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Angels <strong>of</strong> Redemption<br />
Hymar David<br />
and redemption.<br />
How old is Sheu? Nine? Ten? And Garba and Usman, barely thirteen.<br />
What <strong>of</strong> Muda? You all knew he still had to be woken by his mother nightly mid-sleep so he doesn’t<br />
wet his bed. And Usman? Usman who had never won a fight at school or the streets. Usman who<br />
got beaten up by Jamila, a girl his age; here, talking about murder in the name <strong>of</strong> Allah, repeating<br />
everything Alfa told everybody the morning after the raid, like a venerable sacrament.<br />
It is hard to believe that barely five days ago, most <strong>of</strong> you were in your school shorts, playing four-aside<br />
after-school football with unripe grapefruits plucked from a tree beside the school grounds. Your<br />
shirts folded into Your bags, your names scribbled at the collars in case <strong>of</strong> mix-ups and thefts.<br />
“ Pass! Pass!” You remember Muda screaming vainly at Sheu.<br />
Sheu,best dribbler and ball hogger, faked a pass, drove past Usman and Ahmed, feinted a shot,<br />
displaced Saheed and drove home with his left. 3-0.<br />
“ Aliyu,” Ahmed’s voice brings you back. “ You never say anything.”<br />
You keep walking. Alfa says it would be half an hour more before you reach where the others are<br />
camped. You shift the gun from left shoulder to right, the balance <strong>of</strong>fers no relief; you sling the rope<br />
over your shoulder, passing it across your body, under your right arm, the gun dangling behind you.<br />
4<br />
Tales from the Other Side
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