I was told by my parents that when I presented the symptoms of poliomyelitis and started losing the use of my lower left limb, most people in my neighbourhood asked themselves lots of questions as to why I was like that. Some call it bad luck, others a punishment from God, others look at it as a curse.

I remember very well this story that I was told, that my parents told me, of a native doctor, because here in Africa, when most parents don’t have a solution to, a medical solution, what they do is that they resort to traditional healers.

There was this traditional healer who told my parents that I must have been an evil child and that they had to put me by the riverside to return to where I came from. But my parents did not believe in that and so that is why I was not left by the riverside, like the suggestion had been given.

So, that is my experience. You have stigma, you have discrimination, you have gestures, you know, sometimes people don’t say it but from their gesture, from their reactions, you can be able to read what is going through their minds. But, another side of my story about disability is that I grew up with very supportive parents and supportive siblings who accepted me.