While i was a student at University of ibadan, i stayed at Domipah Hostel. The way they built the hostel rooms floors were in an opposite way to each other.
The rooms were eight in numbers. It was decided to divide the long row into two parts, so that they would have distinct wings, and every unit would have their own kitchen. As my hostel was built in a large, fenced compound, and when I got admission and was allocated to the hostel, I thought it was a sort of estate that was being constructed within a large compound. My hostel had an inner gate that separated it from one other hostel, and whenever I was walking out of our hostel, a round and short woman would yell at me, "Hey, fine girl, come and buy your phone gadgets here. I have original ones."
It is common for some students to ignore her while others will smile back at her, gesturing that they do not want to discuss the subject. Her wooden kiosk was always crowded with students who were always trying to get the best price for the various accessories for their phones.
The entire compound consisted of five hostels, three of which were female hostels and two of them were male hostels. While walking back from classes, we would pass through the walkway of the two male hostels as we walked back to our dormitories. A friend of mine told me how the girls were catcalled and demeaned, and I thought what she said was a joke at the time.
As soon as I had finished my class, I strolled home with my friends. At that particular moment, I was standing between two of my friends, Kabira and Azeezat, who were standing by my side. The noise of students coming from one of the hostels, Alaraba, could be heard from a few kilometres away. What's going on?"
Kabira asked, while taking glances at one another.
The palms of my hands gestured openly in the air as they raised up my shoulder to the sky, to which Azeezat looked in confusion. As we grew closer to their destination, we were able to clearly hear their voices..
"Orobo, look at how you take fat. Better go withdraw some weight," said by someone in a Pidgin language.
It was followed by laughter from others as they continued making fun of the fat girl who walked past them. Our pace was a little faster than hers. My heart sank when I saw the girl tripped over a stone and almost fell, as she felt embarrassed and ashamed at the same time. Peeping through the netted windows of their rooms, the boys laughed as they looked at each other.
As we got closer, we noticed that they had stopped as we neared the area.
"Hello, fine babe, which department you dey now?" one asked.
"Are you insane?" Kabira replied.
In order to indicate he did not appear to be mentally well, she pointed her finger at her head while she said this. Then one of them clapped. “It's funny,” if dem talk about fine babes, do you think this one is going to make an appearance? There was a voice that said, "See as her eyes are big, and come to look like a frog with a large mouth as big as a breakable plate,"
"Yeeeee!" they chorused cheering him on.
"Look at her na she wowo pass," another said as they cheered on.
"Na pillow i go use cover this one eyes if i dey kn*ck am. She too wowo. Look at how her friends fine pass am," another said.
"Heyaa!"
During this process, Kabira stared at me, expecting me to respond with some sort of dialogue, but I ignored her and my eyes drifted to Azeezat's face, but she didn't look either. I saw her maintain a straight face as we walked along without uttering a word we walked until we came to the kiosk of the woman who sold accessories for mobile phones.
"Fine babe, shey you go buy charger?" woman from the shop asked, thought about touching kabira, but she grabbed her instead.
She was shoved by Kabira, and as she staggered, she fell down, landing on the table. "Haaaa" people around shouted.
In my mind, I was expecting Kabira to stop and say sorry to her, but she kept walking to the hostel without saying a word. I could sense she was pissed. There was a man who ran towards Kabira and before we could get to her to help, he grasped the cloth that Kabira wore and slapped her so hard that she looked like she was dying. It was as if I could see stars blinking out of her eyes as she looked at me.
As Kabira reached for his own shirt, he grabbed it. The shirt was button-up. As she dragged it down so quickly, the fabric tore while the buttons scattered all over the ground. As she muttered unknown words to the man, while still holding his shirt, I saw tears trickle down her cheeks as she cried. In order to fight Kabira back, the woman stood up and ran towards us, but I held her tightly as she tried to fight her back. During the process, Azeezat assisted me and we pleaded with her to calm down.
Kabira was being almost killed by the man who had pinned her neck. I squinted at Azeezat in an attempt to calm the woman, and swallowed my saliva as I walked towards the man in order to beg him for his forgiveness. There was a crowd gathered around Kabira, and everyone was cursing at her. In an attempt to calm them down, I told them that Kabira wasn't in a good way at the time when this happened. I now found myself blinking towards Azeezat as she held the woman and tried to calm her down while still holding the woman's hands. There were a number of students standing there holding their smartphones up in the air. In my opinion, they were making a video and as it descended, our brouhaha would become an object of mockery on social medias in no time at all. It was a great relief to me when the man listened to my pleas and finally was able to release her. It was obvious that Kabira was exhausted when she heaved heavily. A red patch of skin had appeared on her face and her eyes were still clogged with tears. I knew I should not touch her or I would be subjected to her aggression if I did. In the end, the woman had listened to Azeezat's pleas and had walked back to her shop.
Once I got back to the hostel, I felt exhausted and laid down on my bed to rest. My first move would be to wake up and blend the peppers and tomatoes that I bought in the morning, but did not cook at the time of the impromptu class. As I lay on the bed, with my back resting on the mattress, and my face upward, staring towards the upper bunk, I noticed in no time that my eyes had closed and I had fallen asleep.
It was the hostel noises that woke me up, when a girl cried out.
"Haa, My laptop has been stolen,"
With that noise, I got up from my bed, although my eyes were still blurry but i move towards the door. While standing at the door, I could see the girl crying I felt pity for her, but her friends were present consoling her.
After the whole scenario had ended, I walked to the kitchen with my blender in my hand. During the process of blending my tomatoes, I was joined by a girl in a few minutes. In response to her footsteps, I glanced up, became aware of her presence, and greeted her. She responded and smiled back at me. I could see that she needed my greetings in order for us to be free with each other.
“In this hostel, there are a lot of thieves. They go as far as stealing pants. I just don’t understand them," she said
"I have heard gists about this too, but I’m just praying not to be victim," I replied.
"This is not about being prayerful o. Truth is the nicest person i know has suffered this same faith but anyways the lord is our protector," she said.
It appeared that her face had become expressionless and wrinkled. Then i gave her a nod in response.
As soon as I had finished blending my tomatoes and pepper, I poured the mixture into the pot, then placed the pot on the hot plate in order to allow the mixture to steam. When I looked around the kitchen, I found that she had already left. If she had been around, she would have been able to replace me as the person watching over my pot of stew, while I kept the utensils in my room and returned quickly. I decided to estimate my time, since she wasn't around, and promised I wouldn't take more than three minutes for the task. The moment I walked into my room, dropped the utensils and tried to walk back, Kabira stood in front of the door and barred my way.
"Hi, kabira," I said.
"In your life don’t try what you did with me today, i repeat in your life don’t ever! Henceforth, I’m no more your friend again" After saying this she walked away.
In shock, I stood at the door with my hands on its edges. As we stood outside staring at each other, other students stared at us, and I was unable to say anything till she went back to her room. A sigh escaped my lips as I remembered my stew was on fire. Oh dear, I hope it hasn't burned, I thought, as my pace quickened to the kitchen to look at the situation.
There was my pot on the floor with all of my stew gone inside of it, and the bottom was scraped with the handle of an iron spoon.
I screamed, As my mouth hung open in utter shock.
The End || Thank you for reading!