“I was very angry with every kind of
man, anyone that called himself a man… It’s only that I could not manage
to hunt and kill them but my desire was to use any weapon to kill men –
because one of them killed me. Inside me, I said to myself, ‘I will
never tell them my status. Whoever comes to me, I will finish him. The
way they infected me, I must infect them also.’ I don’t know how many
men I infected but they are thousands.”
This is the true-life, shocking story of
Francis, a prostitute who spent 18 of her 32 years on earth in the s*x
trade, sleeping with up to six men daily in the major cities of Tanzania
and Namibia. It chronicles her diabolical form of revenge after
discovering she was HIV/AIDS Positive in 2006 and her remarkable
turnaround at an unlikely destination in Lagos, Nigeria.
Growing up in a rural village in Tanzania,
the thrills of ‘city life’ grew increasingly more attractive for
Francis, a fourteen year old who hated school and was notoriously
rebellious. Striking a plan with friends, she abandoned school one
fateful day and set out for Dar Es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital,
leaving her home and family behind.
“When we reached the city, I found a lot of
girls who were older than me who were in this business of prostitution,”
Francis explained. “They introduced me how to behave in order to seduce
men and get clients.” Two years down the line aged 16, the young girl
was already pregnant for an unknown father. Attempts to abort the child
through native concoctions all failed and she resolved to return home to
have her child.
However, the desire to prostitute continued
even after giving birth. “I was even prostituting when I was
breastfeeding and eventually, my mum took the child away from me.”
Francis immediately returned to the city, linking back up with her
group. Four years later, Francis’ mum sent a message to her that a
family relative was willing to take her to Namibia to save the family
from shame and get her out of the ‘mess’. She eventually agreed.
“When I reached Namibia, I felt I was
imprisoned. I couldn’t go to clubs, smoke, drink or meet men – which is
what I wanted to do.” Fighting her aunt daily, she eventually threw
Francis out of her home. “It was celebration for me that I can go back
to the same lifestyle. I already made a group of friends that were
prostituting… They introduced me to the area where I could hunt for men
and sleep with them.”
Living a lavish and promiscuous life on the
streets of Windhoek, Namibia, Francis had lost all touch with her
family. ‘Business’ was booming due to the influx of foreign workers in
the city who would regularly patronise her and also introduced her to
hard drugs. However, the consequences of her actions were about to catch
up on her.
“In 2006, I discovered that I was pregnant
again. I didn’t know the father because I was sleeping with five or six
men a day – I just wanted money to enjoy,” she recounted. Encouraged by a
fellow prostitute not to abort, Francis visited a hospital when the
pregnancy reached six months where they conducted several tests. “That
is when I discovered I was HIV/AIDs positive.” Shock. Bitterness. Rage.
Emotions ran wild within the heart of the young s*x-worker. “There was
this voice that said – ‘Now, it’s better you die!’ ”
Knowing that death was close, the embittered
prostitute resolved to take as many men as possible along with her. “I
cannot count how many men I have infected. If any man told me we should
use a c****m, I would tell him, ‘Look at how I look? I cannot have such a
disease.’ So, the man would end up trusting me. They are thousands.”
Francis expanded her ‘business’ horizons via
the internet, particularly using the dating social network ‘Eskimi’. It
was in 2013 that she encountered a Nigerian man while looking for a more
‘serious’ relationship. “The man became attracted to me and asked for
my contact details. He told me he wanted to come to Namibia and visit
me.” When the Nigerian arrived, the couple forged a relationship,
culminating in Francis falling pregnant. She did not divulge her health
status.
After giving birth, Francis had a bout of
guilt and visited a pastor at Christ Embassy Church to confess her sins.
“After confessing to the pastor, who is also a Nigerian, he met the
father of my child and asked if he really knew me. He told him, ‘This
girl confessed to me that she is HIV/AIDS Positive.’ ” Francis’ Nigerian
lover fainted upon hearing the news and was rushed to hospital.
After recovering, he ‘ran away’ from her,
moving to Angola. However, their young baby was nearing the age of nine
months. Francis was desperate. Her finances were stagnant and she was
tired of prostitution. After pleading with the Nigerian, a settlement
was eventually reached. “He said the only thing he would do for me was
to give me money to go to Nigeria and drop the child with his parents.”
Some weeks earlier, a friend had introduced
Francis to a Christian television station which was gaining increasing
popularity in Namibia. It was Emmanuel TV, the station of Nigerian
Pastor T.B. Joshua. Seizing the opportunity to visit Nigeria, Francis
decided to visit the famous church in Lagos after she had dropped off
her son. “When I arrived in Lagos, they put me in a car and took me
straight to a state called Enugu. I only stayed one week there. Then I
had to search for The Synagogue.”
On Sunday 27th April 2014, Miss Francis sat
gingerly in the huge auditorium of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations
(SCOAN) in Lagos. It was the time of prayer from the ‘wise men’ and she
was nervous. “Before the wise man came close, I felt like electricity
dividing my body and I started shivering. I don’t know what happened
when he prayed for me.” Francis received ‘deliverance’ from the ‘demon’
that pushed her to a life of prostitution.
The following week, Sunday 4th May 2014,
Francis publicly gave her confession in the crowded church. “I am here
to kneel down and ask the whole world, every man I encountered, to
forgive me,” she tearfully said, explaining that after her ‘deliverance’
she began regretting her actions for the first time. She went further
to send a poignant message to her fellow s*x-workers. “There is no
benefit in prostitution. The end of prostitution is bitterness and
sorrow. I advise youth – if you are in the same situation I was in, let
me be an example in your eyes. Drop that lifestyle immediately and seek
the face of God.”
Francis stayed another week in the Nigerian
church after which T.B. Joshua gave her the sum of $1,500 to restart her
life in Namibia. “I will never return to prostitution. I am so grateful
to God,” she concluded.
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