Before the Journey

      Back many years ago I was a king's daughter, I didn't leave the home ever, for if I did I would be punished. My home was a prison in more ways than anyone could ever know. It was a brutal life where all I did was sit and watch the sun rise, then slowly go back down into the earth. My mother was no longer there for me, she died when I was young and my father soon remarried. First to an eighteen year old, then to a fifteen year old, they both lived in our home. In the upper corridor of the large house; away from where I ever went. I avoided them for most of the time that I lived there. It was demented to me how I was twelve, meaning one of my father's wives was only three years older than I. They each had two children with my father, four boys, but I never saw them they followed our father around like flies, but he didn't control them like he controlled their mothers. I never understood why men were such sinister people to women. We had rights, yes, but men still often treated us unjustly, mainly for marriage though. According to our then recently adopted culture, men were legally allowed to have four wives, while women were betrothed and stuck with the one husband; unless it was so bad that we could fight for a divorce. In my opinion, our lives in that harsh place were not fair, although it was considered a very good life for woman. Thank Allah, I found what I was looking for soon after my fifteenth birthday; days before my mandated marriage.

      My name is Kemma, but most people call me Kem for short. And I am going to tell you the story of how Mansa Musa saved me.