A Freedom Song (Atieno Yo)

Atieno washes dishes, 
Atieno plucks the chicken, 
Atieno gets up early, 
Beds her sacks down in the kitchen, 
Atieno eight years old 
Atieno yo. 

Since she is my sister’s child 
Atieno needs no pay. 
While she works my wife can sit 
Sewing every sunny day: 
With the earnings I support 
Atieno yo. 

Atieno’s sly and jealous, 
Bad example to the kids 
Since she minds them, like a schoolgirl 
Wants their dresses, shoes and beads, 
Atieno ten years old, 
Atieno yo. 

Now my wife has gone to study 
Atieno is less free. 
Don’t I feed her, school my own ones, 
Pay the party union fee, 
All for progress: Aren’t you grateful 
Atieno yo? 

Visitors need much attention, 
All the more when I work nights. 
That girl spends too long at market, 
Who will teach her what is right? 
Atieno rising fourteen, 
Atieno yo. 

Atieno’s had a baby 
So we know that she is bad. 
Fifty fifty it may live 
To repeat the life she had 
Ending in post-partum bleeding, 
Atieno yo. 

Atieno’s soon replaced, 
Meat and sugar more than all 
She ate in such a narrow life 
Were lavished on her funeral. 
Atieno’s gone to glory, 
Atieno yo. 

* 

Marjorie Oludhe-Macgoye was an English writer who moved to Kenya in 1954 to run the Church Missionary Society’s bookshop in Nairobi. She married medical officer Daniel Oludhe-Macgoye in 1960 and moved to Western Kenya. Marjorie immersed herself into her husband’s Dholuo culture, a choice that informed her latter works of literature. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 87.