THE HEART OF THE HEARTLESS

Mama, hid me behind the drum of water in the kitchen as the gunshots and yellings began. It was the virgin hours of the morning probably not up to 3am.

She went into the bedroom, and I could hear her mutter words of prayers to Allah.

The cries drew closer until those angels of death came to our hut.
The old moth eaten door could withstand only two kicks. It gave up on the third.

I heard them barge in, asking where everyone was in their language. Then they went into the bedroom and dragged mama out. Mama cried and pleaded.
Through the little hole in the kitchen door I watched the gruesome scene, my knees shivering from both the cold of fear and of urine I had passed on my shorts on a cold harmattan morning.

I saw the little, thin Fulani boy who mama had commanded to leave our farm with his cattle which were destroying our crops and littering it with dungs. The little boy arrogantly insulted mama calling her bluff and claiming right over our own land. My volatile temper wouldn't take that; I beat him out of the farm.

...He pointed at mama and in his language said "she's the one".

They wouldnt be so cruel to her. She's pregnant. They'd probably warn mama and at worst beat her. So I thought. I never imagined humans had such ebony souls, a notch higher than the devil's. With one swift slash with their sharp curved knife mama was on the floor, blood spurting out of her neck.

The gory sight made me nothing more than a spectating corpse. I however recovered consciousness when one of them drove his dagger into mama's abdomen.

" mama!!!" I screamed as I grabbed the dagger hanging on the wall close to the door. I couldnt run without atleast an attempt at revenge. I pulled open the door and without aiming I flung the dagger at one of the herdsmen. I didn't miss. It went through his left upper abdomen. Then using the backdoor in the kitchen I took to my heels and the remnant herdsmen gave a hot chase. By Allah's help I escaped alive.

International communities be aware

Pray for Benue
Pray for Nigeria
Stop the killings

Image source: http://starconnectmedia.com/fulani-herdsmen-kill-6-set-45-hectares-of-farmland-on-fire-in-kwara/