Rahama Haruna, 20, who died in Kano on Christmas Day after a brief illness, lived a life that impacted positively on people. She used her inability as a tool of strength. No wonder Kano was thrown into mourning when the news of her death spread like a wild fire last Sunday. When she was born 20 years ago in the tiny community of Ungwan Sarki, Lahadin Makole village in Warawa Local Government Area, she came into the world as a complete and normal human being, but six months after her birth, Rahama was attacked by a strange illness that defied all medical solution. Her legs crippled, just as her two hands got deformed. She lived her entire life inside a bowl which aided her mobility.
The parents who showed her love until her death did all they could to cure Rahama, to no avail. At the end of it all, she accepted her fate living with ability in her disability. She was a friend of all and her situation. Coupled with kindness and love for her fellow human beings, she became an asset to the family as she grew up currying good will from kind-hearted people, organisations and even Kano State government who gave her support and ensured that she and her family did not live a life of want.
About 25 kilometres away from Kano, Ungwan Sarki, an agrarian and livestock community looked unsettled as villagers kept on trooping into the late Rahama’s compound to comfort the parents and siblings. The sympathisers could not hold their tears as they continued to speak good about the dead. Rahama’s is a life lived with joy and happiness even with her disability. She never attended school, but what she never lacked was common sense, mixed with a sense of humour and native intelligence which stood her out from her peers. All the villagers who spoke to our reporter about the life and times of Rahama testified to her goodness and love for mankind. “We will really miss her. She was a nice person and very friendly with people around her. Her presence attracted the attention of very important people who always come to this village to visit her. The goodwill she gets from philanthropists also spread to us who are close to the family. “Rahama was generous to a fault and I am yet to believe that she is really dead,” Hajiya Zara Jubril, a villager, said.
Grief was written all over Rahama’s mother, Fadimatu Hadi Haruna (45), who gave a vivid account of Rahama’s life on earth. According to her, “when I was carrying the pregnancy of my daughter, I was very healthy and sound. I delivered her hale and hearty. After a period of six months, a strange ailment befell her. Immediately, her dad and I started going round in search for solution to her sickness. In the quest for finding cure to her strange ailment, we went to over 33 traditional healers but none of them could proffer any solution to the problem. Rather, we were advised by these same traditional healers to stop.
“As her health continued to deteriorate by the day, anytime I wanted to lay her on bed or on a mat, she always screamed of serious pains; she slept in tears and woke up also in tears. She couldn’t sit, only to be placed inside a plastic bowl. That was when she was six months old. At nights, I usually took her out of the plastic bowl and lay her on a mattress in the compound. The mattress was given to her by one Good Samaritan.
“The coming of Rahama to this world through us turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Whenever Rahama was being taken out, she’s always brought back home with gift items from various sympathisers. God brought helpers to us. We lacked nothing to cater for her and the family during her lifetime. We did have enough to eat and drink. We enjoyed because we did have virtually all we needed from philanthropists. Up till the time to her death, Rahama was always in serious pains before sleeping and at waking up from bed. These were the challenges I went through while nurturing her.
“I love Rahama very much, even the world also showed their love for her because of her challenges and her disposition to life. I gave birth to Rahama on a Sunday, by 2pm in 1996 and her death also came on a Sunday at around 2pm on the 25th of December (coincidentally on a Christmas Day). Now, I am completely devastated. My world is empty without Rahama who was the bread-winner of the house. She was the eleventh among her siblings. Five among her elder siblings passed on before her due to similar strange ailments. None among them went through the severe pains Rahama experienced during her lifetime. Anytime Rahama went out, due to her compassionate condition, people would be moved in pity to give out alms/gifts to her.
“This in-turn brought blessings to our home. Even the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who was moved over her pathetic condition and other philanthropists, sent gifts like foodstuffs and other items to us. Most at times, I would try to persuade Rahama to remain indoors and not to go out seeking for alms, but she would always insist that whenever she stayed at home, her sickness weighed her down. By this, she sneaked out of the house without our knowledge to Kano. Sometimes, she even went as far as borrowing money for her transportation. It was just her hubby moving out to see friends and looking around the city.
“Today, the cold hands of death have snatched my beloved Rahama from me. Am grateful to all those who have in one way or the other catered for Rahama and the family. God in His infinite mercy will continue to reward them in abundance. Now we are helpless and dumbfounded as we have nobody to help us again since Rahama is gone. Because of Rahama, we did have enough to eat, drink and clothes to wear. We even had surplus to share with our neighbours. Now, Rahama is no more. What is left for us? Six of our children have been committed to mother-earth through strange illnesses, but only Rahama was able to make it this far. Since her demise, I have been through serious emotional trauma; I have been weeping ever since. I wonder how my life would continue without Rahama. The only thing is to pray for her and commit everything in the hands of God because He knows the best. He brought her into this would through me to assist the family and He has decided to take her back at His appointed time.”
For the father, Malam Haruna Hussaini (47), death did him a serious blow by taking Rahama, his favourite daughter, away from him. Speaking to our reporter on Rahama’s death and how she spent her life while alive, he said: “Rahama was born like every other child; without any deformity or abnormality, but her plight started when she was six months old. As we started noticing some strange deformity from her legs, up to her arms, our initial assumption was that she had some form of dislocation, but it turned out not to be something else which we could not comprehend. From there, we started visiting various traditional healers in search of finding cure to our daughter’s problem. Anytime we were given some medicines to administer on her, her health condition would worsen.
“It started from her legs and then moved to her arms, as a result of which turned her limbless because they all got shrunk. I expended all my money and other resources on her to make sure she got the best treatment available, but to no avail. All my savings and earnings went to her treatment. To some extent, I was living comfortably with my family, but now, I can’t boast of anything in my life. I used to be a cattle trader with many herds of cattle and also a successful farmer before the coming of Rahama, but her health challenges consumed virtually everything I had and left me with nothing. Her mother was restless, likewise me too. I walked the length and breadth of our village and beyond in search for a remedy to my late daughter’s health, but no solution was forth coming. At some point, she would show some signs of relief, and the next moment, the sickness would resurface.
“This time, more severe than it used to be. By the time Rahama was being taken out to seek for alms, we started receiving blessings from good Samaritans; even one of them was so kind to donate a wheelchair to my daughter. Based on the assistance from the state government and some philanthropists, my daughter was asked what she would like to do. All that came from her was that she was interested in trading. As you can see here, I built a shop for her, where she intended to start her trade as a shop owner. Rahama was exactly 20 years before she passed on. Rahama has done everything for me in my life, she was my everything, even to the family and neighbours. I am devastated over the death of my beloved daughter. The death of Rahama has created a big vacuum that can hardly be filled because she was our everything in life. “Dignitaries came to the house in which, if not for Rahama, we would never come across them. She brought joy and happiness to the family. Since the departure of Rahama from this earth, whenever I sight/see anything of her properties, I get traumatised. I am bitter. I had just a pair of clothes on me for over a period of one year, before Rahama wiped my tears. God knows the best. May God forgive her of all her trespasses, bless all those that have in any way assisted and showed compassion to us.
“Rahama was a girl that people loved. Anywhere she was, people surrounded her because she was jovial, kind-hearted and hardly got annoyed. These were the qualities people saw in her which prompted people to always want to carry her to places; to visit families, friends and neighbours. The death of Rahama was a big shock for the people of Lahadin Makole, her home town. What this innocent girl did in my life is immeasurable. All I can do is to pray for her soul to rest in peace.
“All the traditional healers that we visited arrived at one cause of her ailment. They said it was a spiritual sickness that defied medical treatment and I was advised not to be worried because the more we applied any medicine, the more her life would be at stake. As we wouldn’t want to lose her to anything, we had no choice than to leave her alone. I have never seen any kind of sickness like this in my entire life. Rahama lived all her life in agony. She slept on her back with her face upward, went to bed in pains and tears, got out of bed in pains and tears all through the 20 years she spent in this life.”
Though she is no more, Rahama’s story remains an inspiration to many disabled people around the world. Though she faced challenges, she lived a life laced with joy and happiness. She had strength in her weakness and made sure that all who came across her benefitted from her large heart and generosity, just as she became a source of life to her parents who looked up to her as the bread winner of the family.
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