The forest of my childhood is dying. I finally understand why.
This week, we start in Ghana, where queer people and their allies are being attacked in Tamale and Wa. Next, we travel to Cameroon, where a growing refugee crisis continues to be overlooked.Finally, we stop in the US, where bans on gender-affirming care are hurting trans youth and their families.
But first, in Nigeria in 2023, police arrested a pregnant woman, Fausat Olayonu*, for stealing her boss’s radio after he refused to pay her for months. She was thrown into prison with no lawyer and no one to speak for her until the Headfort Foundation for Justice, a team of women lawyers, came looking for her.
Read an excerpt here.👇🏽
Fortunately for her, a lawyer from the mobile office of the Headfort Foundation for Justice in the region stepped in to represent her during the trial. Every month, the organisation’s lawyers pay advocacy visits to various prisons, interacting with inmates to hear their stories. It was during one such visit that they met Olayonu.
“I took the radio set because my boss, who is the complainant [in the case], refused to pay my salary for three months,” she admitted.
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The forest of my childhood is dying. I finally understand why.
My relationship with the forest began in childhood. My grandmother’s stories painted it as a place of wonder and mystery. Until I was seven, I truly believed a three-eyed monster lived there. The Kakamega Forest is deeply woven into our community’s identity.
When I was nine, my sister and I joined the Kakamega Environmental Education Programme (KEEP), held within the forest. Every Saturday, we and a hundred other children would walk to the forest. We learnt about conservation through pictures and videos–of our forest, of beautiful and diverse species of birds, butterflies, monkeys, and snakes. Our favourite part was snack time: juice and bread. Before the two-hour session ended, we had a short guided tour through the forest.
On the walk home, it was normal to see monkeys hopping from tree to tree. This was in the early 2000s.
Years passed, and life took me away. But sixteen years later, when the pandemic shook us with fears of the world’s end, I found my way back.
Sarah Ndunge Musyoki, 20.
On the evening of January 28, 2024, Sarah Ndunge Musyoki, a 20-year-old woman, was viciously attacked and stabbed while on her way to the market. Bystanders and neighbours rushed her to Mother and Child Hospital in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
Musyoki’s mother, Felister Wayua, received news of the knife attack moments later and hurried to the hospital. Upon arrival, Musyoki informed her mother that the alleged assailant was Mwangi, her ex-boyfriend.
“Mummy, nilidungwa na Mwangi na mimi nitakufa. Sasa Mummy nikikufa nipeleke kwa shosho yangu, (Mummy, I was stabbed by Mwangi and I am going to die. Now mummy, when I die, take me to my grandmother),” Wayua recalls, adding that that was Musyoki’s final wish as she lay dying.
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Laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the United States are inflicting severe harm on young people and their families as well as health care systems and civil society.
A Quick Read Before You Go
BBC
One death every seven minutes: The world’s worst country to give birth
At the age of 24, Nafisa Salahu was in danger of becoming just another statistic in Nigeria, where a woman dies giving birth every seven minutes, on average.
Going into labour during a doctors’ strike meant that, despite being in hospital, there was no expert help on hand once a complication emerged.
Her baby’s head was stuck and she was just told to lie still during labour, which lasted three days.
Eventually a Caesarean was recommended and a doctor was located who was prepared to carry it out.
“I thanked God because I was almost dying. I had no strength left, I had nothing left,” Ms Salahu tells the BBC from Kano state in the north of the country.
She survived, but tragically her baby died.