By Shehu Mubarak Suleiman, Kano, Nigeria
I rise at aurora,
to roam and wander,
foraging for food and shade,
predator, in search of a prey
a plate is enough,
from the leftovers of supper,
else I’d ransack your dustbins,
for the remnants of yesterday
when the rains come,
I’d have nowhere to go,
I’m a hopeless low born,
a seed that does not grow
when my tears drip,
I may need your sorry not,
for some crumbs would be fine,
or some of your tasty groundnuts
from a land far away,
here, to you, I have come,
no friends and no relatives,
I’m groped by the searing sun
away from loved ones,
and from where I was born,
to seek some good knowledge,
I never planned to take this form
I am an Almajiri,
I live like a fugitive,
a boy with no dreams,
unkempt and so unclean
I’m clothed in rags,
I’m bare-footed and sad,
I’m a victim of this society,
no one stops to hear my cry
I am an Almajiri,
I’m a stolen boyhood,
I’m a friend of hunger,
the agony of a lost brother.
Shehu Mubarak Sulaiman®
A masterpiece!
This is a pathetically beautiful presentation of one of the pains and evils of Northern Nigeria.
Thanks for letting the world know of this plight that millions of children face in that region.