Doll Maker

Kituza, 25 making her doll 🎎
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

To know her story

Place her on the back burner

Watch her burn slowly

Glowingly among the embers

To appreciate her glory

Measure her by the numbers

By characters sewn into her epic

And stand in awe

Of a genuine wonder

Of an Amazon

Whose past makes her stronger

She would sew and sew

Until her fingers are blue

She saw dead people

She was sixteen back when

Now with a thread and needle

She attempts to awaken them

And let the children

Breathe life into them

They call her the doll maker

She sews them from Capulana

A fabric made in Africa

Her birth name is Kituza

A refugee from DRC's Uvira

She fled to Mozambique

Pitched tent in Maratane

When she took to doll making

It was first for money making

Soon the feel of the dolls became

A soothing therapy

An escape

From harsh reality

Kituza was kidnapped

When her hometown was attacked

They raped her

Her parents were massacred

To know her story

You must know this doll maker

Then awakes her glory

And you find more than a page turner.

Akpan