MY MUM SOLD ME INTO PROSTITUTION
Life can never be what you expect it to be. I was born into a rich family of four children. My father was an accountant at a respectable firm, until he fell sick and could not continue working.
Life can never be what you expect it to be. I was born into a rich family of four children. My father was an accountant at a respectable firm, until he fell sick and could not continue working.
We had to move from Nakasero, where we were staying to my uncle’s boys’ quarters in Kamwokya.
Life became harder.
That year, my two sisters and brother dropped out of school. We started to skip meals too. Our mother would leave us after supper at around 9.00pm and return in the morning, sometimes with to buy food. During the day, she would sleep while we did the chores.
That was the life for the next one year.
One morning, mum told me I too had to leave school. I had sort of expected this, but not that soon. I was in Senior Five. She also told me that we would start working together in the coming month because she was working out something with her boss. I asked her what work it was and she scolded me saying I did not want to work.
She told me that the work was difficult but very paying. I feared to ask lest she scolded me again. But I had long suspected it was prostitution, factory work, or a waitress in a hotel.
When we left for work one evening, I was very anxious. My mother seemed very unsettled too. We took a taxi to town and when we got to the Old Taxi Park, my mother rang someone who said he would pick us up at Pioneer Mall. When the special hire arrived, my mother told me to get in, saying she would join me later. “Just trust me. He is taking you to the place of work,†she said. It is then that it occurred to me that something bad was going to happen to me.
I was taken to a house in Kasubi. We entered the gate and the special hire man told me to get out and ring the bell at the front door. I did, hoping that my mother would not betray me. A man opened and told me to come in.
I must have been drugged because I do not remember what happened after I entered the house. But in morning I woke up without my skirt and with pain in my genital area. I had been raped.
I was alone in a comfortable bed, very scared and all I could do was to stare, cry and wish for death. Then there was a knock at the door and a woman in her 50s entered, greeted me in Luganda and told me that water for bathing was ready. “Tofaayo mwana wange ojja kuba bulungi.†(don’t worry my child, you will be fine), she said.
I took almost an hour in the bathroom because I felt dirty. I hated my mother for doing this to me! I wondered what my siblings would think of me. The lady returned, showed me clothes in a wardrobe and that ‘Mister’ would be coming back soon.
It was midday but I did not want to eat. I dressed up in a new blue skirt and white blouse. I was taken to the dinning where ‘Mister’ found me. He greeted me with a smile and asked me how I had slept, but I could not answer. His phone rang and he said my mother wanted to speak to me.
At that point I did not know what to do. He put the phone to my ear and I heard my mother sobbing. I started to cry too. She said she was sorry and told me I was married to this man until he returns to his country in Nigeria. She said the man would provide school fees for all of us for the four years he is here.
So that was the beginning of my contract marriage.
I never left that house for four months, during which, I learnt to cope. I also started enjoying my life and even sex. I was doing nothing apart from eating and watching TV. This man, who told me to call him Tom, could get all the nice films to watch. The old lady made sure I stayed indoors, kept all the doors locked and to get out, you had to know the code of the gate.
But I missed my siblings a lot. There was a phone on which I could talk to them. Mum had told them that I had been taken to London to be a maid and that I was sending them the money that returned them to school. I let this lie stay at that, even up to today. I talked to my family almost everyday.
After four months, they allowed me some freedom to escort the old lady for shopping. I decided to stay because I had learnt to live with Tom and even started loving him. He treated me well apart from the restrictions I had. He told me what he had done for my family and promised to pay my school fees up to university. My family had moved out of the boys’ quarters into a small house that Tom had built for them in Kalerwe. My mother had stopped working at night and had a small shop.
For a year I lived in a ‘prison’ at the expense of my siblings. Then Tom had to go back to Nigeria.
Now I understand why so many girls end up with old men. It all starts with rape and then you start to enjoy it. And since it brings you out of poverty, there is no big deal.
However, I will never forgive my mother — I wish she had consulted me. I doubt if there was no other way we would have survived. I understand some mothers use their bodies to help their children survive! It must be hard to be a mother.
I am now living with my family and studying at Makerere University. But my mother is very sick and I have to look after my siblings. I am ready to do that, but I will never use my body for money and I will make sure my sisters succeed.
The writer prefers to remain anonymous
We had to move from Nakasero, where we were staying to my uncle’s boys’ quarters in Kamwokya.
Life became harder.
That year, my two sisters and brother dropped out of school. We started to skip meals too. Our mother would leave us after supper at around 9.00pm and return in the morning, sometimes with to buy food. During the day, she would sleep while we did the chores.
That was the life for the next one year.
One morning, mum told me I too had to leave school. I had sort of expected this, but not that soon. I was in Senior Five. She also told me that we would start working together in the coming month because she was working out something with her boss. I asked her what work it was and she scolded me saying I did not want to work.
She told me that the work was difficult but very paying. I feared to ask lest she scolded me again. But I had long suspected it was prostitution, factory work, or a waitress in a hotel.
When we left for work one evening, I was very anxious. My mother seemed very unsettled too. We took a taxi to town and when we got to the Old Taxi Park, my mother rang someone who said he would pick us up at Pioneer Mall. When the special hire arrived, my mother told me to get in, saying she would join me later. “Just trust me. He is taking you to the place of work,†she said. It is then that it occurred to me that something bad was going to happen to me.
I was taken to a house in Kasubi. We entered the gate and the special hire man told me to get out and ring the bell at the front door. I did, hoping that my mother would not betray me. A man opened and told me to come in.
I must have been drugged because I do not remember what happened after I entered the house. But in morning I woke up without my skirt and with pain in my genital area. I had been raped.
I was alone in a comfortable bed, very scared and all I could do was to stare, cry and wish for death. Then there was a knock at the door and a woman in her 50s entered, greeted me in Luganda and told me that water for bathing was ready. “Tofaayo mwana wange ojja kuba bulungi.†(don’t worry my child, you will be fine), she said.
I took almost an hour in the bathroom because I felt dirty. I hated my mother for doing this to me! I wondered what my siblings would think of me. The lady returned, showed me clothes in a wardrobe and that ‘Mister’ would be coming back soon.
It was midday but I did not want to eat. I dressed up in a new blue skirt and white blouse. I was taken to the dinning where ‘Mister’ found me. He greeted me with a smile and asked me how I had slept, but I could not answer. His phone rang and he said my mother wanted to speak to me.
At that point I did not know what to do. He put the phone to my ear and I heard my mother sobbing. I started to cry too. She said she was sorry and told me I was married to this man until he returns to his country in Nigeria. She said the man would provide school fees for all of us for the four years he is here.
So that was the beginning of my contract marriage.
I never left that house for four months, during which, I learnt to cope. I also started enjoying my life and even sex. I was doing nothing apart from eating and watching TV. This man, who told me to call him Tom, could get all the nice films to watch. The old lady made sure I stayed indoors, kept all the doors locked and to get out, you had to know the code of the gate.
But I missed my siblings a lot. There was a phone on which I could talk to them. Mum had told them that I had been taken to London to be a maid and that I was sending them the money that returned them to school. I let this lie stay at that, even up to today. I talked to my family almost everyday.
After four months, they allowed me some freedom to escort the old lady for shopping. I decided to stay because I had learnt to live with Tom and even started loving him. He treated me well apart from the restrictions I had. He told me what he had done for my family and promised to pay my school fees up to university. My family had moved out of the boys’ quarters into a small house that Tom had built for them in Kalerwe. My mother had stopped working at night and had a small shop.
For a year I lived in a ‘prison’ at the expense of my siblings. Then Tom had to go back to Nigeria.
Now I understand why so many girls end up with old men. It all starts with rape and then you start to enjoy it. And since it brings you out of poverty, there is no big deal.
However, I will never forgive my mother — I wish she had consulted me. I doubt if there was no other way we would have survived. I understand some mothers use their bodies to help their children survive! It must be hard to be a mother.
I am now living with my family and studying at Makerere University. But my mother is very sick and I have to look after my siblings. I am ready to do that, but I will never use my body for money and I will make sure my sisters succeed.
The writer prefers to remain anonymous