Part of the material included in the press folder I prepared on behalf of Horizont3000 – Austrian Organization for Develompent and Cooperation – for the Austrian Foreign Minister Mr Michael Spindelegger and his delegation who came to Uganda in July to evaluate the progress of the projects funded by the Austrian government.
From the interviews with some of the beneficiaries of the PSP programme of Caritas Gulu
LILLY AJOK TELLS HER STORY OF ABDUCTION AND RETURN.
Ajok Lilly returns from the well where she went to collect water. A walk of more than 30 minutes with a heavy jerrican loaded on her head and that her slender body seems to carry effortlessly. Inside her round-shaped house with a thatched roof she finds her husband Samson and her five children waiting impatiently for her return, hoping that the only main meal of the day will be ready soon. Lilly is a 30-years-old farmer and has been living in the same area for the last 13 years. There are other five houses not far from Lilly’s, all of them enjoying the shadow of tall palm trees that constitute the main vegetation along with bushes and a few mango trees. Twenty minutes drive from Gulu, this isolated place has for long been at risk of random attacks by the LRA rebels. Since two years, there seem to be a stable peace in Northern Uganda and many communities start feeling secure in their homes. However, Lilly cannot forget her abduction, and her 14-years-old daughter fathered by a LRA commander during her captivity is the living proof that her past was not just a nightmare.
”I was abducted the 3rd of October 1993. At that time I was living with my parents whose house is only few kilometres far from the house where I live now. It was a Sunday night and like every night since I can remember, we were heading to a safer spot to spend the night with other families of the neighbourhood.” Cautiously and quietly the night walkers were proceeding in the dark finding their way in the monotonous landscape of the savana where even a cat would find it difficult to claw its way through. Only once reached destination, they would relax and get some sleep. But that night of October Lilly and other seven children did not make it.
”The soldiers caught us by surprise. They grabbed me and my sister, two other girls and three boys. The rebels made us walk and walk and walk in the bushes. We kept on moving for many miles and many hours, from dawn to dusk. Until we reached a rebel camp. We usually had to carry luggages and were moving continuously. There was no room for feeling tired or complaining, because they would beat us. But my feet and legs were swollen.” Fear was reigning among the abducted children. The boys were later turned into child-soldiers and soon the day came for the girls to fullfil their duties as ‘wives’ of the rebels. ”One day all the girls were lined up. The rebels were standing in front of us, busy checking our bodies to see whether we were healthy. Then, they would pick up any of us and you become the wife of the rebel that chooses you. From the day a rebel chooses his wife, the girl has to obey at his rules. I was chosen by a commander and since the day I was made his wife I had to obey him in everything. When he wanted to have sex with me, I could not refuse him or disagree.”
One year passed. Lilly survived that time and became pregnant. She was often feeling sick, too often to be of any use for the rebels, who eventually preferred sending her back home. ”I was feeling very sick and the commander who chose me as his wife left me behind. At that time, they decided to head towards Southern Sudan and I was of litte use because I was getting weak and could not transport any luggage. I was slowing the pace of the group.” Lilly was offloaded on a road miles away from home like an unwanted and useless piece of merchandise. Lost in the bushes she walked for ten days orienting herself with the sun, until finally she managed to reach Gulu.
Lilly returned home after one year and two months in captivity. Her parents were overjoyed to have her back. Like anyone else who returns from captivity, she was required to report for interrogations to the governamental forces. Willing to undergo the interrogation and confident that the worst was anyway passed, Lilly reported to the UPDF officials. ”I went and I thought they would let me go back home soon. But the soldiers of the UPDF kept me in their barracks for about two months. During this period I was repeatedly raped by one of the commanders, who did not care that I was pregnant. I felt so desperate and again left without choices. The UPDF soldier used to tell me ”When you were in captivity with the LRA, did you refuse this? Why do you refuse it now?!” And he would just take what he wanted. I felt very hurt and did not have any way to rebel.” After 60 long days of further abuses, Lilly’s father took the courage and went to the UPDF barracks to ask for his daughter. ”When my father came, they finally let me go.”
Lilly gave birth to her daughter and managed to go back to a normal life. She met Samson who later became her husband. ”He used to see me going for prayers and started talking to me, so we got to know each other. He knew I was a single mother but he ignored the fact that I had been abducted. I did not disclose to him the truth for fear of being rejected.” Samson and Lilly started living together. ”After our first child died, I told Samson about my past. I thought that the cause of the baby’s death was related to the my abduction.” In order to cleanse from her past, Lilly decided to go through a traditional ceremony, with the conviction that performing the ceremony would grant her the peaceful life that she was so badly in need of. The traditional Acholi ceremony was performed by the elders of the village in front of her family. ”I stepped on the eggs, and after a goat was slaughtered we shared the meal with my family and the rest of the community. Since that day, nothing bad has ever happened to me. The children we have had with Samson are all healthy.”
She admits, however, that she kept on having nightmares and flashbacks. ”I was told about Caritas by a friend who was also abducted. When I went to visit Caritas office in Gulu I received a warm welcome. I told them my experience, and I was counseled and given a lot of psychological support. The caritas social workers still come to visit me from time to time and check on me. There is peace now, at least in my family and certainly more peace in my mind.”
Lilly and Samson both work as farmers. They go every day in their garden and are able to provide some food for their numerous family but have too little money to be able to send their children to school. ”The biggest challenges now come from the children. I have five children and care for other two orphans of abducted people who never returned.” Lilly has a plan for the future and reveals that she has just started a training to learn how to handle microcredit. ”I wish I could get a loan and start a small business so to have more money to pay the school fees for my kids. In order to achieve this I need, above all, to remain healthy. And for this I pray to God.”
ACHOLI CLEANSING CEREMONIES ALLOW A PEACEFUL RETURN HOME
Acut Omer is a village 40 km far away from Gulu, in the parish of Paibona, Awach county. During the war it used to be one of the LRA bases. The clashes between the LRA and the UPDF troops forced the residents to leave their homes and find refugee in the Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDP) camps. Since November 2008 the community of Acut Omer has gradually started leaving the camps to go back to their houses and land. However, going back to the home village is not a smooth process. People would find human bones everywhere, and even after the area has been cleaned, elders still feel the presence of the spirits of the dead ones. Many who flee the area during the war are haunted by terrible memories from the past, and going back can be a traumatizing experience.
On a Thursday afternoon, a group of 19 men and 18 women accompanied by a few toddlers meet to share the fears and nightmares they have. Facilitated by few members of Caritas staff, that provides them with psychosocial support, the community discusses openly about the difficulties that they encounter and that prevent them from returning home peacefully. During the meeting, the role of Caritas staff is to make sure that everyone can have a say and that the community unanimously agrees on a way forward.
The meeting is attended by Paul Rubangakene, Caritas Project Officer, Zelinda Aromorach, Caritas Social Worker, Zacheus Otto Akena, the Caritas representative person in the community, and the Local Counselors 1 and 2 (the Local Counselors -LC- are elected democratically. LC1 represents the village, in this case Acut Omer; LC2 represents the parish, in this case Paibona; LC3 represents the sub-county, in this case Awach; LC4 represents the municipality, in this case the municipality of Gulu; and finally, the LC5 represents the district, in this case the district of Gulu).
Paul Rubangakene opens the discussion and asks people to explain what makes it difficult to return peacefully to their houses.
Elders disclose some of their fears, visions, and nightmares which reveal how much people are still shocked by what they witnessed and experienced during the war.
Aldo Opobo: ”I was in the bush close to my home. I was collecting wood to repair the house that the war destroyed. While I was walking towards the village I suddenly felt aching everywhere, as if somebody was beating me brutally with a stick. I saw people coming from every direction, and all of them were holding sticks. This lasted for a while until I realized that none was there and I was not been beaten even though I felt the pain. I was so fearful afterwards that I went back to the IDP camp.”
Augustino Otto: ”Not long ago, I decided to return home. I repaired my house and was settling in there. One day I was going to the well to fetch water. Before I approached the well I started hearing noises. I stopped to pay more attention, and I recognized the voices of babies crying. The cries were coming from the well and I ran away in disbelief. There were no babies really crying in the well but nobody has ever gone back there to fetch water. People abandoned that well and are now walking a longer distance to get the water.”
Maurina Layer: ”My house is close to the well where babies were heard crying. One night I went to bed and locked my door as usual. I turned off the candle and fell asleep. Suddenly, I was woken up by the noise of somebody outside who was trying to force my door open. I crouched in bed trembling with fear when I heard the door slam. Men with pangas appeared and threatened to chop me into pieces. I started screaming so loudly that neighbours came but I fainted before they reached. My neighbours told me that the door was open but nobody was in the house. I got so scared that I refused to live in my house and went back to the IDP camp.”
Alisantoriana Akello: ”I went to the garden with my children. While I was digging I sent them to a nearby place where there is a big mango tree. As soon as they left, I saw a group of rebels passing by. They called me saying ‘Mama’. I got angry and yelled at them asking what they wanted and to leave me in peace. When my children came back I went back to the house. One of my daughters who ate a mango from the tree went crazy and is mad since then. We soon realized that there was something wrong with that mango tree: surprisingly, no animals were eating its fruits. The mangoes would fall and rot on the ground without any living being eating them. This is because many people died in this area and it has not been cleansed. We believe that only an Acholi ceremony can cleanse the place and allow us to stop fearing.”
Young people remain silent for most of the time. Many of them were born and grew up in the IDP camps and have lost connections with their home villages and traditions.
When the community is asked by the Caritas’ mediators what should be done in order to create a conducive environment for people to return home, the LC2, Santo Ouma, speaks on behalf of the village: ”In this very place where we are gathering today – he says pointing at a palm tree – one of the most brutal fights between LRA and UPDF took place. The entire village has served as the battle ground for confrontations between the governmental troops and the rebels. We believe that a traditional Acholi ceremony must be performed in order to cleanse the place where many atrocities have been committed and allow the souls of the dead ones to rest in peace.”
The community eventually chooses the elders that are going to perform the ceremony. Zacheus Otto Akena, the Caritas representative person in the community, announces the names of the five women and the three men selected. The Acholi ceremony usually needs the sacrifice of an animal and the members of the community ask Caritas to provide them with four sheeps – symbol of innocence and purity – that will be killed and cooked without salt. The elders selected will then visit the four areas of Acut Omer and tradition wants them to throw pieces of the cooked unsalted meet in different spots. The ceremony ends with the whole village sharing the remaining meat, as a symbol of solidarity and retrieved peace and balance.
In Acholi culture there are many ceremonies carried out to solve different kinds of problems. They have always been performed by the chief elders of the community since many decades, and the goal is to restore a broken balance, to forgive and forget. The one that the community of Acut Omer has chosen, was traditionally performed by the chief elders when somebody in the village was murdered. For the people of Acut Omer, the Acholi ritual that they chose to perform is believed to be a powerful and effective mean of restoring their peace of mind as well as reconciling the members of the community with the dead ones.
1 Comment
September 18, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Great site…keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read..
-Bill-Bartmann