menace in my blood - my affliction with sickle cell anaemia

Menace In My Blood is populated with startling and unbelievable experiences for a child challenged by sickle cell disorder. He was seven when he underwent sexual molestation at the hands of a relative. Before this he had learnt to smoke (real cigarettes and crumpled pawpaw leaves). Another relative took him on hand to visit - and spend nights - with a prostitute. At 14, he regularly sneaked from school to engage in gambling. Of his sickle cell experiences, the following are prominent: transfusions, blood in urine, bed-wetting (’I was already in the university before the whole embarrassment finally ceased’) and severe, constant, headaches.