‘It was total domination and I could not see it’

the next day because I was cooking curry chicken in the morning.

“Girl he picked up that meat like if he was going to do what I said and then he pelt me with it, in my face. I went down on the ground. I was in shock because this man had never raised his hand to me. Then he was shouting at me to pick it up and do what he said. I scrambled up, ran in the bedroom, and locked the door. He knocked a few times, but I didn’t open. I could hear him walking about and then after a while there was silence.

“I think I waited more than an hour and then I opened the door and went out. I was going to apologise and season the meat. Big mistake. He was waiting in the front room in the dark. He dragged me back in the bedroom and beat me like a punching bag. He wasn’t saying anything, just cuffing me all over. I think he gave me a few kicks as well. Then he lay down on the bed and went to sleep. I stayed on the floor all night.

“The next morning there wasn’t a part of me that was not black and blue and hurting, but I got up and made breakfast and lunch. Then I dragged myself into the front room, so he didn’t have to see me. When he left for work, I called my mother and she came and got me. When she saw me, she cried, and she told me I was not going back to him no matter what.

“I was so grateful for my mother and her strength. She got me away from him. We had been married for 3 years. It took me twice that long to be okay.”

With the support of her relatives this sister managed to escape her abusive husband and has now moved on. Her ex-husband has remarried and she sometimes thinks about what his current wife is enduring. She prays it is nothing close to what she endured.