The Niger Beauty 🇳🇪

It was on a Saturday,my roommate came into the room with a girl of about 12 to 13 years. She was pretty like really pretty. She had this very curly and luscious hair that was also very soft and silk like. She had a beautiful smile that lit up the room. A slender petite body she had and her name was Fatima.

She walked into the room smiling and just sat on my bed with a grin on her face,”my name is Fatima”,she said. I was a bit taken aback by her forwardness. I know very well that I cannot approach someone like that. I was watching a movie on my phone and she laid down with me to watch it too. She placed her feet on my bed,it was quite dirty and I was a bit uncomfortable about that cause I’m kind of a clean freak but I didn’t say anything.

According to what my roommate told me,she found Fatima at the entrance of our school. She was begging people there and the security men tried to take advantage of her. My roommate whose name is Ella is a feminist so seeing the little girl in that situation really ticked her off. She approached them and took the girl away from there and brought her to the room.

She was a very lively girl and so full of life. She didn’t take things to heart and she was so carefree . She had a weird accent. It was a mixture of pigin English and her local tongue and a little of French. She couldn’t speak proper English so she stuck to pigin most of the time of which she was an expert I must say. Of course I, being as inquisitive as ever started a question and answer session. From them, I could gather that she was from Niger and came to Nigeria with her mother and a few others from her village a few years ago . They were searching for a better life, greener pastures you can call it.

• Our conversation went like this; Geraldine : “So how did you get to Nigeria Fatima”,I asked.
• Fatima : “Na so one day like that my mama come tell me say make I pack all my things way I fit carry. As I de so I bin day like six or seven “, she said thoughtfully. “We pack our things way we fit carry comot for house”.
• Geraldine : “so you don’t have a father and siblings ” , I asked.
• Fatima : “ahh I get oo. I get. I get father and brother and sister but we no come with them”, she replied.
• Geraldine : “why didn’t you come with them”,I asked.
• Fatima: “me I no know ooo. Na so I just see am”,she replied. My mama just carry me so. We run run run with people so. We come enter one big lorry. We squeeze squeeze ourselves so. We de like that oo till we come reach Naija.
• Geraldine : “where in Nigeria did you get to first ? ” , I asked.
• Fatima : ” we reach Calabar first first. We stay for Calabar for long like this ehh before we come Uyo”, she replied.

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Fatima speaking in her native tongue

I learnt that we should always look at things from the bright side. No matter how life was horrible to her she was always smiling. Sometimes she couldn’t even afford to eat three square meals per day talk less of two and when that happened she would be very happy. I once asked her if she was comfortable where she lived and she smiled and said,”ahh I no like am oo.But wetin I fit do, at least I get place to sleep some people no get place to sleep oo them they sleep for road. Me I de happy like that oo “.

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The last video I have of her 😭

My roommates and I asked her to come later in the week so that we could contribute money and give her as a fair well gift but she never came to get it. That Sunday was the last time I saw Fatima. But I will always remember her tho . I miss her a lot and I hope one day I get to see her, hopefully in a better condition than I last time I saw her .I will always remember her as my Niger Beauty ❤️