Akello's Song: A Brother's Hug

Akello!
What brings you home?
What brings you home my sister?
It cannot be your husband.
It cannot be your in-laws.
It has to be you!
You! Of the itchy feet and mind;
You! Who will not take a word of correction?

Your husband is a good man!
He paid up his bride wealth!
We are good people too.
We used the dowry to marry fresh wives!
Why do you come to destroy our happiness?
To be beaten is normal!
He beats you because he loves you…!
Akello
You belong to someone else now.

It must be your mother!
She taught you wrong.
Or your aunties and sisters.
We cannot pay back the dowry.
You are disgracing your parents.
Akello! What brings you home?

From Dawn of the Pearl
by Acaye Elizabeth Pamela