WOUNDED PRINCESS

She was 5. They killed her childhood.

Nigera, 1965. Mary was born in a bush hospital. At 3, in a war-torn Biafra, she was sent to a camp in Gabon. Disease and malnutrition caused damages: she couldn't walk anymore. Nobody believed she would regain use of her legs. But she has such a craving for life!

At 5, she flew to France: a couple offered to support her. After surgical operations and years of rehabilitation, a new life started, not that far from her adoptive family, with her white siblings. But at 12, she discovered that her parents were still alive, that she had black siblings and another first name: Regina. Most of all, because she was not a French citizen, authorities demanded her return in Nigera, with a family she did not know, and a language she did not master.

How would she be received by her family?

REGINA UBANATU
A graduate in Executive Master in Human Resources from Sciences-Po, Paris, Regina Ubanatu lives and works in the business district of La Défense. She is the founder of the French association RIFH (Réponses Initiatives Femmes Handicapées) which works for the recognition and rights of disabled women.