Late one evening, around
10.00pm, as I was returning from a beauty saloon, I came across a group of
girls in different sizes and shapes, but their dressing was similar; short
tight skirts and belly tops, body hugging clothes barely reaching their laps.
Some of these girls were smoking and I asked myself what these beautiful girls
were doing dressed like that at that time of the night when suddenly a car
approached and they all gathered around it like a swarm of bees and one finally
got into the car and the driver took off. Although I have heard a lot about
prostitution, witnessing it was degrading since I am also a woman and most of
theses girls were of my age and even younger.
This cankerworm has eaten deep into
the fabric of our society and many young girls have seen it as a viable option.
When families and friends fail them, when our society fails them, all they say
is “I have no other option and since this business requires no capital and all
I need is my younger sister’s dress to reveal my curves and a pair of slippers,
some cheap makeup to enhance my facial beauty, some scented spray to make me smell
good and feet to take me to my sales point, I’ll be in business. I once
listened to a vox pop my colleague carried out a few years ago on why girls engage
in prostitution and what I realized was their opening statement went thus ‘na condition
make njanga e back bend’ Translation? [This is a
necessary evil]
What condition will make a girl sell
her body for less than nothing? For money that can barely feed her, clothe her,
pay for medications when she is sick or meet any basic need? Are these girls
merely being lazy or has our society degenerated in such a way that it is
willing to sacrifice its future? Who are those encouraging them? These and more
are the questions that come to mind when we see them. Many girls who have
succeeded in life today may have had worse experiences in life but did not turn
to prostitution yet they weathered the storm. Yes, these young girls think they
are trying to survive forgetting that the very act will ensure their demise.
Everyday we hear of the deadly
pandemic HIV/AIDS but many still consider it a textbook or Hollywood story
until it knocks on their doors. It is surprising that there are persons who still
go in for unprotected sex with ‘people they just met in a club’. You meet a
girl/boy and without knowing the person’s social/sexual habits or HIV/STD status,
you hop into bed with him/her throwing all caution to the wind, forgetting you
are putting your life at risk. Is it worth it?
Some of these prostitutes are
more cautious because they are aware of the disease and protect themselves, but
when a client proposes to pay a high sum of money some turn to accept the
client’s condition. I also panic younger generation. Teenage girls, girls whose
parents can vouch for their honor and integrity are those who now maintain a
string of boyfriends and man friends. These men deceive them with little gifts
and have their way with them and they in turn go back and date the younger
ones. So the trend becomes alarming. An infected man infects a young girl who
then infects her young boyfriend who finally infects his other girlfriends and
the trend goes on and on. What a sick cycle. One must not stand along the
street at night before she can be deemed a prostitute. Young girls dating old
men and married men, that to me is prostitution because they are not dating
these men with positive intentions but with the aim of extracting money from
them forgetting what they are losing is greater than anything money can buy.
What is the society doing to
curb this practice? We are all aware that to solve a problem one must get to
the root of it. If love can be rekindled in families and parents especially mothers
educate their children on the path they should follow and teach them the values
of womanhood; If children can obey their parents and guardians like in the days
of old; If our leaders can put in place measures to curb this practice by
building structures that provide options for these girls being that a majority
are homeless and lack skills in any trade or craft; If prostitution can be
illegalized in our society; If the
society can wake up from slumber and begin to do their work instead of amassing
wealth for themselves; If the men who pick up these girls start respecting
themselves and recognize that they predators driving our future into
extinction; and If these girls begin to realize the pride of being a woman, a
pride which must be protected and safeguarded with dignity, then we can begin
to talk of change. Yes we can.
By
Cecile Edie Etoke
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