Girls narrate their experiences
Sep 20, 2008
UNLIKE in the bush, where the LRA rebels survived mainly on free things looted from the civilians, at home, survival seems to be for the fittest. Ex-rebels who have returned home soon discover that they have to work hard to make a living.
By Chris Ocowun
UNLIKE in the bush, where the LRA rebels survived mainly on free things looted from the civilians, at home, survival seems to be for the fittest. Ex-rebels who have returned home soon discover that they have to work hard to make a living.
When it comes to the ex-wives of the LRA commanders, life is another turn of challenges. Some of them narrate that they were being shunned by men on allegation that they were haunted by vengeful evil spirits and demons from the victims of war.
Grace Acayo, 27
She was a former forced wife of LRA’s Okwonga Alero. She is now thinking of going back to Okwonga, with whom she had a child in the bush.
“People in our villages shun us. A man may wish to marry you but their relatives rise up in resistance,†she explains.
“None of the young girls who were abducted by the LRA rebels wished to get married to the LRA commanders. We were forced into those marriages.â€
Acayo is currently making beads to earn a living. She sells them at between sh3,000 and sh9,000 depending on the design.
“For the last one year, I and other LRA returnees were making beads for some organisation. But up to now, I have not been paid! They had promised us sh300,000 per month. So, I decided to leave the work,†she says.
Acayo was abducted on October, 12, 1997, when she was only 13 and studying at St Mauriz Primary School in Laroo division, Gulu municipality by a group of LRA rebels, led by Acellam Odongo.
“We walked for many days to reach Jebulen in southern Sudan. While there, I underwent basic military training for two months.â€
Acayo returned from the bush in April 2004. She now lives with her brother who is a prison warder in Gulu.
Maureen Atito Lamunu, 22
She has three children. She was abducted on the October 1993 from Palabek Pawena in Kitgum district by a group of LRA rebels, led by the late Raska Lukwiya. She walked for more than one week to Palutaka in southern Sudan.
“We kept on running from one base to another in Sudan because of fighting and attacks by both the UPDF and SPLA. From Palutaka we moved to Jebulen to Rubanga-Tek,†she narrates.
Lamunu says the bush had many problems, such as walking long distances with heavy luggage on your head, running away from attacks, out-break of diseases like cholera, and hunger.
“Almost all the junior LRA rebels, including the women could suffer from cholera except Kony and his senior commanders,†she recalls.
Seated inside her tiny grass-thatched hut, which she is renting at sh7,000, Lamunu narrates that she came back in 2002 and has been staying with her sisters.
“I make cushions for bicycle boda bodas using a sewing machine World Vision gave me in 2004. I sell wholesale at sh1,000 each and sh1,500 retail. But this money gets finished in rent, school fees, feeding and medical care,†Lamunu says.
She says that when she returned, she decided to marry a former LRA returnee and had a child with him.
“But this man, I think because of the many bad things he did while in the bush, is haunted by evil spirits. He likes fighting. One night, he beat me so seriously that I had to escape. Since then, I have never returned to him. He calls me to go back but I don’t want, I can’t,†she asserts.
Lamunu laments that life at home is different.
“Here, you work on your own without relying on anybody. But in the bush we always relied on free things.â€
She says she has no interest in marrying again. She wants to look after her children whose fathers she does not know the whereabouts.
Jennifer Auma, 21
She was abducted in 1997 when she was only 10. She was kidnapped from Lugore in Patiko sub-county in Gulu district.
“We were abducted by LRA rebels of Control Altar, the brigade of Kony himself,†she said.
“We walked to Wii-Polo in Pader before moving to Sudan. At the age of 15, I was given to Lt. Col. Jacob Opoka as his wife, with whom I stayed for over two years, before being given to Godfrey Labal-Piny with whom I produced one child,†she says.
Auma says life was hard. They were forced to marry big men, had to escape attacks by UPDF and SPLA, suffered hunger, walking long distances and carrying heavy loads.
“One time, I was caned 100 strokes on allegation that I was planning to escape. They had even proposed that I die,†she recounts.
Auma received military training in southern Sudan. Women who conceived were disarmed and kept at home, she said.
Today, Auma lives at Kabedo-Pong, a suburb in Gulu town, with her sisters. Her parents were killed by the LRA rebels on the same day she was abducted.
But there is stigma. “Where I live some people, especially the boys, refer to me as ‘dwog paco’, meaning returnee, each time they see me passing. But I have been advised to forgive them. In March this year, one boy came to our home and started abusing me. I wanted to fight and die with him but my stepmother stopped me. In fact there are many of such cases,†she discloses.
Auma, who stayed in the bush for seven years, says she is not doing anything to earn a living. She used to work with Volunteer Action Network as a cook but now she is at home.
UNLIKE in the bush, where the LRA rebels survived mainly on free things looted from the civilians, at home, survival seems to be for the fittest. Ex-rebels who have returned home soon discover that they have to work hard to make a living.
When it comes to the ex-wives of the LRA commanders, life is another turn of challenges. Some of them narrate that they were being shunned by men on allegation that they were haunted by vengeful evil spirits and demons from the victims of war.
Grace Acayo, 27
She was a former forced wife of LRA’s Okwonga Alero. She is now thinking of going back to Okwonga, with whom she had a child in the bush.
“People in our villages shun us. A man may wish to marry you but their relatives rise up in resistance,†she explains.
“None of the young girls who were abducted by the LRA rebels wished to get married to the LRA commanders. We were forced into those marriages.â€
Acayo is currently making beads to earn a living. She sells them at between sh3,000 and sh9,000 depending on the design.
“For the last one year, I and other LRA returnees were making beads for some organisation. But up to now, I have not been paid! They had promised us sh300,000 per month. So, I decided to leave the work,†she says.
Acayo was abducted on October, 12, 1997, when she was only 13 and studying at St Mauriz Primary School in Laroo division, Gulu municipality by a group of LRA rebels, led by Acellam Odongo.
“We walked for many days to reach Jebulen in southern Sudan. While there, I underwent basic military training for two months.â€
Acayo returned from the bush in April 2004. She now lives with her brother who is a prison warder in Gulu.
Maureen Atito Lamunu, 22
She has three children. She was abducted on the October 1993 from Palabek Pawena in Kitgum district by a group of LRA rebels, led by the late Raska Lukwiya. She walked for more than one week to Palutaka in southern Sudan.
“We kept on running from one base to another in Sudan because of fighting and attacks by both the UPDF and SPLA. From Palutaka we moved to Jebulen to Rubanga-Tek,†she narrates.
Lamunu says the bush had many problems, such as walking long distances with heavy luggage on your head, running away from attacks, out-break of diseases like cholera, and hunger.
“Almost all the junior LRA rebels, including the women could suffer from cholera except Kony and his senior commanders,†she recalls.
Seated inside her tiny grass-thatched hut, which she is renting at sh7,000, Lamunu narrates that she came back in 2002 and has been staying with her sisters.
“I make cushions for bicycle boda bodas using a sewing machine World Vision gave me in 2004. I sell wholesale at sh1,000 each and sh1,500 retail. But this money gets finished in rent, school fees, feeding and medical care,†Lamunu says.
She says that when she returned, she decided to marry a former LRA returnee and had a child with him.
“But this man, I think because of the many bad things he did while in the bush, is haunted by evil spirits. He likes fighting. One night, he beat me so seriously that I had to escape. Since then, I have never returned to him. He calls me to go back but I don’t want, I can’t,†she asserts.
Lamunu laments that life at home is different.
“Here, you work on your own without relying on anybody. But in the bush we always relied on free things.â€
She says she has no interest in marrying again. She wants to look after her children whose fathers she does not know the whereabouts.
Jennifer Auma, 21
She was abducted in 1997 when she was only 10. She was kidnapped from Lugore in Patiko sub-county in Gulu district.
“We were abducted by LRA rebels of Control Altar, the brigade of Kony himself,†she said.
“We walked to Wii-Polo in Pader before moving to Sudan. At the age of 15, I was given to Lt. Col. Jacob Opoka as his wife, with whom I stayed for over two years, before being given to Godfrey Labal-Piny with whom I produced one child,†she says.
Auma says life was hard. They were forced to marry big men, had to escape attacks by UPDF and SPLA, suffered hunger, walking long distances and carrying heavy loads.
“One time, I was caned 100 strokes on allegation that I was planning to escape. They had even proposed that I die,†she recounts.
Auma received military training in southern Sudan. Women who conceived were disarmed and kept at home, she said.
Today, Auma lives at Kabedo-Pong, a suburb in Gulu town, with her sisters. Her parents were killed by the LRA rebels on the same day she was abducted.
But there is stigma. “Where I live some people, especially the boys, refer to me as ‘dwog paco’, meaning returnee, each time they see me passing. But I have been advised to forgive them. In March this year, one boy came to our home and started abusing me. I wanted to fight and die with him but my stepmother stopped me. In fact there are many of such cases,†she discloses.
Auma, who stayed in the bush for seven years, says she is not doing anything to earn a living. She used to work with Volunteer Action Network as a cook but now she is at home.