Valentina Acava Mmaka

I am my body and my skin.

I’m my body.
My body is my space.
In my body
with my body
I sing
I think
I laugh
I cry
I dream
I narrate
I love
and live.

In her poem Dahabo Musa, a Somali woman, describes infibulation as “three feminine sorrows, the procedure itself, the wedding night when the woman has to be cut open, the childbirth when she has to be cut again”.

I

Dedicated to Him
He was young
He was a son
He was a friend,
He was a gay,
He was HUMAN

He died with shame