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Kitgum: The stories of the ladies in Kitgum10th November 2006 I decided to let Spike drive the interviews while I took notes. I had done a ton of interviews in other villages and felt my technique was getting a little stale. Spike is working hard to become a journalist. Her technique was great and she asked many important questions. These interviews were one of the hardest things for me in Kitgum. The sheer horror that these ladies have gone through is mind boggling. At one point Spike, Gigi (who was listening in) and I had just finished an interview and another lady was on her way. We had to ask her to go away and come back again in five minutes. We were all on the point of breaking down. The girls were in tears and I was close. These interviews will eventually appear as profiles on the GrassRootsUganda.com site. Margaret Aloyo Margaret and her five year old daughter are HIV positive. The five-year-old is currently receiving treatment at the local hospital - a twenty minute walk away. Neither Margaret nor her daughter are receiving life prolonging ARV (Anti Retroviral) medication. Another of her children died when they were only eight months due to meningitis. Margaret and her family have been displaced from their village for many years. Her village is thirty-five miles away from Kitgum. Seven years ago, the LRA raided her village. Many people were killed. Margaret's uncle had his hands and lips cut off. Some people were kidnapped, but Margaret was spared. Her sons - Jeffery and Sunday - were not so lucky. Jeffery's and Sunday's story of survival and death can be found here. Many older ladies were taken as well to carry precious food supplies with them. Escaped ladies said that they walked many miles with the rebels. Sores and blisters covered their feet. If any of them said they were tired, or collapsed from exhaustion, the soldiers said they would give them rest and promptly shot them. She receives no help from the UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) - she missed the registration day. She often begs her neighbors for any menial tasks she might perform for money - "Can I fetch water? Can I break bricks?" She tends to work one day and cooks and eats the next, which means that her family usually gets one meal every two day. Rose Lamwata Her husband - who use to sell coal for a living - has spent the last year or so going in and out of hospital. The doctors are unsure what caused it (Rose believe it was an African curse), but it has left both of his legs paralyzed and he is unable to earn an income. In 2001, the LRA invaded Rose's village. They told the villagers that they were no longer welcome here, torched the village and left with the livestock. Mercifully, no one was killed and no one was kidnapped. Rose and her family were forced to move to an IDP camp (Internally Displaced Person camp) before moving to the main settlement in Kitgum. She still returns to her destroyed village every now and then and plants some crops in the hope that she can make a permanent return. Rose's uncle and his wife were not so lucky. Ten years ago, they were both beaten to death by the LRA and their two children kidnapped. Rose later learnt that both of her uncle's children had stepped on landmines and been killed. The bodies were never recovered. Acholi tradition dictates that you must be buried in your village of birth. Rose managed a quick burial for her uncle and his wife before fleeing to safety. Lingering in the village is not wise as the LRA often take advantage of the burial tradition to target even more people. The UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) provides her with cowpeas, maize and some beans. It is not enough though and Rose picks up casual labour when she can. She cuts grass, breaks rocks and buys vegetables from other locals and then sells them at a profit. She hopes that the current peace talks will succeed and she can return to her village and begin farming again. She also hopes that she makes enough money through GrassRootsUganda.com to adequately feed her family and send all of her children to school. Grace Akech Olobo Her husband Robert used to work in the hospital but lost his job in a bout of layoffs. He occasionally gets work a road grader. Grace used to run a business in her village selling second hand clothes. She financed the business with a small loan. In June 2005, the LRA rebels raided her village and took all her stock and destroyed her business. Mercifully, she has had no other interactions with the LRA. OXFAM has given her a nine-month contract to plant trees and perform weeding. She has one month left on her contract and receives 40,000 shillings ($US 21.62) a month for her work. She has a small plot of land where she plants potatoes. During the dry season her and her family eats but once a day. The wet season sees them eating twice a day. She hopes that the ICC (International Criminal Court) will capture and prosecute Joseph Kony - the head of the LRA. She feels that if he is captured then he can't give orders and the LRA will collapse. She has many skills - mat making, basket making and now bead making - but she is frustrated by the lack of market. GrassRootsUganda.com hopes to fill this void. Helen Oting The most recent of her children to pass away was her twenty year old son who was worked so hard by the Ugandan Army that his chest swelled up to an alarming level before collapsing and taking his life. Helen used to work in the hospital but has had to stop for two reasons. Firstly she has cancer of the uterus and could not handle the work. Secondly her elderly mother is very sick. They tend to look after each other. Her husband was a government soldier, but was killed in an LRA raid in 1971. Acholi tradition dictates that if your brother dies, who are honor bound to marry his widow. Helen was therefore forced into marrying her brother-in-law (who already has a wife). She earns money by digging land and distills a local moonshine that the government soldiers drink. The digging can be very difficult due to her cancer. She receives no food aid from the UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) because she was looking after her sick sister on the registration day. She has been in Kitgum for 11 years. It is just too dangerous for her in her village. She faces twin attacks there. The first come from the nomadic Karamajong tribe. The Karamajong themselves have poor land and will often raid villages when they need food. Rose and her husband were in their mud brick hut when the Karamajong attacked. They set fire to the grass roof of their hut near the door to ensure the occupants would have a hard time escaping. Helen and her husband were lucky though - they managed to rush through the fire-engulfed doorway and received only minor injuries. Then there is the LRA. Helen and her family were hiding in the mountains when they LRA attacked her village. In the house next to Helen's, one person was killed and three were abducted. One of the abducted managed to escape many years later during the confusion of a fire fight. She does not want the ICC (International Criminal Court) to prosecute Joseph Kony - the head of the LRA - for his crimes against humanity. She feels he will stay in the Sudan with the ICC charges over his head. She thinks it is much better if he is just forgiven and life can return to normal as soon as possible. She is encouraged by the craft project. Due to her cancer, she doesn't really have the strength for manual labour - though she will do it if she must. She likes it that she can sit down and make the beads. Above all she wishes to return to her land and work it for a profit so she can pay for her children's' school fees. Florence Acan Her husband died last year. He was a conductor on a taxi. He developed a cough that was so bad that he eventually coughed so hard that it ripped his lungs apart. This type of cough is more common than it should be in Kitgum. Every month she receives a UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) package. It contains: fifty cups of maize, eight cups of beans, one-and-a-half liters of cooking oil and three cups of pasta. She converts some of this into a local alcoholic brew that she sells to the Ugandan Army soldiers. She makes about 10,000 shillings ($US 8.31) a month from the brew. She is living in Kitgum because her village is no longer safe. Some years ago the LRA rebels raided her village. Many of her people were captured. The LRA would taunt their male captives by asking them if they wanted a long or a short sleeve shirt. A long sleeve shirt would mean an amputation above the elbow, a short sleeve shirt above the wrist. Florence said that would often cut of their lips as well. Three of her husbands brothers were captured by the LRA during the raid. The brothers were too old and the LRA felt that if they dragged them all the way into the Sudan that they would only escaped, so they were killed. Many of the old women's hands were cut off as a punishment for feeding those opposed to the LRA. The younger children were kidnapped by the LRA and probably went on to become child soldiers. Her nephews - aged six and twelve - were kidnapped. After three years in the LRA, the twelve year old managed to escape. He reported that the six year old was still alive. He is living with his parents in the IDP camps (Internally Displaced People) camps. Florence is praying that the peace talks will succeed. She feels that the ICC (International Criminal Court) should leave Joseph Kony - the leader of the LRA - alone as that would bring him out of the bush and the peace talks can proceed. Esther Akongo Her husband - who worked as a policeman - tragically died of tuberculosis four years ago. She has had two tragic encounters with the LRA. The first was when she and her 18 year old son were taken from their village three years ago. She managed to escape, but her son was killed. Another time she and another son crossed paths with rebels who were on the way from Gulu to the Sudan. They laughed and tormented both of them before killing her son in front of her. She wailed and begged them to kill her as well. They mocked her and said that if she was Jesus, she could raise her son. They left her with her dead son. She carried the body back to the village and buried him. Since then she has moved to the town in Kitgum where she is relatively safe. She used to receive food aid from the UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) but failed to register in the most recent registration round and so no longer receives any aid. She sells sardines in an effort to raise money. At the moment, she is eating beans and cassava once a day. She wants the ICC (International Criminal Court) to just hurry up and arrest Joseph Kony - the leader of the LRA - because that would bring peace to area quicker. She hopes, that with God's help, she could earn some money and eat twice a day and build a hut for her and her extended family to live in. Jacqueline Amono The father of the family died in 1984 when the LRA ambushed the vehicle he was traveling in. Jacqueline herself fell prey to a vehicle ambush in 2002 when traveling to Gulu to try and buy some cheaper food. The LRA took some of the men, but Jacqueline herself was left alone. Her five year old brother and her mother were also traveling in car that was ambushed by the LRA. Her brother was killed in the initial bombing. Her mother was injured in the ribs but managed to survive. Jacqueline used to work many miles to the "Christ the King" night shelter to avoid being kidnapped. She feels she can sleep safely now because the army barracks are so close to her home. She contributes to the family's income by brewing a local moonshine that is popular with the local soldiers. She makes about 20,000 ($US 10.81) shillings a month from the brew. She buys food from other people in the village, but usual only in small amounts because she cannot a whole sack of rice, for example. She often grinds the maize that she gets between two large stones. This has, unfortunately, forced the 2nd born of the family into hospital as little grains of stone have built up is his intestines and is causing him great pain. The operation will cost 30,000 ($US 16.22) shillings. The family is unsure where they will get the money. She wants Joseph Kony - the leader of the LRA - to be arrested and all the soldiers to come home so that they can live together as a community again. If you want to help the people of Kitgum, one way you could do it is to purchase some necklaces that the ladies have made, sell them and send all the profits back to the ladies. This will help them feed and educate their children. I am setting up a website, www.GrassrootsUganda.com that will coordinate this process. The site is not quite up and going yet, so if you do want to help these ladies, just contact me and I'm sure we can sort something out in the meantime. This is a part of a series of pieces on Kitgum. To see a list of other entries, click here.
(c)
2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena. |
