A sad song still plays in Aboke

Aboke will forever be remembered for the years when the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels abducted students of St. Mary’s, a girls’ secondary school: Five in 1989 and 139 in 1996.

As Solomon Oleny writes, the events of that day, remembered on October 10 every year, are still fresh in the minds of the community.

When the Comboni Missionaries expanded their base to northern Uganda in early 1950, they were touched by the high level of girlchild illiteracy.

They conceived the idea of a wholistic school in the region, beginning with the worst affected area, Aboke-Abongodero. Seven years down the road, St. Mary’s College was birthed as a junior school in 1957.

The nuns of the Comboni congregation were entrusted with imparting Christian values to produce productive citizens.

Great school

When the education system changed in 1967, the institution upgraded from a junior school to a secondary school.

In 1970, about 20 students sat for the Uganda Certificate Examinations. St. Mary’s Aboke was among the top 10 schools in the country when results were released.

Consequently, St. Mary’s gained popularity, attracting students from all over Uganda. Among the staff posted from the Comboni headquarters in Italy to teach the growing number of students, was an Italian teacher, a nun called Sr.Rachele Fassera, who reported for duty in 1982.

Sister Fassera

After three years of impressive hard work, Sr. Fassera was promoted from a teacher to deputy headmistress, with the late Sr. Mariah Alba as headmistress.

According to Angela Raymond, who has lived in Aboke for over 85 years, Sr. Fassera was a darling among the locals. “With the little Luo she knew, she would chat with them as though they were her childhood friends. Every parent wanted their daughter to be like Fassera,” recalls Angella Raymond.

Darkness strikes

As fate would have it, it was not long before the school begun feeling the pinch of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel activities in the region.

In 1987, a year after the rebellion, St. Mary’s Aboke began receiving threats of attacks from the rebels. Fear gripped the community, but they loved education more, so they let their  children continue with school.

On March 21, 1989, rumours of an  imminent attack circulated around the parish. Sr. Alba, Sr. Fassera, with two other nuns opted to stay told them to flee from the school.

Unfortunately, since no one knew the rebels’ exact route, a group of five students namely Susan Apio, Judith Enang, Jesca Anguu, Brendah Ato and Luizia Namahele fell into a rebel ambush and were captured.

When the rebels reached the school, there were no students. In retaliation, they destroyed a great deal of the school’s property and burnt to ashes three cars belonging to the missionaries.

The rebels ignored Sr. Fassera’s plea for the release of the captured students. She  embarked on a journey to follow the rebels that afternoon to get her girls back, but was forced to abandon her journey when the UPDF clashed with the rebels.

The attack prompted the Government to establish a military barracks with about 200 soldiers near the school. By September 1996, the rebels were no longer a serious threat to Aboke.

The Government substituted the UPDF with a local defense unit (LDU) of about 150 soldiers and they moved about 16 km away from the school, to the neighboring town of Iceme.

A second attack

On October 9, 1996, the rebels returned to the school, knowing that the battalion meant to be on night duty would not be there that night.

By the time the nuns realised that the rebels were upon the school, it was too late. They attempted to evacuate the girls through the back gate, but about 80 rebels had already forced their way into the school.  This time, they abducted 139 students.

An act of courage

By 8:00am, the news had spread. Parents flocked the school. Soon, there was wailing and mourning at St. Mary’s as relatives and teachers alike processed their loss.

Sr. Fassera, with two other teachers, followed the rebels to negotiate the release of the girls. They walked two days before they caught up with the rebels near a railway line at Acokara and went on their knees to plead.

After begging for over two hours, the commander of the rebels, Capt. Ocaya, only released 109 students and remained with 30. Fassera convinced Ocaya to let her write down the names of the girls he had decided to keep. She hoped to somehow find them someday.

With the rescued girls, they found their way back to Aboke. A monumental grotto was built at the school in memory of the tragedy.

Raising awareness

Sr. Fassera and the parents of the abducted children formed the Concerned Parents Association (CPA) to raise awareness on the abductions and work for the return of the children.

Today, Save for Mariam Akello, all the other students who were captured have either returned home, or been confirmed dead. It is now 10 years since Sr. Fassera was posted for Missionary works in United Arab Emirates. She promised to return to Aboke (her second home) as soon as Akello is released, so she can come and seal off the search in a prayer ceremony. Since 1996, St. Mary’s Aboke has dedicated October 10 of every year, to the memory of the girls.

Aboke town

Aboke town, situated in upper Kole district, is located 5km off Gulu Road. Unlike its neighbouring villages like Otwal, Iceme and Ayer, Aboke’s pride in the early 1990s was its unique topography that was exceptionally green and beautiful.

Whenever residents chanced to introduce themselves at functions or events, they would boast: “Aya i boke” (I hail from the leafy zone). “Boke” means leaf in Langi-Luo.

Around 1911, with the influx of Comboni missionaries in the area, the indigenous pronunciation was distorted to Aboke. The more the locals made fun of the  mispronunciation, the faster they forgot the original word.

Among the structures which mushroomed in the 1990s was Rafiki Cotton Ginnery, which is still operational to date. Started by an Asian called Maduli, the ginnery begun as a processing plant for pepper.

The ginnery soon became the centre of attraction, leading to the establishment of restaurants and a shop. With more workers in the area, the demand for foodstuffs and basics increased and this attracted traders from as far as Karamoja.

The ginnery was then incorporated under the cooperative union in the late 1950s.

Business flourished and Aboke became a big town, with a hospital, courts of law and schools among others. The plant also expanded into a cotton ginnery. With the increased population, agricultural production increased significantly. Food was no longer scarce. Aboke became a food basket  especially for Lango and Teso districts (now regions).

Turning point

When Idi Amin seized power, UPC big shots like Dan Opito (then a minister) went into hiding in Aboke, a UPC stronghold.

To fully wipe out any possibility of a political uprising, Amin’s soldiers under the leadership of Capt. Maliyamungu, begun a door-to-door hunt, killing anyone suspected of collaborating with the hunted figures.

According to Raymond Angella who witnessed the massacres, the soldiers would randomly kidnap the suspects in a convoy of army Range Rover pick-ups, never to be seen again.

One of the sites which served as dumping ground for the dead bodies was Kole swamp, the biggest wetland in Aboke sub-county.

Akello Atim, a resident of Abongondero, who had a rice garden near the swamp, estimates that by 1976, over 2,300 bodies had been dumped in the swamp from within and outside Aboke.

The fearful locals were forced to distance themselves from anyone who was hunted by Amin’s soldiers. The hunted UPC officials then begun looting clothes and foodstuffs from the villagers’ granaries. This earned them the name “Olum Olum” translated as enemies from the bush.

Years after Olum Olum, Alice Lakwena’s rebel group swept through the village, abducting teenagers to reinforce her army in 1987.  Before the village could recover, Joseph Kony’s rebels terrorised the village.

Home guards

In June 1989, Okello Okwir, a rich sub-county chief at the time and his wife, Asumpta Okello, a midwife, formed the Home Guards, a local protection unit that was part  civilian and part militia. Inspired by their parents’ determination to restore peace in the area, 12 of the couple’s children voluntarily joined the outfit as the first recruits.

Okello’s family offered free medical care and food to those who joined them in their attempt to restore peace.

This sacrifice moved the locals so much that by early 1990s, the defence unit boasted of over 50 foot soldiers. Okello’s residence soon became a training ground for his new battalion whom he trained during daytime and deployed along the borders of the village.

Since they did not have fire arms, the home guards would arm themselves with machetes, spears, knives, bows and arrows.

After two clashes with the rebels on the same day in Otwal, a village north of Aboke, the home guards seized 12  AK47 rifles from the rebels, who were planning an attack on St. Mary’s Aboke. They captured 19 more rifles after they followed the rebels to their base in Gogodo, present day Oyam district, on March 20, 1989.

Faced with such fearless  opponents, the rebels adjusted their planned raid of the school that night and retreated back to Sudan.

According to Tom Otim, an exrebel, the retreat was as a result of their losing 47 soldiers and guns, something that had never happened before.

The Home Guards that day lost 32 of their fighters to the clash, but this did not deter them from their mission. They continued with their activities until 2006 when the LRA were no longer a threat to the region.