Mama Tabitha

I met his lady in 1970 when she supervised the midwives' hostel at Vom Christian Hospital. She had come to Vom in 1936. In 1911 she had been freed by soldiers from slave raiders. Her first memory was of a village in he Mandara Hills and her mother telling her to run. She and her elder brother were taken by slave raiders and she never saw her mother again. She was forced to march with the slavers but after some days they were liberated by soldiers who took the freed slaves to Zungeru where they were housed in railway sheds. A school was started. Tabitha contracted smallpox but survived. From Zungeru she was moved to  the SUM Freed Slaves Home at Rumasha. From there she came to Vom where she served for over 35 years.