Aziza Kibibi endured a hellish existence growing up when her father
started raping her when she was about 8-years-old
started raping her when she was about 8-years-old
Aziza Kibibi was only eight-years-old when her father started raping her. By 10, Aswad Ayinde's lessons teaching his daughter 'how to be a woman' turned violent and his regular raping produced five children out of incest.
Those days are now long behind Kibibi, who saw her abusive father sentenced to 50 years in prison on July 26. Aziza Kibibi endured a hellish existence growing up when her father started raping her when she was about 8-years-old. Now 35, married and running a promising baking business, Kibibi recently reflected on her 'nightmare' childhood on NJ.com.
Kibibi's childhood started off relatively normal. She lived with her mother and father on the third-floor of an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, with her Jamaican immigrant grandparents living below.
Kibibi was home-schooled but still allowed to play with the neighborhood children. when her family grew to include eight children they moved into a bigger apartment in the same building.
It was when Kibibi started to mature that her father started giving her unwanted attention.
'He told me I was special. Initially, it was to teach me to be a woman,' she said. 'By the time he started having intercourse with me, he was getting more and more violent. When I would start fighting him, he would hit me. It was more about threats.'
Her father began to change, and became more controlling over the family. He moved them out of their grandparent's apartment to another house in Paterson before relocating to Eatontown in Southern New Jersey. The children were only allowed to watch a small amount of TV, and nothing that depicted traditional family life.
Aswad Ayinde
Modern medicine was outlawed in the house, and he actually told his wife that his relations with Kibibi were to treat her eczema.
Kibibi wasn't the only one Ayinde was having sex with. He had a mistress and was also abusing one of Kibibi's sisters.
He called himself a polygamist and a prophet. His family was allowed to pray to god but could only do so through him.
When Kibibi's first child was born without defects, Ayinde took it as proof that he needed to keep his bloodline 'pure' and continued to rape the girl to get her pregnant.
But the following children would not be so lucky. Two further daughters born from her father would be diagnosed with phenylketonuria (PKU) a disease that prevents the body from breaking down amino acids. PKU can cause brain damage and seizures.
Dr. Anna Haroutunian, a PKU specialist who has treated Kibibi's children, said they definitely got the disease because of inbreeding. PKU is a recessive gene, so both parents must have the gene in order for it to pass along to the child. The gene only appears at a rate of 1 in 4,000 world wide and is must lower for African-Americans. Likely Kibibi's paternal grandfather had the gene.
Over the years, Kibibi became obsessed with escaping. She would sleep just because her dreams were better than real life.
"I'd dream about running away. I'd dream about getting all my brothers and sisters — one of my sisters was a baby, and I was taking care of her — I'd dream about growing breasts and getting milk and running away with them somewhere," she said.
When she was older and one of her sons fell sick, she finally got the courage to take him to the hospital since Ayinde was out of town on a business trip.
But she didn't know how to interact with the doctors and a social worker stepped in, alerting the Department of Youth a Family Services.
When Ayinde returned from his business trip he was enraged, and threatened to forcibly remove his son from the hospital.
Child services stepped in before he could do that and placed them in separate homes.
After that Kibibi, her mother and her sisters moved away from Ayinde as she attempted to get her children back.
Her performance in state-mandated courses and counseling impressed the government officials and eventually her children were returned to her.
'She has been an exceptional mother,' Haroutunian said. 'She was so attentive and patient, it's remarkable. For a young girl - with all she's had - she has been just wonderful.'
Follow on Twitter @rasheeddfirst
No comments:
Post a Comment