My Life Has a Price: A Memoir of Survival and Freedom
The Sex Abuse Story of a Nigerian Girl Raped in France
The 192-page book, originally written in French, has just been translated into English.
My heart is pounding against my chest. I am having a hard time breathing and a hard time thinking. I cross the terrace. One step, one small step. Then another tiny step. Now I am on the lawn. The grass is cold and wet under my bare feet. A gust of wind pastes my green sweatshirt against my body. My long grey skirt sticks to my legs like the skin of a rhinoceros. My heart tells me to run, to run as fast as my legs can carry me, with all my might. But I can't....
One morning in the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria, a lucky 13-year-old girl named Tina, who came from a modest family, is preparing to go to France to become part of Linda and Godwin Okpara's family. Linda is a homemaker and Godwin is a soccer player at the top French club Paris Saint-Germain, as well as for the Super Eagles, Nigeria's national squad. The couple have four children and Tina dreams of going with them to school and joining in their games, living the European dream. But, soon after her arrival, the reality becomes different. Written in collaboration with acclaimed French journalist, Cyril Guinet, Tina Okpara recounts how imprisonment, torture, and abuse - in a suburban house in the middle of gentrified Europe in the 21st century - could not break her. Tina's gripping story of survival and escape to rebuild her life is a moving testament to a remarkable woman, a true survivor.
Godwin is currently serving a 10-year jail term in France, while his wife, Linda, will be in jail for 15 years.
ALSO CLICK THE BOOK COVER BELOW TO READ MORE ABOUT IGBOS IN NIGERIA IN CHINUA ACHEBE'S NEW NOVEL THERE WAS A COUNTRY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA.
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