Chetanna Maduewesi

My father, Chetanna Maduewesi was a hard worker. 

Born as the first son and child of his family, he had all the responsibility of the household on his shoulders from the day he was born.

He had a younger brother and two sisters, one of whom died a few years after her birth.

Subsequently, his father married another wife and a host of half-siblings emerged from the union.

They were poor.

Extremely poor; below the poverty line kind of poor.

My father was born a few months before the civil war ended, therefore, he thankfully didn't have to live through the horrors of the war.

His father struggled to make ends meet for his family after the gruesome war but conditions were difficult at the time.

My father and his siblings had to work on their family farm, clear the farmlands of other people in the village, fetch firewood and water from the stream in the next village which was miles away from their little compound.