Nigerian actress and comedian, Helen Paul has shared an emotional story of how she was rejected by her mother’s family and their neighbors because she was born out of rape.
She revealed this while speaking at a recent event.
According to her, she was called a bastard by family members from a tender age and was told that she would never amount to anything.
Helen Paul revealed that her mother was ashamed of her and would often tell her that she was “home be met,” which is a Yoruba phrase that means “born of shame.”
This phrase made her feel even more rejected and worthless.
She said;
“Some of us cannot take rejection.
Some of us do not know that the words we say can make someone feel rejected forever. But in the way it worked for me, it was different. What Yoruba called Akanda, a special child, appointed child. Okay, so you must have heard before where I shared on a stage saying I was born out of rape. And I grew up with my great grandmother where everybody in the compound in the area would call me bastard. So I grew up hearing that you are a bastard. I grew up saying my aunties come to give grandma money for feeding. And they would tell grandma, I don’t know if she told my love, and my mother told me a little bit, and I told her, we are not saying you should use this money to take your own bastard child.
We are saying you should use it to take care of yourself by your medicine. And my mom would say, okay, once they leave, my mom would turn to me and my mom would speak in Pigeon. You don’t hear what’s in your aunties, then they talk. And I saw this word view. Now people were supposed to be your mama blood pedato. But they don’t tell you who you be. If you like, grow up, forget yourself.
Say, person will not do well, nobody will celebrate them. And my mom would turn to me and say again in Isha, we be home be met. Can you hear what I’m saying? I’ll say, my home be met. My mom would say, hey, hey. But I realized that every time I offend mama, mama would not want to touch me because they want mama not to beat me. Imagine a child that the mother gave birth to and the mother is feeling ashamed because everyone in the area, she was afraid of me. So the shame, my mother didn’t know what to do or to run to, according to what she told me.
So sometimes she would just carry me without Nemo. She would be looking for where to eat. So then one day she went to Makoko. She heard that there’s this church in Makoko where they share food for free and fruits. And that was a select church, open 24 hours. So she would go there just to collect food and so she can press the banana and put it in her mouth.”
Helen Paul was born without a name. She was gifted one by a pastor who saw her mum feeding her fruit because there was no food.
When she was old enough to go to school, she needed a surname. Her aunts refused to give her their father’s name, so a kind man at her school lent her his own.
Watch the full video below;
