His name is Lukman, that is all I know about him. I met him through another colleague, she too ties Gele and does makeup at parties like me. I was a trader at Maroko but things weren't moving well. I used to sell dry fish.
You know with items like that, if you don't sell it all in two days at most, it will start to rot. Before you know it, no one will buy it from you. It is bad market. I couldn't cope with the bad market every other day and so, since I am skilled at tying gele and applying makeup, something I learned just by watching the ladies at a shop close to where I hawk my fish.
I learned it and began to practice at home. When the fish business failed, and with two young children on my neck, I decided to go to events places to start tying geles for guests and applying makeup for a fee.
At first, when I arrived at venues, there were usually cliques of women who have known one another and had met at several other venues. They formed a clique and usually call one another for business. I got friendly with one of them, we call her Iya Ahmed. She is about my age, around her early 40s, too, I think. She is the one who told me I should give my number to Lukman.
Who is Lukman?
Lukman is like, let me just call him an area boy or area father because he is not a young man. He will be in his 40s, too. He is the one who knows all the event places on the island. He would call Iya Ahmed to come to so and so place, saying that an event is happening. The event may be a wedding, or birthday party...any event where women would need to tie gele and apply makeup. So once he calls her, she would go there. That's the way things are done.
At the end of the day, we would "settle" Lukman. We would give him like N3k each or N5k each, this depends on the number of customers we have. So he too, makes money off us.
Usually, on a good day, say like this place, I would make like N20,000-N25,000. Because we charge N1000 per gele and N1,500 for makeup. It would usually be light makeup and lashes, so we can finish the jobs quickly and move on to the next customer. You know the parties usually would be going on.
You don't want to waste too much time applying makeup on someone that will just pay you N1,500.
There are others waiting and if you are not fast enough, other women will take your customers. You must also know how to tie the latest gele styles.
Anyway, I had been receiving calls from Lukman for more than 6 months and so far, I paid him every time he called me for business. He used to tease, me that I didn't look like a mother of two children but that is my stature, people don't believe I have two children already.
Their father?
That one has entered the ground like Lisabi. After I gave birth to my second child, he just took his shirt and walked out on us. He used to be a driver but I don't even know where he is now. So that one is gone.
There are some calls Lukman makes only to me. I would go there and when I find I am the only one there, I would ask for Iya Ahmed, for instance. It has happened three times. But the first time it happened, I called and asked her why she wasn't at the venue that I was at. She said Lukman didn't call her. I didn't know what to say, I just said, "He called me and I am wondering why you aren't here."
I began to think that maybe there were other occasions he would call only Iya Ahmed or any of the others without telling me. Well, I didn't think much about it or ask questions or even talk too much with Iya Ahmed because I felt, they know themselves better than I know them, so na dem sabi.
Anyway, there was this day Lukman called me for a job at Lekki. There was nothing unusual about it.
When I got there, it was a big party. That day, I made almost N30,000. Makeup and gele combined. I saw two of my colleagues there but no Iya Ahmed.
You didn't know tying gele at parties is only just a few hours?
After sometime, nobody will come to tie gele because the party has gone on for a while. I decided to find Lukman and give him his share and start heading home.
I couldn't find him around so I called his number. He said I should come to another venue, he gave me the address and told me there was a party going on. He said I could make a little more money and also give him his own share at the place.
I went there. I was already calculating how much I would save, and what I would do with what I earned that day.
At the place he told me to come, there was no party. I thought I had made a mistake or that the party was over because I told you it was getting late. I called Lukman to ask him where the party was, and he directed me behind the event hall. Once you cross the path behind, you're looking at the Lagoon.
There was no party. There was no single light to show that a party was going on. I was about to leave when he called my name and asked me to come give him his money.
You know, when I think about it again, there was nothing I could have done to save myself. All I wanted to do was give him his share and go home. If I didn't give him his share, I wouldn't be called for business the next time. So he was one of my major contacts for events.
Will someone benefiting from you also harm you?
I went towards him and as I brought out his share from my waist pouch, he just grabbed me and said, "Are you sure you are not a virgin? Are you sure you have two children?"
Look at me. If you knew Lukman, he is three times my size. Before I could say, "Leave me alone," he just picked me up and told me he would throw me into the lagoon if I shouted.
I believed him. I begged him. I told him I was a mother of two children who were 13 and 15 years old. He just carried me to one tent and slammed me on the mat and raped me. I was begging him not to kill me, because let me tell you something, if he had killed me there, nothing will happen to him, o. He would go scot free and my children would suffer.
I still smell him even in my dreams, he was always high on something bad.
I let him do what he wanted to do and afterwards, he took my pouch of money. That one made me cry. You see after this rape, you rob me as well? What will I buy on my way home to feed my children?
What will I tell myself I achieved that day when I told them I was going to work?
That was the one that made me cry the most. As for the rape? I'll tell you something, it hurts more than I can put in words for you to write about but I've accepted it as my lot. My children will not die because I didn't come back home.
Report to Police?
Which police? The one here or the one on the island?
Who will I report to and not get blamed for going to that place? Who will not blame me for seeing the place empty and yet going inside to look for Lukman?
Who will not tell me I was asking to be robbed and raped wearing a dress instead of wearing jeans and trousers like Iya Ahmed once told me to?
No, I didn't tell anyone.
No, I didn't even tell Iya Ahmed.
I just blocked Lukman and began to do business on the mainland, though I do not make as much as when I was working on the island, my children will not starve!
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