I Wish To Get Education Poem by Doreen Mampani

Mama said I can't go to school
'cause mama is too poor to pay my school fees
Pastor offered to pay for my school fees
But mama refused, saying Pastor is too poor
I thought mama loved me

I'm only fifteen years - supposed to be a teenager
But a mother of twins I am
Married to an old man my grandpa's age, called a Blesser
Mama said I'm the solution to fight poverty in our family
My husband paid lobola with five cattle
Mama sold the cattle to pay for my sibling's education

I cried of this injustice under the sun
Though I'm intelligent I can't go to school
Mama said it's our culture
The first-born sacrificed for her siblings
Who will bring me out of this calamity?
I am a child but forced to be a wife

Only God can help me now
To gain rights that mama violated
I write my story, my book
To share with the world my injustice
Truly, God loves a nobody like me