11th November, 2023
By Victoria Oluwayemi
Nigerian comedian, Helen Paul, has shared her triumphant journey of overcoming societal stigma of being labelled a bastard while growing up.
Helen Paul had disclosed a few years ago that she was conceived through rape.
In a widely circulated video on social media, Helen Paul revealed that some family members labeled her as a “bastard” with a bleak future.
“Some of us can’t take rejection. Some of us don’t know that our words can make someone feel rejected forever but it worked for me differently.
“I was born out of rape and I grew up with my grandmother, where everyone in the area called me a bastard. So I grew up hearing that I’m a bastard.
“When my aunties come to give grandma money for feeding, they will say ‘Don’t use this money to take care of one bastard child, use it to take care of yourself and buy your medicine’.
“Once they leave, mama would turn to me and speak in pidgin ‘you don hear wetin dem aunty dem dey talk, na so this world be o. Na people wey suppose be your mama blood be that oh but dem don tell you who you be. If you like, grow up, forget yourself, say if person no do well, nobody they celebrate ham’.
“But I realize that anytime I offended Mama, she would not want to touch me because they have warned Mama not to beat me. So you think a child looking at different talk will grow up with love?
“But today, I am a comedian in Nigeria and a professor in the United States.”