Auma instilled compassion and hard work in us
Jan 07, 2009
She is known variously as Lapwony, Min Acii, Captain Laruma, Mego; and to the family members, she is Mama or Aunt Mama. Born on November 30, 1931 in a remote village in northern Uganda, my hero is the eldest of eight children, seven girls and one boy.
By Filda Ojok
She is known variously as Lapwony, Min Acii, Captain Laruma, Mego; and to the family members, she is Mama or Aunt Mama. Born on November 30, 1931 in a remote village in northern Uganda, my hero is the eldest of eight children, seven girls and one boy.
The story of Labeka Auma’s early life would pass for a fiction. When she was a week old, she had to endure a crude operation performed by a village traditional doctor. He used the tip of an arrow to remove pus from an abscess in the navel caused by the carelessness of the traditional birth attendant.
At the age of seven, a female missionary took her to Gulu, 30 miles, to start school away from the comfort of her home and family. She endured the tough life of the boarding schools of the time. The package included cooking her own food, being bullied by older children and footing the 30 miles to and from school at the beginning and end of every school term. That was the training ground for our hero.
Today, although education is accessible to all, its impact on the individual and community has diminished. In fact one of the saddest things in this generation is that there is no relationship between classroom education and the way we live our lives. What we learn in the classroom remains there. “Skills and Values Education†have all but disappeared. The communities are in no way impacted by the education of their children.
This was no so with my hero. Right from that tender age, she became the transmitter of the positive aspects of western education not only to the family, but to the community at large. She was the one who introduced the needle and thread in her community. Her holiday periods became a time of mending her siblings’ clothes, so fascinated were they with this skill that they would deliberately tear their clothes whenever the holiday was near!
Throughout her working life, Auma maintained her passion for education. As a primary school teacher, she encouraged all parents to enrol their children to school. Her home was often like a dormitory for relatives and friends’ children attending school. Her children never experienced the privacy of a nucleus family. As a district and regional inspector of schools, she travelled the length and breath of the country in her fight to ensure quality service sin education. She was so tough on indisciplined teachers that they would flee at the sight of her Beetle Volkswagon car! She was even nicknamed ‘the husband of men’ because of her ability to discipline errant male teachers.
In retirement, she has continued to assist children with fees problems. She uses her meagre pension for that purpose and sometimes secures sponsorship for them. On behalf of all those whom she is extending a helping hand and has opened for them the door of success through education, I say thank you.
Auma is amazingly generous. She lives by the principle which can only be described thus: “I am not the only one, but I am one, I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And something, only I can do and must do so. So if I can help, bless, comfort, advise ... someone, I must do itâ€. There is a joke in the family that she is the miniature United Nations for us.
Auma is also our World Health Organisation. During the many years of insurgency, she saved many lives where she lived by providing medical treatment to the sick. This may sound strange but my hero has, for years, battled acute asthma, arthritis, diabetes, reflux, etc. So, she had to learn first aid to survive.
She is our World Food Programme! When Auma was younger and healthier, she produced all the food the family needed. Her pride was in having more than enough so that she could give to whoever was in need. Now all that she has is a plot of land in Gulu town, she uses every inch of that plot to grow all types of crops. And when we go home, we come back with cassava, maize, potatoes and fruits. Children from the neighbourhood love to visit her early in the morning for they know a cup of tea is guaranteed.
Auma is a problem solver. She has a rare gift of knowing what needs to be done in any situation — be it a family crisis, or just an occasion. She shows us the way and she is usually right. We love to call her the brain of the family. What a gift we have!
At 77 years, things are not so good, physically, anymore, but mentally she is up to scratch. She reads newspapers like a politician, the radio is always by her side day and night. Her favourite stations are Radio Mega and the BBC. She loves to participate in call-in programmes.
Auma has endured adversaries that would have made a lesser mortal crumble. She has been a single mother of five, suffers multiple physical ailments, was bitten by a snake at the age of 18, uprooted from her farm by rebels, lost all her life savings as a result of rebel insurgency, survived an ambush narrowly, has been gradually disabled by arthritis.
Through all this, she is soldered on being the captain that she is. Her strong, loud voice, quick mind, assertiveness, vitality and strength of character make her the rock on which we all lean. She is the reference point for all of us, she is always there for us and accepts us with all pluses and minuses without complaint. She is our identity and we are all known, either as the sister of so-and-so, or the daughter of so-and-so. We are all proud to be associated with her.
I wonder what our family would have been without her. Thank you big sister, for teaching us all compassion, love, charity, hard work and generosity. Thank you for being our stepping stone to success. Thank you for being you.Thank God for giving you to us. You are our hero.
The writer is a younger sister to Labeka Auma
She is known variously as Lapwony, Min Acii, Captain Laruma, Mego; and to the family members, she is Mama or Aunt Mama. Born on November 30, 1931 in a remote village in northern Uganda, my hero is the eldest of eight children, seven girls and one boy.
The story of Labeka Auma’s early life would pass for a fiction. When she was a week old, she had to endure a crude operation performed by a village traditional doctor. He used the tip of an arrow to remove pus from an abscess in the navel caused by the carelessness of the traditional birth attendant.
At the age of seven, a female missionary took her to Gulu, 30 miles, to start school away from the comfort of her home and family. She endured the tough life of the boarding schools of the time. The package included cooking her own food, being bullied by older children and footing the 30 miles to and from school at the beginning and end of every school term. That was the training ground for our hero.
Today, although education is accessible to all, its impact on the individual and community has diminished. In fact one of the saddest things in this generation is that there is no relationship between classroom education and the way we live our lives. What we learn in the classroom remains there. “Skills and Values Education†have all but disappeared. The communities are in no way impacted by the education of their children.
This was no so with my hero. Right from that tender age, she became the transmitter of the positive aspects of western education not only to the family, but to the community at large. She was the one who introduced the needle and thread in her community. Her holiday periods became a time of mending her siblings’ clothes, so fascinated were they with this skill that they would deliberately tear their clothes whenever the holiday was near!
Throughout her working life, Auma maintained her passion for education. As a primary school teacher, she encouraged all parents to enrol their children to school. Her home was often like a dormitory for relatives and friends’ children attending school. Her children never experienced the privacy of a nucleus family. As a district and regional inspector of schools, she travelled the length and breath of the country in her fight to ensure quality service sin education. She was so tough on indisciplined teachers that they would flee at the sight of her Beetle Volkswagon car! She was even nicknamed ‘the husband of men’ because of her ability to discipline errant male teachers.
In retirement, she has continued to assist children with fees problems. She uses her meagre pension for that purpose and sometimes secures sponsorship for them. On behalf of all those whom she is extending a helping hand and has opened for them the door of success through education, I say thank you.
Auma is amazingly generous. She lives by the principle which can only be described thus: “I am not the only one, but I am one, I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And something, only I can do and must do so. So if I can help, bless, comfort, advise ... someone, I must do itâ€. There is a joke in the family that she is the miniature United Nations for us.
Auma is also our World Health Organisation. During the many years of insurgency, she saved many lives where she lived by providing medical treatment to the sick. This may sound strange but my hero has, for years, battled acute asthma, arthritis, diabetes, reflux, etc. So, she had to learn first aid to survive.
She is our World Food Programme! When Auma was younger and healthier, she produced all the food the family needed. Her pride was in having more than enough so that she could give to whoever was in need. Now all that she has is a plot of land in Gulu town, she uses every inch of that plot to grow all types of crops. And when we go home, we come back with cassava, maize, potatoes and fruits. Children from the neighbourhood love to visit her early in the morning for they know a cup of tea is guaranteed.
Auma is a problem solver. She has a rare gift of knowing what needs to be done in any situation — be it a family crisis, or just an occasion. She shows us the way and she is usually right. We love to call her the brain of the family. What a gift we have!
At 77 years, things are not so good, physically, anymore, but mentally she is up to scratch. She reads newspapers like a politician, the radio is always by her side day and night. Her favourite stations are Radio Mega and the BBC. She loves to participate in call-in programmes.
Auma has endured adversaries that would have made a lesser mortal crumble. She has been a single mother of five, suffers multiple physical ailments, was bitten by a snake at the age of 18, uprooted from her farm by rebels, lost all her life savings as a result of rebel insurgency, survived an ambush narrowly, has been gradually disabled by arthritis.
Through all this, she is soldered on being the captain that she is. Her strong, loud voice, quick mind, assertiveness, vitality and strength of character make her the rock on which we all lean. She is the reference point for all of us, she is always there for us and accepts us with all pluses and minuses without complaint. She is our identity and we are all known, either as the sister of so-and-so, or the daughter of so-and-so. We are all proud to be associated with her.
I wonder what our family would have been without her. Thank you big sister, for teaching us all compassion, love, charity, hard work and generosity. Thank you for being our stepping stone to success. Thank you for being you.Thank God for giving you to us. You are our hero.
The writer is a younger sister to Labeka Auma