A Lilongwe based female writer and poet Shameemah Jauma has published her first-ever anthology in which she has narrated sufferings she has experienced after being raped on 19th May 2020 in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Malawi Muslims Official Website, Jauma says her anthology has a collection of 42 poems and it is titled “Enough Ink to Write.”
“I named an Anthology ‘Enough Ink to Write,’ for one reason. Ever since I encountered a monster that took all the happiness and ink in me, I stopped writing, then I figured out that I had to speak up,” Shameemah Jauma told Malawi Muslims Official Website.
Jauma says an anthology expresses the misery that she continues to experience after the rape incident.
“An anthology is all about me. I am suffering from Trauma as a rape victim. All the pain and anger in me provided courage to write these poems. The first chapter is all about what I went through as a rape victim. Then an anthology goes to a part where I use the sweeter side of the pain as a way of showing people that you can deal with trauma and come up with good poems,” She tells Malawi Muslims Official Website.
Jauma says some of the poems in an anthology include: “If these walls could talk,” “Love is not for the faint-hearted,” and “A love story.”
“I wrote a poem titled ‘If these walls could talk’ because a lot of people were talking about me for being raped at 21 years of age. People claim I am too old so I wished if the walls could talk because they were my witnesses on that dreadful day. The second poem titled ‘Love is not for the faint-hearted,’is about the only man (my then-boyfriend) who I thought could stand by my side when I was goingthrough a lot turned me into a laughing stock instead of him showing care, he was making fun of me and left me. I wrote a poem titled ‘ A love story’ because I couldn’t write any love poem since I was failing to express the love that I don’t have, so I decided to narrate a fictitious love story, ” she says.
Jauma tells Malawi Muslims Official Website that passion for writing started at a young age when he was in South Africa.
“I remember my brother and I were writing a certain book when I was paralyzed but unfortunately, I lost that project when my computer crashed. Prior to the computer incident and even afterward, I used to write poems but I hadn’t published the poems,”
“When I came to Malawi, I continued my passion for writing. But when I got raped things changed. I thought I would lose it. Even my writing style changed. I became angry and too emotional so I came up with an anthology as a result of being a rape victim,” Jauma says.
She adds,” It was a healing process that made me came up with a good piece of writing which people started to take notice. And I was encouraged by friends to come up with an anthology. So this book of poems(anthology) is all about my suffering and trying to heal from the trauma I am yet to heal from,”
“As a rape victim, all the pain and all the anger and all the scars I was left with gave me the courage to write a compilation of poems. My objective when writing the book was to share my story and possibly to help other rape victims to find some passion of theirs which may help them in the healing process.”
The Lilongwe based writer and poet tells Malawi Muslims Official Website that she went to the hospital on the same day of the incident and reported the matter to the police. She says the law enforcers have so far arrested one person in connection to her fate.
Shameemah Jauma began compiling the poems in May 2020. An anthology is sold at5000 Malawi Kwacha hard copy and 2500 Malawi Kwacha soft copy. To purchase one, call Jauma on 0997 70 24 15.
