THE MASTER KEY

CHAPTER ONE

Disability Is Not Inability

In a remote village in West Africa, there lived a poor family named Suleman. Mr. and Mrs. Suleman were married for fifteen years but they had no child. Their lives were sad and miserable because people mocked them and people called them all sorts of names.

After fifteen years of marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Suleman received the happiest news of their entire lifetime. The news came as a coincidence. Mr. and Mrs. Suleman had been visiting prayer camps to solve their birth problem. A pastor and a chief priest prophesied on the same day that Mr. and Mrs. Suleman will have a child.

The pastor said that the child should be taught good Christian morals and virtues. The chief priest on the other hand said that the child was given to them by the gods so he/she should be dedicated to the gods. The child was to serve the gods her entire life. Mr. and Mrs. Suleman were in a dilemma. They did not know what whether to take the pastor or the chief priest’s opinion.

After a year, Mrs. Suleman delivered a bouncing baby girl. The girl was crippled. Because she was their only daughter, they managed and enrolled her in a school. Mr. and Mrs. Suleman took the pastor’s advice because they believed God gave them the child not the chief priest. Shakeerah Suleman, the child found things difficult in school. She could not play as other children do. At the early age of three she started to go to church. Even though she was disabled, she was very smart in class. All her teachers loved her. Her parents carried her to school everyday. Because she was very smart and always interactive in class, her teachers contributed and bought her a wheel chair. The wheel chair helped her in many ways.

Her community lacked many social amenities and infrastructure. They did not have a good road and good drinking water. Their only source of water was from a stream.

The pastor who prophesied her birth left the town because he was a missionary pastor. The chief priest took advantage of his absence because the chief priest knew he could do nothing when the pastor was around.

When Shakeerah was twelve years old, the chief priest instructed Shakeerah’s parents to bring her to the shrine so that she will be dedicated to the gods. The chief priest said that Shakeerah was a ‘Trokosi’ child so it was her destiny to serve the gods her entire life. The chief priest told Shakeerah’s parents to bring her to the shrine in three days otherwise their whole family will perish in a week. Shakeerah’s parents had no other option but to do as the chief priest said. Shakeerah was sent to the shrine to serve the gods. Her stay at the shrine was not a good one. She ate once a day. She cleaned the whole shrine everyday and fetched five pans of water everyday into the great calabash. The great calabash never got full.

Her parents were not happy about her stay at the shrine. Saturdays were the only free days for Shakeerah because it was the sacrificial day and no child is allowed to see what goes on in the shrine.

After six months of her stay at the shrine, the pastor who prophesied her birth was replaced. His replacement was a young, spiritual and kind man missionary

One Saturday, when Shakeerah was on break, Pastor Newell the new pastor met her. Shakeerah was reading a dilapidated poster.

Shakeerah read the poster fluently. Many people avoided and criticized Shakeerah because she was a ‘Trokosi’ child. Pastor Newell on the other hand admired and praised Shakeerah. He went closer to her and asked her some questions. He asked Shakeerah her school and home. Shakeerah told him that he was not attending any school and she did not live with her parents. Pastor Newell asked her where she stayed but she remained silent.

After Shakeerah left, the people who saw Pastor Newell speaking to Shakeerah rebuked him and told him that he’s going to get cursed if he goes closer to Shakeerah the Trokosi child. Pastor Newell had passion for the little girl. He asked people where she stayed. Everyone he asked told him that she was a Trokosi child who only came out on Saturdays.

Every Saturday, Pastor Newell met Shakeerah and discussed with her. He shared the good news in the Bible with her.

One Saturday, he gave Shakeerah a Bible so that she could be reading it constantly. Shakeerah hid the Bible but the chief priest found it and burnt it. When the chief priest burnt the Bible, he got sick for two weeks. Pastor Newell took Shakeerah to her house. The chief priest recovered. Shakeerah also got sick when she escaped from the shrine. The only way she could be free from her sickness was either she continued serving at the shrine as a Trokosi child or she was pardoned and released by the chief priest as a Trokosi child through sacrificial means.

This led to a clash between Pastor Newell and the chief priest. Their battle lasted for about a month but the chief priest lost the battle because God is the King of Kings. The chief priest released Shakeerah as a Trokosi child.

The whole village jubilated because Shakeerah was released. Pastor Newell and Shakeerah evangelized to people in the village. Shakeerah became liberated with her family. She attended church regularly. When she reached the age of fourteen, men began to show interest in her because of her astonishing beauty even though she was crippled. Shakeerah’s parents owed a wealthy old man a huge amount of money. The wealthy old man named Yusif Mba told Shakeerah’s parent that they could use their daughter as an exchange but they refused. Yusif reported them to the chief of the village.

Pastor Newell managed to pay the debt and prevented Shakeerah from getting married to Yusif Mba who was old enough to be her grandfather.

Pastor Newell believed that Shakeerah had a great future. He flew Shakeerah to the U.S.A and enrolled her in a school. Even though she was crippled, she topped her class which consisted of people with different skin color and culture. Shakeerah graduated with a PHD in Business and Marketing.

She flew back to her hometown and she was met with sad news that her parents had passed away. She wept bitterly. She set up an organization named Anti-Child Marriage.

Her organization protested against child marriage and young girls being used as Trokosi children. Her appeal got the attention of the president of her country. The president abolished child marriage and Trokosi.

Shakeerah was an entrepreneur who helped young girls to achieve their dreams. Her good works were noticed beyond her continent. She got awarded by U.N.O. and she won the most inspirational woman of the year award for three consecutive years.

In an interview, a news reporter asked her what kept her going even though she was crippled. She said “I thank pastor Newell for giving me a new life and one thing he told me was that Disability Is Not Inability”.

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