The reaction to Guest Contributor Asantewaa’s post a few weeks ago was visceral. I was amazed by the strong reaction that so many Adventurers had to a married woman having an affair – albeit brief – with a man who might as well have been married himself. After all, Ibrahim was in a 5 year relationship as well, almost as long as Asantewaa had been married from what I gather.
What would make a married woman with children cheat on her husband with so little regard? Asantewaa has not resurfaced to defend or explain her actions, and I don’t plan to shame her into doing so. I have however taken the liberty (with her permission) to fictionalize her hurriedly told story and tell it from my own creative perspective.
LSD is about Lerato Gqukani, a young South African entrepreneur who is getting her start in life. She’s fulfilled her duty as a child of the Continent. She’s finished school with honors, secured a marriage (or at least its promise) and has led a responsible life…until a chance meeting with her an old flame.
Shall we find out what happens together?
******
Lerato nervously played with the thin white napkin on the dining table. As people milled around the food court of the Accra Mall, she took a sip from her water bottle and asked herself what she was doing there at all. Just yesterday, she and Aamir were having lunch at the very same restaurant.
“Khalid is dying to see you,” he said, pulling a slow drag from his cigarette.
“What? Why is that?” she asked, genuinely taken aback.
She was trying to ignore how disgusting Aamir looked now. The last time she had seen him over twelve years before he was trim and athletic. Now he was pudgy, balding and slovenly. Smoking made him look even less attractive. All the same, Aamir was her friend, and she was glad to see him. She was only going to be in Ghana for a month, and she wanted to see as many of her old friends as possible. Time always flew by when she was home.
“Home” was officially South Africa, but she barely remembered it. Her parents were pan-Africanists, and left the country at the cusp of the apartheid regime to resettle in West Africa. She’d lived everywhere: Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone – but Ghana was where her deepest roots laid. Maybe it’s because it was here where she first fell in love…or thought she had fallen in love.
Khalid Haddad had told her as much when she was twelve and he was administering her first kiss under the steps of their primary school. It was Our Day and he had just told her how pretty her floral print dress was before he clumsily leaned in for a sloppy kiss.
“I love you Lerato, and you love me,” he whispered.
For the next three months she carried this truth in her heart, until Aamir delivered the devastating news.
“‘If you don’t have sex with your girlfriend, you have nothing’. That’s what Khalid said, Lerato. I heard him,” said Aamir.
Lerato was crushed. She hastily scribbled a letter to Khalid, breaking things off and handed it to Aamir.
“Give this to your cousin,” she ordered, her face contorted in rage. “And tell him I never want to see him again!”
And she never did…until now. Khalid was walking through the corridor and back into her life, still as handsome as she remembered the former primary school head boy to be. She smiled as she thought about the Lebanese boy she used to know in khaki shorts and a cream shirt as she rose to give him a hug.
“Hi Kal,” she said, grinning lopsidedly.
“Lera! It’s been ages!” he said, hugging her tightly.
The little girl with insecurities scurried away. She was 24 now, not a kid anymore and Khalid Haddad was a grown man. She tucked her negative thoughts of their past away.
“I’ve waited so long to see you,” he said, smiling with genuine pleasure.
“So Aamir tells me,” she laughed. “I hope you’ve been well?”
“Yeah, yeah! Everything is great,” he replied. “God, I’ve missed you.”
Lerato was surprised by how contemplative he sounded. Wasn’t this the same guy who’d declared their sexless relationship meaningless? What an asshole he was! They were barely teenagers and yet…
“Why are you frowning?” Khalid asked, obviously alarmed.
“Huh? Oh, nothing,” Lerato replied quickly. “I was just thinking about the last time I saw you.”
“Which was much too long ago,” he said, reaching for her hand. He stroked the diamond carat on her left hand. “I see you’re married now! I want to hear everything that’s been going on in your life.”
She laughed and placed her hand in her lap.
“I’m not married yet,” she confided. “Paul proposed three months ago. I’m very happy. He’s a great guy.”
“I’m so glad,” Khalid smiled. “You deserve to be treated well.”
“What about you?” Lerato asked, sipping greedily from her water bottle.
“I have a girlfriend,” he said smiling coyly. “Her name is Ivy. We’ve been together for 3 years.”
“Wow! That’s amazing. Are you gonna ask her to marry you?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he mused. “I just want to make sure we’re both ready. “
He noticed that Lerato’s bottle was empty and called for a waiter.
“Do you want to eat?”
“Sure,” she smiled.
She settled into her seat and listened to a now very mature, very accomplished Khalid prattle on about the paper plant he managed.
“That’s very un-Lebanese of you,” she teased.
“I know,” he laughed in return. “I just didn’t want to sit in a shop all day and sell things, you know what I mean?”
He suddenly turned pensive.
“I know what you mean,” Lerato said reassuringly.
She had never really appreciated before how much cultural pressure to conform he must have been under. It took guts to rebel. He was running a plant, dating a Black girl, and at 26 was still unmarried. His mother must be in hysterics over her wayward son!
Before she knew it, four hours had passed and it was time to get back to her hotel. She had only planned to spend 60 minutes with him. She had timed herself. Kal finally asked her what the alarm on her phone was for. Did she have somewhere to be? She didn’t have the heart to tell him of her pre-planned flight from dinner, complete with a ready excuse for her departure. She was glad she didn’t have to. But now it was late, and she had to go.
“I have to get back to my hotel,” she said apologetically. “And I’m sure you have work in the morning too.”
“You’re right, I do. Aamir said you’re staying at the African Regent?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “I can walk across the street. It’s not far at all.”
Khalid laughed.
“Lera, you’re a London girl now and can take care of yourself, but there’s no way I’m going to let you walk by yourself in Accra at this time of night. Let me give you a lift.”
When they got to the parking lot of the grand hotel, Lera suddenly realized she didn’t want the night to end. She climbed out of the car and shut the door gently. Khalid was gripping the steering wheel of his car, smiling. The engine was still running.
“Kal…do you want to come up? You know, just to talk a little more?”
Say no, say no, please say no…
“I was hoping you would ask.”
When Khalid grabbed her hand in hers she prayed for strength. The she realized she was being silly. She was engaged, and he was in a committed relationship. She trusted that nothing was going to happen between them. That would be absurd! Wouldn’t it?
25 comments On LSD: A New Series about a Woman named Lerato
Woohoo! Another series from Malaka. I’m excited. Can’t wait to see what unfolds…
I can’t wait to see either! I have no clue how it all goes down. We know one thing for sure: There will be sex! Adventurers like to read about sex. 😉
I’m just salivating. Heiiii! I’ve no words to describe my happiness at yet another series from you. JESUS. This is going to be orgasmic.
Dagnabit Malaka! I am trying to finish this book here. How am I supposed to do that with a new thing starting eh?
Looking forward to reading about all the complexities and sex adventures(!)from your perspective.
Woohoo!Malaka knows how to write!still haven’t forgotten how gripping ‘ATS’ was.
Now that a series I totally understand &makes ‘sense die’.Malaka keep it coming &fast too.
The junkies in us need our fix more &more.
Lol! Dagnabit you say Nnenna? This from the woman who has thrilling us with Abby-scapades for months? I won’t be blamed for stalking your book. Your mind is a powerful vortex! 🙂
AM/Saffron/Abena: Chale, I hope Lerato doesn’t disappoint us. The ladies of ATS have set a high bar and Lerato is flawed from the beginning. I’m also interested in seeing how she develops. Hold tight y’all!
@Malaka: Abbyscapades is only looking like months because I am mega tied up elsewhere. It was supposed to be in real time i.e. finished around New Year!
Malaka is back! ..lerato’s action right there is all too familar.. let’s see what happens next.
Hold up, Khalid wanted sex from the age of 12????? That’s way too deep. Hah! Hayi,no,’ngeke! When I was 12 we were still into cartoons and toys, sex was the last thing on our minds.
The boys in my school were just BAD. To me, there was nothing nastier than a 12/13 year old boy when I was a kid. I remember some of the boys used to put mirrors on their shoes so they could look up the girls dresses.
If only I had lived in your cartoon world, perhaps I could write a different reality for our poor Khalid!You see what happens when the writers experiences are thrust upon her characters? 😉
Them ‘Area boys’ (I’ve heard them called that on this website before)! When I was 12 I 1st went to high school/boarding school. There was this one who used to tell us sex stories about the things they used to do with girls (‘gang-banging’, etc)! We, having gone to an ‘English Medium’ primary school with whites, and under the influence of white media, hitherto had only thought white girls were sexual or sexually attractive (we had only ever seen white people ‘do it’ in the movies). But we quickly noticed the sexuality of black girls (albeit perhaps only the light skinned ones). High school was bound to be interesting…
I’ve spent the past month going through this website and I’ve come to realise I’ve lived a relatively sheltered life. This site has made me realise how fortunate I am, I’ve never known anything but safety and security to the point where I don’t lock my place sometimes and an ex from Tunisia and one from Nigeria used to admonish me about it and my response was always nothing’s going to happen to me because I know without a doubt the men in my life will always protect me. I now realise and appreciate the safe cocoon that has been provided for me. For the longest time I believed that this conception of black men being aggressive and controlling and the plight of African women was a gross exageration by the West in an attempt to undermine Africa and African for I’ve never known any man like that. I’ve only know caring, respectful and protective men who work hard to provide for their woman and work behind the seams to make her life easier. This site has opened my eyes I now know better and I realise this was other people’s reality, a reality I only had to deal with in my late teens but mostly in varsity the “appropriate” age and because I was older it was something I was equipped to deal with.
Its really sad that now-a-days the kids are starting at such an early age with some giving birth @ 11yrs and 12yrs they are missing out on their childhood and they don’t even realise the magnitude of their decisions.
@SA_Girl – The West has been historically racist in its depiction of the African continent and all that reside here. Are you from SA? I’m asking because of your name? That’s the very same way SA has been portrayed or? It doesn’t mean that every single African man is aggressive, or that every single African woman is abused. I’m sure you can also see from the diversity of stories on this blog that African women have real agency and power. Choosing to talk about abuse suffered is yet another way of claiming that power. You get me?
The reality I’m refering to in my late teens is boys pressurising girls for sex ala Khalid. I still haven’t met any controlling man and have never been in danger of any sexual assualt.
I am South African, yes, in fact I’m Xhosa like Lerato (lol).
Yes I get you and I commend those who’ve opened up, like I said this site made the women’s rights issues real for me and talking about it is most definitely a move towards retrieving power and I’m sure its cathartic too. I like the fact there is light heartedness (I’ve had many amusing moments in the site) as well as juicy salacity. What I appreciate the most the enlightment it has given me with regards to women’s rights and abuse.
I know its not every man who does this and not every woman who suffers abuse. In fact I’ve met some pretty awesome Ghanaian men.
Such things do happen in SA (its a reality everywhere) I even worked for an NGO for abused and traumatised children. I don’t know how to explain it- I just always thought it was a new phenomena amongst Africans that the West jumped on and propagated instead of a problem that’s always been there because growing up it was something that was non-existent in my environment, men protected women and children instead of hurting them. Boys respected girls, yes boys were naughty but in that innocent, childish way you know what I mean? When we got to high school that’s when the anatomical differences started being interesting and both sexes were curious and experimented but boys never pushed hard (they tried their luck but never pushed) and they wooed more than pressure & give ultimatums (ala Khalid) to even reach the stage of fingering you had to have dated for a while. Being a virgin was cool and girls worked hard to maintain it (until we at least got to grades 11 or 12) but recent media reports and what I witnessed while at the NGO paint a different story now-a-days, primary kids gang-raping fellow school mates, sodomize each other etc.-these are things I could have never imagined in my youth or knew about.
I guess my culture and my environment sheltered me from certain realities. The protection came from all angles; school, home, society even in varsity we had limitations imposed on us eg boys were only allowed in our dorm rooms Wednesdays from 7pm-9pm and you had to sign him in and keep your door wide open! The reason I also attribute my culture for my ‘sheltered life’ is because in my culture men are raised to protect and provide-its ingrained in them that’s their main duty (obviously not every single man does this) and us women are raised to be strong and independent and yes the man is still the head but the woman is the neck without the neck the head is useless (something the society recognises and appreciates) its common knowledge that you DON’T MESS WITH A XHOSA WOMAN and men of other cultures often make jokes about how courting a Xhosa woman is courting problems (because of our independent spirits). There’s a famous Xhosa saying that describes us perfectly: ‘wathint’ umfazi wathint’mbokodo’ (you strike a woman, you strike a rock). This is why I’ve always taken offence to Western depictions of domineering African men and meek African women and blaming African culture-its not African culture its erffed up people qha.
I’ve always known there are men and women that are domineering and meek (even in Xhosa culture ha ha ha) but I just never realised early sexual activity, abuse, sexual domination etc. was there and was widespread even when we were young understand?
Is the shelter I speak of a South African thing? Is it common amongst all SA cultures? I don’t know, I cannot speak for other cultures. Maybe it was just the environment I grew up in because my social circle and I went to white schools and lived in upper-class white neighbourhoods maybe that’s why we never noticed/were unaware but my friends were just as shocked as me when I read some of the stories to them. In my personal opinion from what I’ve observed of other cultures they tend to be somewhat more subservient in general than us Xhosas even when it comes to interacting with other races especially whites. I think its safe to assert we are the most disliked group simply because we stand up for ourselves and are not afraid to say what’s what. Even when Thabo Mbeki was ousted one of the accusations against him was his ‘Xhosa arrogance’.
SA Girl. I bed you. Please provide with the coordinates of this utopia so I can go and raise my girls there. Eh? Does this place really exist as the norm?
I’m so serious. I’m looking out at the social landscape that my kids are growing up in (we live in the States) and it does not bode well for male or females. Let me come and shelter them in your corner of the world.
@SA Girl, really appreciate your detailed response:
“Maybe it was just the environment I grew up in because my social circle and I went to white schools and lived in upper-class white neighbourhoods maybe that’s why we never noticed/were unaware but my friends were just as shocked as me when I read some of the stories to them”
In my experience, and to the best of my knowledge sexual abuse and violence against all women happens in virtually all types of society. Your class doesn’t protect you from abuse. What your class might protect you from is having no where else but an NGO to go to for assistance, and so your stats don’t get recognised, and you and people who look like you do not become the faces that represent abuse etc.
Also, people are not always forthcoming about sharing the fact that they have been abused. So those self same friends expressing shock at some of the stories on this site could also be thinking, ‘Damn, she thinks that’s bad? I can never tell her what I’ve gone through’, and you would be none the wiser…
But of course I could be totally wrong but something tells me I’m not 🙂
I do love your active commentary on here, Keep it up.
Ha ha ha…Malaka calling it Utopia is extreme no such place exists.
Its a small town called East London in the Eastern Cape; sun, sand, sea and nature at your doorstep plus one month of winter. Its still conducive for raising wholesome families (though I will not make guarantees about how your children will turn out now-a-days children have more influences and influencers than in my youth) but I can guarantee you safety @ school and good education (that is if you choose the right school) and relative peace of mind. Obviously criminals and psychos live everywhere so you’d still need to teach your girls safety and awareness.
Warning: is a small town though it is modern and all its no metropol-more like a cross of a town and city and is still relatively conservative in terms of eg you’d hardly find people making out in the streets-holding hands and a quik peck is about as PDA as it gets (unless you are white), kids still have manners etc. Its a lovely town honestly but job prospects are low and the African poverty problem does exist. If you are seriously considering it stay away from Southernwood, Belgravia, Arcadia, Quigney, Braelyn and Buffalo Flats.
Hi NanaD
I know we’ve exhausted this topic and I promise this is my last say 🙂 but there’s an SA blog (its a fictious blog about a girl from the rural areas who moves to Jo’burg for varsity) I thought of you when I read yesterday’s posting.
You asked me if things in SA were different and I said I don’t know if my experience is an SA thing, I can’t speak for others. Well yesterday, (the author always posts topics of discussion after each post) the question raised was: according to a recent survey SA women are the most immoral followed by Botswana women do people agree and how old were they when they lost their virginities. Here’s the link http://diaryofazulugirl.co.za/chapter-seventy-nine/ (sorry for promoting another blog on your blog but I thought you’d be interested in the answers). There are over 200 comments so I skimmed through them but it seems what I said is pretty general, most of the women (from the names I gather they are from all over SA and of different cultures) lost their virginities in their late teens (18 and 19) to early twenties some claim to be virgins still and a few admit at an earlier age (earliest being 15) and it was out of choice not out of coersion (most say it was eg a bday present to themself), they also seem to re-iterate what I was saying about how our strong, opinionated and assertive spirit is often misunderstood and received negatively by others (where as I thought its just us Xhosas it seems other groups feel it too and feel SA women in general are misunderstood and I think the comments talking about our strength also support what I was saying that from babies we are raised to be strong women because our cultures allow it and because of that we as women expect a lot from our men e.g. no self-respecting woman would allow a man to take her virginity in say a bush — we tend to expect to be wooed first; dinner, flowers, candle light the whole shabang (not that other African women don’t do the same)). I hope you don’t think I think SA women are better or that I judge other African women, we have our own problems too mainly that our men are the biggest LIARS & CHEATERS on earth probably beacuse we haven’t exctly carried the banton we were given by our mothers the way we were supposed to. I was just amazed I honestly did not realise what other women have gone through I honestly thought this explosion of early sexual behaviour by kids was a new thing. I think as an African society we need to stand together and protect our children, 12 year olds have no business having sex and babies, we need to teach our sons how to be proper men and respect women and we need to teach our daughters sexual liberation is about more than just choosing when, how and for whom to open our legs — it’s about responsibility and self-respect as well.
Off topic now: if you decide to read the blog you’ll see 2 of the main characters are Naijas as you know I’ve been hard on Greggie-poo crying he’s too soft. Those 2 Naija MEN for me step up to the Madingo title 😀 okay, they are dodgy and have dodgy businesses but they know how to take care of BIZness and DO take care of BIZness when BIZness needs to be taken care of (I even have a secret crush on Python 😉 — minus the gold chain and shades @ night LoL (maara why? They are called SUNglasses for a reason). Please tell Nnenna to post today, I’ll by later to check.
‘Mini emnandi kuwe 😉
Lol @SA_Girl, Its completely okay to link to another blog when its relevant to the comment you’re making. Okay I checked the blog, but 200 comments abeg, I couldn’t read them…
What do I even say in response to your comment? There is not necessarily a link between virginity and sexual abuse. You can be abused without being penetrated by a penis/having your hymen broken. Let me use myself as an example. I was sexually abused as a child, but didn’t have penetrative sex until 2 months before my 23rd birthday.
Okay I’m not living up to my promise *bbm hiding face* no babes my responses have been mainly towards 12 year olds wanting sex, I 1st quetioned the age Malika and Zeebu said it was “normal” and I responsed conceding that I respect that was what others were exposed to and what I was trying to say is that I now realise there are things that other people were exposed to in their youth that I thought were issues that are recent but in actual fact have been around (in black communities that is) and I posted the last comment as evidence that in it wasn’t “normal” back then (since the story is set in recent times and Khalid is in his mid-late 20s, if I’m correct, which means he was 12 around the 90s) for people to be sexually active at that age. I was wrong and I was looking at @ it from my perspecive and I apologise.
@SA_Girl, no need to apologise. After all,a forum like this exists to stimulate conversation. I think your last comment confused me a tad. You’re referring to previous comments made by Malaka and Zeebu? Okay, I’ll leave them to answer it. In response to ’12 year olds wanting sex’, I think that’s a different scenario to child sexual abuse that I thought we were discussing. My thoughts in regards to the former is that, “Yes, children are sexual beings too, which is why one often finds even very young children innocently touching their genitalia”, and as far as I know that’s a universal truth. Children of 12 and younger also experiment with each other. They play Mummy and Daddy for e.g. quite innocently, and that’s completely separate from the kind of sexual abuse stories that have been shared about young girls being assaulted by people who should have known better and were responsible for their care
Clearly we crossed paths somewhere. Maybe I didn’t express myself clearly, what I was saying to Malaka and Zeebu is that after going through the site I’ve realised there’s a lot that passed me by (including sexual abuse) hence I’m conceding to 12 year olds having sex. Curiousity is universal yes but we were not so advanced to the point where by boys were already coercing girls to sex at that age, in other words we didn’t fully understand the concept of sex, our parents weren’t sexual in front of us and eg when Bold & the Beautiful came on you knew to close your eyes when even before Brooke kissed Ridge until you were told to open them or you were told to leave the room (this is a common recollection which we often joke about) so we resorted to childish mindsets hence we were still into cartoons and toys.
Well actually I WAS talking about children being sexual. But as far as I know, Aamir lied to Lerato about Khalid wanting sex at 12. And like I said, I myself like SA Girl, grew up in a ‘sheltered private school/white world’… world. It was a closed mining town, and even the youths from the black areas that I was talking about couldn’t have been having the ‘typical’ black/African upbringing (i.e. I can imagine that the abundance of young working men living in hostels, etc, or men separated from their families must have led to advances to young girls trickling down to influence of children).
I haven’t read the above-mentioned blog, but I would suspect that people with enough internet access in Afrika, who are adept at ‘blogging’ and such grew up in a ‘white world also’…