Poem: A Requiem: for Mabinty and Baby X

A Requiem: for Mabinty and Baby X

By Saidu Bangura, Praia,

And Mabinty died

with her unborn baby

not in a maternity ward

not in labour as women

sometimes die in this land

where life is not promised,

where life is not protected;

she died in police custody

with shocks all over her body

protecting her business money

protesting for her dear life

and her gestating Baby X

not allowed to be born

not to be delivered alive

And Mabinty died

and with her Baby X

this time not through bullets

like the inmates of Pademba

expecting to be protected

by those we pay to protect

by those we hope will protect

our dear lives and property,

but she died trying to protect

herself, and to save Baby X,

her gestating future child,

whose lifeline was cut short

when Mabinty became lifeless

And Mabinty painfully died

with her gestating Baby X

not protected amid her loud cries

of pains to save her gestation,

crying for her gestating Baby X –

Mabinty died amid loud cries of

“Ar geh belleh”, “Ar dey feel bad”

– loud cries that fell on deaf ears!

And Mabinty and Baby X died

not through bullets from the same

police that killed other people

in their verandas and some others

while walking to work hoping

to be protected by a police force that

should protect our lives and property

And Mabinty and Baby X died,

this time not through bullets,

she died trying to protect herself

she died trying to protect Baby X,

her four months gestating child,

her would have been lovely child,

had she not been visited violently

by a brutal group in uniforms

paid for by the sweat of the people

How many more Mabintys must die

how many more Baby Xs must die

in the wombs of too many Mabintys

for us to have a Police Force for Good?

Dr Saidu Bangura is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cape Verde. He lectures in the English Studies Course, Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of Cape Verde. He holds a BA, English & Linguistics (FBC, USL); PhD in Translation, Communication, and Culture with a specialty in English Linguistics (University of Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain).