laboratory in my home. I used the laboratory to test pavers in order to derive the right ratios to make a paving brick.
My success at Wimbledon motivates me to achieve even more, and to serve as an inspiration to Kenyan children. I hope to bring awareness to the need for funding and facilities here, to better enable other young kids to play tennis.
I took off my clothes and wrapped the red fabric around me. [The man] told me to kneel and covered my face and neck with white powder. He said, close your eyes and lay down on the ground. As I laid on my back, the man began shouting phrases that sounded more like magic then prayers. Then, he shouted, “This is not the woman we need for the sacrifice!” I leapt to my feet and began running.
On June 3, 2011, police moved us from the station to Chikurubi Maximum Prison. The correctional officers asked me to change into prison clothes. They used a horse pipe to unlock my handcuffs and took off my sticky clothes. As they tortured me for days in prison, blood covered my body.
Evening set in. With no electricity, a candle lit the room. It fell onto the bed, which caught fire, as we continued fighting. As the entire bed burned, he violently pushed me into it. My clothing instantly caught fire.
Adamu and two other family members appeared a few days later.
When I called my pastor to intervene, they threatened to kill him. They searched the house, but all they found were the car papers. They threw me out of the house and locked the door.
The first time we harvested, it felt so good to win; to hold the entitlement of our achievement. The veggies we grew were for family consumption, but soon we realized we could commercialize our small space and sell to others. We took our produce to market and people liked it.
After some of our dancers were mistaken for thugs and killed, my mom urged me to pursue something else. Today, my fashion designs have been recognized by Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and other celebrities.
I rushed home, but there was nothing left—not even my house. The water had washed away virtually everything. My family was nowhere in sight. I couldn't believe the scene before my eyes.
While imprisoned, I mobilized other prisoners to know their rights. I believe in people’s power; that's why I decided to become an ambassador of hope, even behind bars.
They had murdered hundreds of thousands of people, cutting them into pieces with machetes. I was surrounded by soldiers and my fate seemed sealed, but I prayed to God to help me.
