Written piece
The Becoming
Deborah Sabuni
Tanzania
About this piece
A poem about the hidden pain of becoming a woman, where menstrual pain is often normalized but may signal deeper health concerns. It questions silence, urging care, attention, and truth so "normal" does not hide suffering in bodies, change, and life.
At that age
I hated so many things about myself
and the changes I was seeing for the first time in my body
especially my chest.
They came in as lumps
They were painful
They were used of the flat as I was playful
When playing, my thoughts screamed “Protect your chest"