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“Neighbors called me a bastard because I was born out of rape” – Helen Paul
Nigerian comedian Helen Paul has disclosed how her neighbors used to call her a bastard because she was a product of rape.
Helen Paul opened up about her early days and the struggles she went through as a child. disclosed that she had taunts and jeers as a child due to her birthplace being raped.
On a recent occasion, she told her story. Helen claimed that she was made fun of and dubbed a bastard by her aunts and their neighbors.
Helen Paul became a strong and resilient person in spite of all the unfavourable things that were said to her.
She said;
“Some of us cannot take rejection.
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Some of us do not know that the words we say can make someone feel rejected forever. But in the way it worked for me, it was different. What Yoruba called Akanda, a special child, appointed child. Okay, so you must have heard before where I shared on a stage saying I was born out of rape. And I grew up with my great grandmother where everybody in the compound in the area would call me bastard. So I grew up hearing that you are a bastard. I grew up saying my aunties come to give grandma money for feeding. And they would tell grandma, I don’t know if she told my love, and my mother told me a little bit, and I told her, we are not saying you should use this money to take your own bastard child.
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We are saying you should use it to take care of yourself by your medicine. And my mom would say, okay, once they leave, my mom would turn to me and my mom would speak in Pigeon. You don’t hear what’s in your aunties, then they talk. And I saw this word view. Now people were supposed to be your mama blood pedato. But they don’t tell you who you be. If you like, grow up, forget yourself.
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Say, person will not do well, nobody will celebrate them. And my mom would turn to me and say again in Isha, we be home be met. Can you hear what I’m saying? I’ll say, my home be met. My mom would say, hey, hey. But I realized that every time I offend mama, mama would not want to touch me because they want Mama not to beat me. Imagine a child that the mother gave birth to and the mother is feeling ashamed because everyone in the area, she was afraid of me. So the shame is that my mother didn’t know what to do or to run to, according to what she told me.
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So sometimes she would just carry me without Nemo. She would be looking for where to eat. So then one day she went to Makoko. She heard that there’s this church in Makoko where they share food for free and fruits. And that was a select church, open 24 hours. So she would go there just to collect food and so she can press the banana and put it in her mouth.
