The Struggle Of An African Child 1 Chapter One

In the heat of yesterday's sun came the cry of the poor African child who struggled to survive. His journey of today started yesterday as a street boy when life was unfair to him. To get to his future, he knew he needed to pa.s.s through the valley of the shadow of fear, doubt, and disappointment; his hope, aspiration, and faith kept him strong, and he saw more possibilities of succeeding in life rather than just probabilities. Yesterday is now a forgotten story. The pain of yesterday is now the gain of today.

Once an African child is born, if it is a male child, his struggle to survive starts immediately; if it is a female child, her struggle to survive starts some hours later because of African culture and tradition. An African child has a lot of battles that await him. If he must survive, he must be ready to fight a lot of diseases and as he grows, he must be ready to face discrimination. The biggest fears and challenges an African child faces are poverty, discrimination and hunger.

An African child finds strength in his weakness: where others run away, he laughs at his fear, and where others stoop low, he rejoices over his struggle. His pride is the color of his skin. His determination is the beauty of his ident.i.ty and the glory of his existence is his achievement. When an African child cries, he cries for a reason, and when he smiles, he smiles for a reason. His pain a.s.sures his success. His struggle tells his survival. His sorrow shows his joy. His hard work earns him honor and his tears guarantee his comfort.

Wherever an African child finds himself, he does not forget his roots. To conquer his challenges, he must admit his weakness because he's human, just like any other person. To reach his goal, he must not pa.s.s the street of self-pity, and to get to his destination, he must not walk through the valley of excuses.

Over the years, Sam had brought happiness to his parents, Joe and Kate, to his sister, and to everyone that came in contact with him. Always smiling like no other, he was a very playful and practical joker whose sense of humor could make one forget the worries of life. Everyone loved the way he handled any situation that came his way. He was not only intelligent, witty, sharp and mature for his age, he was the kindest boy, always willing to share and help.

Very observant, he could read people's mood to know when a lot was going on in one's mind and would come up with a pragmatic solution that suits the situation. The air of joy that pervaded around him was infectious; and his smile, oh, when he smiled, you were sure to forget your worries. What of the dimples on both sides of his cheek? That was the secret of his handsomeness, especially when he smiled. He was the beauty of his sister's eye and the pride of his parents.

It was getting dark when he left, as usual, to check the dumpster of the rich man who was living some stone's throw away from their house, but once there, there was no sign of what he was looking for. Everything appeared as he left it the last time he checked. Could it be that some of the street boys came earlier before him? Was there anyone in the same street or nearby who was also going there to look for the same thing? Sam gesticulated as he mumbled, "Could it be that another person has discovered the little secret of our survival?"

If what he was thinking was true, then it meant he had been in a serious compet.i.tion with the person. While still standing there, lost in thought, a lot of questions kept ringing in his heart. Sam always made sure that n.o.body saw him while searching the dumpster.

Despite being clever, he was not sure what to answer if anyone asked him what he was looking for in the dumpster. If anyone caught him and accused him of trespa.s.sing, and he failed to defend himself well, it might land him in trouble, which his poor parents might not be able to solve. In his street, everybody was security conscious and standing there alone at that hour of the night was not advisable, but Sam needed no one to tell him how poor they were and so he always avoided trouble while looking for what he considered "Manna in the street."

Sadly enough but funny, Sam did not go there in broad daylight, but only when it was getting dark. By then, he would definitely go home with something. On one occasion, although it was almost dark when the busy street had a few people still walking up and down for reasons only known to them, he went to the dumpster again. As he was searching the dumpster, the few pa.s.sersby saw him and mistook him for a little mad boy who was looking for something to eat, but they did not know he was sane.

It was not his desire to go there but poverty pushed him to it. They were very poor to the extent that they hardly ate. Going to bed with empty stomachs was no longer a new thing to them. Joe and his family were not the lazy type who would choose to beg; they were hardworking. They hawked anything they could lay a hand on like both ripped and unripe plantain, vegetable…to survive. There were a number of days when they would wake up and go out to hawk with the hope that they would sell, but they would still come back without selling anything.

Kamsi, the younger sister of Sam, was not left out in the struggle. Being a little girl of seven years did not exempt her from the hustle. Everyone worked hard to make sure they survived. Most times, when she returned from school, she would have something to go hawk in the street.

Any day Kate did not have money to buy foodstuff, she would ask people to give her something on credit, and if she was lucky that day, they might give it her. But when people stopped giving her things on credit, she looked for another way of survival.

It was not the desire of their parents to introduce Sam and Kamsi to the danger of hawking at an early stage of life, but poverty forced them to do so because there was no respect nor sympathy for the little children. Each time Sam and Kamsi saw children of their age living fine, dressing neatly, going to a good school, and getting what they wanted, they would begin to imagine what it would be like if their own world was different.

One day in the traffic, Sam was hawking both ripe and unripe plantains when he saw a particular car. He concentrated his full attention on the car. When he noticed that all the gla.s.ses were tinted, he tried to peep to see if he could see the people in the car. There, in the traffic, a lot of people were hawking different things. As if the driver of the car read what was going on in Sam's mind, the driver lowered the gla.s.s windows.

Sam had a full view of all the people in the car. It was a family of four children with their parents. As they all wind down, the hawkers rushed forward and the children selected the snacks they wanted to eat. Sam drew nearer when he heard one of them saying, "Mom, I want more."

"What! More?" Sam quietly asked himself. Sam had not eaten since that morning, not because he was not hungry but because there was nothing to eat. And there in the traffic, someone in a car was asking for more.

Sam was still battling with the thought of "Mom, I want more" when he heard all the children in the car demanding one thing or another, and the parents were busy supplying them with their needs. Sam was surprised to see how one of them, who he believed was the eldest among them, was taking the bottled water from the hawker. He counted them and the bottled waters were seven in number. The extra one must serve a particular purpose, Sam guessed.

Lost in thought again, he wondered why life was not fair to him and his parents but was fair to others. He needed an answer, but who would he ask? Sam reserved the question for someone else to answer. As he was still wondering the "partiality" of life (being fair to others while unfair to some), he saw the gla.s.ses wining up.

Sam had too many questions to ask. While dying in hunger not knowing when to eat and what to eat, he saw little children of his age choosing what they wanted to eat and their parents provided their needs, but Joe had never provided Sam and Kamsi's need because of poverty. Sam and his sister had never eaten what they wanted to eat; they only eat what was available for them. Sam had never drunk bottled water before except using it to fetch water from the tap and drink but he saw how a family were drinking it each without sharing with anybody.

Sam had never drunk a bottle of c.o.ke only him, but he saw where everyone in the car took one each. That they had never eaten what they wanted to eat did not mean they had no choice, but it's just that they were too poor to afford it and so since their desire was not available, the available became their desired. Sam has never been in a car. His father didn't have a bicycle, let alone a car.

What Sam saw that day in the traffic made him speechless; he looked pale, sad and broken throughout that day because of the condition of his family. It was not his first time to hawk, he had been hawking in the same road. It was not his first time to see a nice car, he had seen it before but how come that day's was different? It was because he saw the little children of his age in a cozy car with their parents eating what they wanted to eat. While also hawking under intensive harsh sun, the children of his age were in an air-conditioned car returning from school. Sam and his sister were going to a public school with the dilapidated buildings, but when he saw those children that day, he knew they were attending a very nice school.

Because of the traffic, Sam was very close to have a clear picture of their school uniform, bag and others and that showed him the type of school they attended. Sam and his sister had never been to school in a car, but he saw how some parents went to pick their children from school. Sam remembered his school uniform had worn out and the teacher had told him several times to tell his parents to get him a new one.

If only the teacher had known how poor they were, he would not been flogging him for wearing a worn-out uniform to school. Kamsi, had no good sandals either.

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Sam was initially sitting on the pavement by the side of the road dozing before he sighted the car. Someone might ask whether it would be possible for one to sleep by the roadside despite the noise. It's not that Sam and his parents were homeless for Sam to be sleeping by the roadside whenever he was tired during hawking, but it was because of the everyday stress he was subjected to.

Sam and his sister slept late at night and woke up on time to prepare for school since they would trek some miles to school. After trekking miles to school they became tired; and trekking back home to go and hawk without taking a nap contributed to Sam dozing almost all the time. A little chance he had to sit he would doze off, but when the unfairness of the nature pa.s.sed by, it took away his sleep. Sam concluded that life was not kind to him when he saw those people pa.s.sed by. Whenever Sam and his sister returned from school, there was no guarantee for lunch. Taking siesta was not in his world, it's not that he hated it but because of the condition of their family.

Even when any of them was sick, he or she must still go and hawk to be able to raise money for medicine. Going to the hospital for treatment was not what they would afford and they patronized the roadside medicine sellers, and herbal medicine was their other alternative for treatment. Sam believed it was only the rich people that go to hospital for a medical check-up. When he went home that day, he called his father, and when his father looked at him and saw his mood, he knew that something went wrong somewhere.

"I have never seen my son in this pathetic mood before," Joe mumbled. Rubbing his right palm on Sam's head, Joe asked, "Son, is everything all right?" Joe received the shock of his life when Sam asked him the questions he had been harboring in his heart. "Papa, where were you when others were making money?" Sam asked. Joe knew something must have caused it, and Sam, either did not asked the question to make his father feel bad and lazy but out of curiosity because he was too little to understand life. Joe bent down to Sam's height and held him on the shoulder, "Son, one day you will understand." The father said. Sam had seen how his parents had been struggling to survive.

Sam was returning home one night after hawking for the day, as he was walking down the street, thinking of what to do to alleviate poverty in their family, all the thoughts that were coming to his mind were bad ones and as a Sunday schoolboy, he had been taught severally that stealing was bad and Sam would not steal.

Every night Sam used to go to a nearby dumpster where a rich man who lived in their street used to throw away the leftover food. Sam would pick them and take them home where they would warm the food and the family would eat; the leftover food sustained them for a very long time.

One fateful night he went there but he discovered that the rich man had not dropped the leftover for the night. He left and after a while he decided to go there the second time hoping they must have dropped the leftover as usual. And by then it has started drizzling; as he hopefully lifted the cover of the dumpster, there was no sign of somebody dropping the usual package of the leftover, he became so depressed and by then the drizzling has turned to full rain.

Sam sorrowfully went home, drenched and s.h.i.+vering. As he was going home, he was looking back to see if someone would open the gate to drop the leftover, at a point he turned back to peep through the gate to check if they were at home, seeing the reflection of light showed that they were at home but he wondered why they had not dropped the leftover.

Thinking about what they would eat that very night, a thought came to his mind to go and beg on the road but it was getting dark and was raining, these made everywhere dull and scanty. If he insists on going farther, his parents would start looking for him. Sam had no other option than to go home. It was not in the history of their family to steal, and so no matter how hungry they were, their parents had warned them not to take what does not belong to them.