I was sitting in the bus when a thought came into my head.
‘What happened to Kainene?’
For those who may think me crazy, let me explain who Kainene is and possibly, why she came into my head today.
One of my all-time favorite persons in the world is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. From the moment a friend walked up to me and said I needed to watch a TedX Talk titled, We Should All Be Feminists, I have been enamored of her. Prior to this time, I had never heard her name and I didn’t know that she authored books. Or if I am more truthful, I didn’t read African authors at that point in my life, so I didn’t know who was in the scene.
When I heard that great (GREAT) speech, I was blown away by the very essence of who she was and, I wanted to guzzle everything she had ever put out. Thankfully, not long after that, I heard one of her books – Half of a Yellow Sun – was going to be adapted into a film. I was excited! At that point, I had not read the book, and though I usually prefer books to their film adaptations, for some reason, I wanted to see the film first.
So when it got out, I immersed myself in the film. I was introduced to Olanna and Kainene, twin sisters who had returned to Nigeria after studying in the United Kingdom. Through the story, we see how the lives of five people – Ugwu, Odenigbo, Olanna, Kainene and Richard – are changed as a result of the Nigerian Civil war which happened from 1967 to 1970.
This brings me to what happened to Kainene.
At first, it seemed that Kainene was ‘unfazed’ with the war that was leaving a trail of death and carnage all around her. Then, seeing first hand just how brutal the war was, she put on a more humanitarian persona; which was translated in her running a refugee camp. Due to the lack of food and drugs, she decided to go into ‘enemy’ territory and trade with them for the basic necessities which her people desired.
That was when she disappeared. No one knows what happened to Kainene; till today.
Kainene is a reminder that so many people who lost loved ones during and after the war do not have closure.
Let me explain this.
If someone you love dies during a war or a crisis or an accident or anything bad that you can think of, you may possibly have a body to grieve over, or a gravesite to put in that person and the memories you shared. You can begin to heal every day and in time, their memories become less painful. Your mind tells you that you can only grieve so much before you have to stop. That is the finality that comes with death.
But if they just disappear, with no hint of whether they are alive or not, you remain in a state of perpetual grief. You continuously wonder if today will be the day they walk in the door; if they would reach out; if they are held against their will; if they have eaten; what they have eaten; how they look; if they had children; if they were doing well; and every other thing that your mind can possibly fathom. If you take a cup of water, you wonder if they have water where they are. If you laugh, your mind wonders if they can laugh and torments you for daring to. Every day, every hour, every second of every year that they remain ‘unfound’, you lose a bit of yourself and your sanity because there is no closure.
I once read of a story of an old woman who sat a certain couch everyday staring at the streets in front of her house. When her children asked her what she was doing, she said she was waiting to see if her brother would return home. He had been in the soldier in the civil war. She did this until her children had their own children; until her grandchildren wondered if grandma was losing her mind; until she could barely see the road in front of her house. Still…her brother never returned and the day she believed he was not going to come back, she died of a broken heart.
So why did I think of what happened to Kainene? It was more about a group of other girls far, far away from Kainene’s Nsukka. I was thinking of the Chibok girls and every other person that has been kidnapped by the insurgent group, Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, or as they are commonly called, Boko Haram. Beyond that, I was thinking of family members who had been separated by the insurgency; families who didn’t have phone numbers and couldn’t contact themselves. I thought also of internally displaced people whose loved ones were scattered about in different IDP camps, with no hope of reaching them. It made me ask myself, ‘how were these people doing?’
Kainene is a fictional character. Yet, I am constantly wondering what happened to her. Imagine the people with the real Kainenes in their lives; people searching for answers about their loved ones; people wondering what horrors said loved ones are going through; people holding hope up that one day, they would return home; and people who will die with that hope never becoming a reality. These people cannot heal because their loved ones have been separated from them without the necessary closure they need to move past the pain.
Where is this all heading to? For starters, the security situation in Nigeria is becoming more severe, with daredevil abductors taking up citizens at their whim. Many of these victims will return home. Many will not. And for people like the Chibok Girls, or Leah Sharibu, or any number of women, girls and children who may have been abducted, their parents may never recover from not knowing what is happening to their child in this very moment of existence.
And that right there, is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone.
It is important that we know what happened to Kainene, and all the other girls like her across the globe, because that may be key to how we can save the thousands of citizens condemned to a life of pain (and maybe death) because we have failed as a nation and as a people..
7 Comments
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
sunwin20.today thường xuyên có khuyến mãi hấp dẫn
https://sunwin20.today/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
vibet88.uk.com khuyến mãi hấp dẫn dành cho thành viên mới
https://vibet88.uk.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
hdbet.eu.com nhiều trò chơi hấp dẫn phù hợp mọi sở thích
https://hdbet.eu.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design đội ngũ kỹ thuật hỗ trợ rất nhanh và chuyên nghiệp
https://fancywin.design/pragmatic-play/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design hỗ trợ khách hàng 24/7 phản hồi rất nhanh
https://fancywin.design/oney-coming/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design tổ chức sự kiện thưởng lớn đều đặn hàng tuần
https://fancywin.design/lucky-win-asia/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design/pragmatic-play có tích điểm đổi quà rất thú vị
https://fancywin.design/aviator-casino/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design/pragmatic-play/ có nhiều chương trình khuyến mãi cực kỳ hấp dẫn
https://fancywin.design/pragmatic-play/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design/monopoly-live/ cực kỳ sáng tạo khi đưa Monopoly lên nền tảng trực tuyến
https://fancywin.design/monopoly-live/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design/melbet-casino/ nạp rút tiền dễ dàng, xử lý trong thời gian ngắn
https://fancywin.design/melbet-casino/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design/bustabit/ hỗ trợ nhiều phương thức giao dịch tiện lợi
https://fancywin.design/bustabit/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
sunwin20.today đảm bảo bảo mật thông tin người dùng tuyệt đối
https://sunwin20.today/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
SHBET là điểm đến lý tưởng cho những ai đam mê cá cược và giải trí trực tuyến. Với hệ thống trò chơi phong phú từ thể thao, casino, bắn cá đến slot game, người chơi luôn được trải nghiệm cảm giác hồi hộp và thăng hoa. Giao diện mượt mà, bảo mật cao và dịch vụ khách hàng tận tâm chính là lý do hàng triệu người chơi lựa chọn SHBET mỗi ngày.
https://shbet.cruises/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
nhacaiuytin-vietnam.com có phần chia sẻ mẹo cá cược rất hữu ích
https://nhacaiuytin-vietnam.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
co88.org không cập nhật phần mềm thường xuyên, dễ bị hack
https://co88.org/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is great blog. A fantastic read. I will definitely be back.
lsm99 sport
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
https://sanclubb.uk.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
co88.org các nhân viên hỗ trợ không chuyên nghiệp, thiếu nhiệt tình
https://co88.org/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
drab.us.com có giao diện dễ dùng và thiết kế đẹp mắt
https://drab.us.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
www32932.com bị cho là “Suspicious. Young. Untrustworthy”
https://www32932.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Esmya được giới chuyên môn đánh giá rất tích cực
https://esmya.eu.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Debetso tổ chức nhiều chương trình khuyến mãi hấp dẫn mỗi tuần
https://debetso.com/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Hệ thống rút tiền của Sunwin thường bị lỗi vào những thời điểm quan trọng.
https://www.shoestores.uk.com/rut-tien-sunwin/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Tôi gặp khó khăn trong việc thu hút người chơi mới cho Sunwin vì thiếu công cụ hỗ trợ.
https://www.shoestores.uk.com/dai-ly-sunwin/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
co88.org không có giấy phép hợp pháp hoạt động tại nhiều quốc gia
https://co88.org/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Tool Sunwin chứa virus hoặc phần mềm độc hại, làm hỏng máy tôi.
https://immigration-online.org/tool-sunwin/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Thông tin về khuyến mãi trên Sunwin ở đây không rõ ràng, rất dễ gây hiểu lầm.
https://immigration-online.org/khuyen-mai-sunwin/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Các sảnh casino trực tuyến tại zwinclub.dev mang lại cảm giác chân thực như đang ở sòng bài thật.
https://zwinclub.dev/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Everything is very open with a really clear description of the issues. It was really informative. Your website is very helpful. Thanks for sharing!
https://www.sistemesez.com/pregunta/43254/comment-convertir-les-sous-titres-srt-en-sous-titres-de-legendes-codees
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it won’t disappoint me just as much as this particular one. After all, I know it was my choice to read, however I really believed you would have something useful to say. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something you can fix if you weren’t too busy searching for attention.
https://holdenakntw.goabroadblog.com/34458016/mp3-juice-review-the-only-mp3-downloader-you-ll-ever-before-needed-to-have
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.dev luôn được người chơi đánh giá cao
https://fancywin.dev
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
fancywin.design hệ thống thưởng hàng ngày cực kỳ hấp dẫn
https://fancywin.design
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
rikvipb.com là một công cụ hỗ trợ rất hữu ích
https://rikvipb.com
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
bbi.us.com dễ dàng tích hợp với công cụ khác
http://bbi.us.com
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who had been doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this topic here on your blog.
https://y2mate.nu/en-00uN/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
saoclub.now hỗ trợ bảo mật đăng nhập với nhiều phương thức hiện đại
https://saoclub.now/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
saoclub.now có hệ thống cảnh báo chơi có trách nhiệm giúp bảo vệ người chơi
https://saoclub.now/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
kingclub.now có chương trình khách hàng VIP với nhiều ưu đãi đặc biệt
https://kingclub.now/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
kingclub.now nạp rút tiền nhanh chóng và an toàn
https://kingclub.now/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
kingfun.vin cập nhật giao diện liên tục theo xu hướng hiện đại
https://kingfun.vin/
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
get antibiotics without seeing a doctor Over the counter antibiotics pills or over the counter antibiotics
http://cse.google.co.ma/url?sa=t&url=http://biotpharm.com get antibiotics quickly
antibiotic without presription antibiotic without presription and best online doctor for antibiotics get antibiotics without seeing a doctor
meaningful you did a good job here, that's what we're going through everyday as a country, may God safe us all
Thank you so much! I wish I know who you are. But I am grateful for your comment.
Awww…thank you so much! I am grateful!
The title grabbed my attention.You did a lovely work with this calling our attention at the same time to what we are passing through as country.
Damn, Ramatu you got me thinking…. it's amazing what great writers do with words.
Thank you so much!
I had to look for your blog to read this piece, you are a good writer..nice read