Niwe Oha?**

By D.R. Ruhweza

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Niwe oha?**

Are you the disappearing face of my aunt?

Whose bloodied eyes and slaughtered I no longer envision?

Are you the stern bespectacled face of the she-Justice casting ‘fire and brimstone’ at  the terrified defilement suspect in the accused box?

Maybe you are this money they gave me when they butchered my father and boiled him in a huge pot?

Tell me Justice, Niwe oha?**

Are you the small still voice that tells me to forgive?

Or the hard ball of air in my throat which appears when i see the General who burnt my village drive past in a 4WD?

Are you the artificial arm that I look at now or the young man I see at my feet who brings me joy in spite of the fact that he was forced in to me by countless men?

Ah –

Maybe you are the sense of victory (or is it vengeance) when the man who swindled the money for now deceased AIDS riddled cousin is sent off to jail?

Niwe oha? **

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**  Runyakitara for ‘’Who are you?’’