NYU Black Renaissance Noire Fall 2015 Volume 15.2 | Page 15

When we got outside, he frowned and
said “You almost fuck up there o, you
almost laugh. Do you know any small
suspicion this people won’t release you
to me?”
“But why did you not help Eseosa and
the other girls there?” I asked him
because Eseosa was begging and
screaming like I did in the airport,
“Brother no leave me here, please I will
work for you, whatever amount you
want brother. Eh-brother lahorwowo I
beg you,” and Prince just kept a straight
face as if he was deaf and dumb.

“She is not my problem; she is somebody
else’s load,” was all he said as we entered
the car that was waiting outside the
immigration prison.
Prince has since gone back to Nigeria,
leaving me in this house full of girls
who behave as if they are in New Benin
market. Uyi slapped one of them
yesterday and threatened to burn her
toto with a hot comb because she has
been lying in bed for three days without
going out to work.
I have been telling Uyi I want to call
Matron and thank her for sending
Prince back to rescue me, but Uyi says
Matron will call me and I don’t have a
phone. I am at her mercy; sometimes
Uyi is nice and sometimes she is nasty
like a wicked headmistress. All the girls
look at me strangely, they whisper to
themselves. I don’t know why, I am not
sick or anything.
My only friend now is the one called
Beauty whose hair I plaited yesterday.
She asked me if I knew why I came
to Italy. I said yes, I am here to attend
a nursing school and go back home
to be a certified psychiatric nurse. She
laughed and laughed until the towel
around her waist fell off and she was
not ashamed of her nakedness.

BLACK RENAISSANCE NOIRE

I almost did not recognize him as he
entered with security officials and the
woman that looked like a wooden
spoon. He was introduced as Barrister
Aminu Salihu from National Agency
for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons
and Other Related Matters or some
long name like that. He had come to
attend to the cases of innocent girls
like me tricked by human traffickers.
Prince was speaking big English as if he
was a true true lawyer, I almost laughed
but I held myself to see to the end of
the matter. I did not utter a word when
Prince was telling the people with him
that I was hypnotized and seduced and
cajoled against my will. I was trafficked.
These were his big English words; I
remained mute like stone to his lies.

13

When I look outside the window and see
white girls and boys walking the streets, I
laugh. So this is me, Itohan Obayuwana,
seeing Italy in flesh and blood. Who
would have thought an orphan like me
would end up in a white man’s land to
further my education? Prince told me
that Uyi would take me to the campus
for registration once I settle. But Uyi
keeps saying I should wait, wait, wait.
And I am waiting o. It has been three
weeks now since Prince came to rescue
me from Lambedusa jail and brought
me here. My mother always told me not
to judge people in haste. I had given up
in that cell as Gina’s case worsened and
Eseosa said they probably would deport
us all back home. I had started to pray
for madness too so they would think
of leaving me behind for any reason.
I furiously dreamt of going straight to
Prince’s house in Benin and curse his
life out before reporting him to Matron
if I was deported. But it was the next
morning he came to rescue me. You
should have seen Prince dressed in a
black suit and a blue tie on a white shirt
like big lawyer.