Hussian Ahmed (photo credit: Adedigba Adedayo)
Assistant Editor Maggie Su: This searing poem by Hussian Ahmed centers around the issue of child witch hunting in Africa. If accused of witchcraft, a child can be subjected to abuse, abandonment, trafficking, or rape. Ahmed skillfully imagines the rich interior life of a child forced to endure under the worst possible circumstances. Ahmed’s speaker swings between fantasy and reality: In one line, the speaker dreams of dancing to a live band with “dead aunties,” and in another, the speaker is imprisoned and branded a “viper.” “Child-Witch” is both timely and transcendent—a haunting ode to human resilience.
To hear Hussian read his poem, click below:
Child-Witch
in my previous life, I was a prisoner convicted of loving in silence. I woke up with orchids around my iris, yet they called me viper. they walked me to the end of town where everything dark is buried. I wrapped a blanket around my stomach to hide my scars. today, my body grows faster than my skin can keep up with. I practice saying zammiluni zammiluni anytime I hear a dog bark. my first night in the prison, I dreamed of a live band made of my dead aunties, large candelabra balanced on their heads. I could dance ghawazi, but my hips are too rusty to swing, and this is no wedding procession. if I returned home, I hope no one would look me in the eyes and say I smell like a fish. look where you are now, there is another side of here there is another side of everywhere. once, orphaned girls are inculpated as witches for keeping up with their griefs. because they’ve held the balls of loneliness in their mouth for too long, they smell of fish. another girl joins the family, I hide my shoes so no one knows how well I dance, I compose a new love song with the time they thought I would use to mourn. I open my hands, stand on my toes, and I twirl silently in the dark.
Hussain Ahmed is a Nigerian writer and environmentalist. His poems are featured or forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Nashville Review, Pacifica Review, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere.
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