MIDDLE PASSAGE

Maishairi niyapendayo !! na
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye

freedom song
Atieno washes dishes,Atieno plucks the chicken,
Atieno gets up early,Beds her sacks down in the kitchen,
Atieno eight years old,Atieno yo.
Since she is my sister’s childAtieno needs no pay,
While she works my wife can sitSewing every sunny day:
With her earnings I supportAtieno yo.Atieno’s sly and jealous,
Bad example to the kidsSince she minds them,
like a schoolgirlWants their dresses,
shoes and beadsAtieno ten years old.
Atieno yo.
Now my wife has gone to studyAtieno is less free.
Don’t I keep her, school my own ones,
Pay the party, union fee,All for progress:
aren’t you gratefulAtieno yo?
Visitors need much attention,
All the more when I work night.
The girl spends too long at the market,
Who will teach her what is right?
Atieno is raising fourteen
,Atieno yo.
Atieno had a babySo we know that she is bad.
Fifty fifty it may live
And repeat the life she hadEnding in post-partum bleeding,
Atieno yo.
Atieno’s soon replaced.
Meat and sugar more than allShe ate in such a narrow life
Were lavished on her funeral.Atieno’s gone to glory,
Atieno yo.